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Make Media Ownership an Issue in '04
Posted on June 21, 2004
Have you checked out The Just Media Project? Take part in this new action from Media for Democracy 2004.
In 2003, public opposition to media consolidation inspired three million Americans to write letters to Washington protesting a rule that would have allowed big media companies to control more local outlets across the nation. But this issue, which last year galvanized voters across the political divide, is nowhere to be found in the political discourse of 2004.
The silence in 2004 speaks volumes about big media's hold on the electoral process. Over the last four years, Washington lobbyists have pocketed $160 million in big media money to support dismantling rules against conglomerates owning more outlets in more markets. In the last eight years, big media has tipped more than $30 million into the war chests of federal candidates, with the larger share (62 percent) ending up in the hands of regulation-hostile Republicans. (see the survey).
The net result, in 2004, has been candidates' apparent unwillingness to take a clear position against the media corporations that control so much of what we see, read and hear.
It's time we put the media ownership issue back on the political map. We expect that the Democratic and Republican candidates make clearly known their positions on this important, election-year issue.
Send a letter to both campaigns asking them to make media reform a priority in 2004.