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"The FCC Does Not Represent Me!"
Posted on September 02, 2004
by Wendy Cohen
Last night over 300 people gathered in midtown Manhattan for the March On the Media, a rally in front of largest media corporations in North America. The protest began at CBS and continued on to CNN, passing NBC and convened in front of FOX. In a short 5 block radius along the Avenue of the America’s, we passed 4 of the 5 largest media corporations in North America. This geographical proximity is the most telling metaphor for the current media climate: there is no room for alternate voices.
Organized by FAIR, Paper Tiger TV and other media activist, the rally challenged the media’s domination of public discourse and celebrated those who are committed to creating and circulating independent media. The rally was attended by indy media superstars such as Deedee Halleck, Founder of Paper Tiger TV and co-founder of Deep Dish TV, Alyce Myatt of OneWorld TV, Danny Schechter, Executive Director of Mediachannel.org, Reverend Billy and Jeff Cohen, Founder of FAIR.
7 transnational corporations rule the U.S media and dominate the global media and 75% of television news is controlled by 5 of those corporations. If 80% of Americans get their news solely from broadcast media* how much diversity and dissent is the public receiving? MediaRights began the Just Media Project to illuminate this media crisis and call for fair, balanced and accurate reporting. With the backdrop of the Republican National Convention and amidst the the most important weeks of the political season, it is crucial to vociferously demand that the most trusted and most watched news sources detach themselves from their commercial and political puppeteers.
"The current state of mass media is fundamentally threatening our democracy," says Shira Golding who joined me last night at the march. "It scares me that the majority of people consume this media uncritically and they do not have the tools to critique what they see and hear; they just assume it is trustworthy."
In the United States today, there are over 1,700 newspapers, 11,000 magazines, 9,000 radio and 1,000 telelvision stations. If each of these were operated by a different owner, there would be over 22,000 independent media voices. Now that would be a breath of fresh airwaves.
To learn more, visit the Just Media Project.
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*Adbuster January 2004