One thing they definitely DON’t need is outdated DC-mandated rules that limit them from providing the news and entertainment their local communities demand. There is no one-size-fits-all solution here. Competition for ideas isn’t easy, but using the government is a shortcut that won’t work and is dangerous — because the GOP would just use it to further entrench themselves down the road. Think about it.

no same ownership of any tv, cable, radio or daily newspaper in any two contiguous markets.

no television political advertising.

no pharma rx advertising.

well-funded and independent public broadcasting and webcasting subsidizing permanent media analysis-and-criticism programming.
Unclaimed Territory, Media Matters and Crooks and Liars would be primetime.
(my tax dollars doing the people’s work by paying wages to these worthy public servants.)

Olbermann would be God.
and Stewart and Colbert.
and Bill Moyers.
Sy Hersh.
FDL.

angie @ 352

Eureka– were you speeding or just driving in the slow lane minding your own DFH bizness?

Definately minding my own DFH bizness. I was on a business trip and never got a speeding ticket or even a warning. Also a lot of strangers would come out of nowhere very upset about the sticker. I don’t mind dissenting views but when a stranger pops out of a parking lot ready to throw down over a freaking bumper sticker..well, sometimes I am just to busy to educate..)

I ask because I drove the southern route twice cross country– TX was not very kind to me as a single woman, but Arkansas was brilliant and caring.

(though there was one curious man in a lab coat at Sears in TX when I had driven off from some crazies in AZ who said I needed new tires and he pulled out his tire gauge and said, “why are you asking me this?”, and I said “just because”. He said “you’re fine– get on out of here” and winked.

I also remember a very prophetic article, published around 1990 by either the Atlantic Monthly or Harpers, about how small Ma’n’Pa newspapers like my Dad’s were being swallowed up by bigger and bigger corporations. The article predicted that by 2000 the media would be owned by a mere handful of mega-corporations, whose only purpose was to make money; by law they had to make money for the shareholders.

That’s exactly what happened to the newspapers my father so lovingly crafted. He owned them, but he was right there in the newsroom whenever the press went down, working long hours to get them up and running in time for the next day’s delivery. After he sold them they were degraded into shoppers. But hey that’s what made the money.

Twenty years ago, 90% of the media – which includes newspapers, magazines, television, radio, books, recordings, movies and now the Internet – was owned by about 50 companies. It is now owned by 5, exactly as predicted. You can be absolutely certain that what those 5 monsters are doing is making money for their shareholders. And because the GOP is the corporate party, it is also the party of the media. When they print something about Republicans today you KNOW it’s only what makes them look good.

Politicians have always been corrupt and they always will be. But the media, for the most part, has always been fair. Now, however, with such consolidated ownership, it is every bit as corrupt as the politicians. That is our problem.

And it is OUR problem, our responsibility. So here’s my advice. Stay informed, verify everything, keep looking for the truth. Fight to keep the Internet free. Fight to take back the media. Fight to control the airwaves, which is public property anyway.

As historian Howard Zinn said, no leader ever changed anything. It was the people who demonstrated and marched that made the changes.