Does anybody else find this odd?
The Senate, with the full blessing of our two Democratic candidates, is about to put the skids on the FCC’s decision to loosen cross-ownership rules, whereby media companies can own both a television station and a newspaper in the same market. Damn those big media people, huh? They want to control the voices in our communities, so we can’t let them narrow choices “for the American people.” Word.
Given the realities of the current media conundrum, however, this strikes me as a bit like waving off the RMS Carpathia on its journey to rescue the survivors of the Titanic. I mean, really, folks; who cares if big media is owned by one person? It’s all drifting slowly into the sands of yesterday anyway.
The issue is over independent and varied voices, which is a BIG part of the disruption in the first place.
Odd that I find myself actually siding with Kevin Martin.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Why would a profit seeking businessman want to double his bets on old media? Profit? Unlikely. It’s so silly, the skeptic must wonder what the real motivation is. First the WSJ and now Newsday. Really Mr. Murdoch are you a fool or do you take us for fools?
April 25th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Because there are operating and reach efficiencies in combining two old media outlets, enough to justify the investment — for a while.