This week we are confronted with the frightening prospect that Comcast may take ownership of NBC. Of course, such events do not occur instantaneously, but the fact that this deal is in the works should alarm anybody who cares about diversity and the value of news as a public good. In less than three decades, we have seen media ownership consolidate from fifty corporations down to about six. One of those six is Comcast and it is truly gargantuan. We have grown complacent in America as we have watched our major industries transform into oligopolies. Even the most aggressive application of anti-trust laws seems to yield disappointing results. When I think about the breaking up of the Bell System (that used to be the phone company for all you youngsters out there), I am reminded of a scene in the movie, Terminator II, when the newer terminator is frozen with liquid nitrogen and shatters into tiny fragments only to reconverge back into its original condition. AT&T represents the corporate version of that phenomenon. More and more, our vital systems are falling into the hands of conglomerates so big that their failure, whether it's financial or fiduciary, would have catastrophic consequences.
My main interest here is the fiduciary part. As a society, we are dependent on news organizations to provide us with the information we need to exercise our responsibilities as free citizens. We have to be able to trust them. In recent years, we have seen a shift in priorities from providing information towards providing entertainment. If this trend continues, and there is little reason to expect it will not, our legacy media sources will not be able to perform their fiduciary responsibilities, at least not to the consumers. In fact, the consumers will cease to be consumers and instead will become product to be sold to advertisers. If you think the internet will come to the rescue, think again. Comcast is a major provider of internet service. With the acquisition of NBC, they will have additional muscle with which to fight against net neutrality. Some might recall that Comcast ran afoul of the FCC back in 2008 when they tried to block file sharing.
The world we live in today is a complicated one in which events happen very quickly. Globalization has created a set of conditions that require us to care about what is happening in the most remote places. That means that we need news which provides us with quality context and analysis. How can we control our own destiny if we are merely products?
It seems that every time there is a major development in technology, there is a process of corporate growth that results in a condition in which the harm that large enterprises cause out weigh the goods they provide. The Reform Era addressed the excesses of the industrial revolution. One hundred years later, we need to come to terms with the information age.
My main interest here is the fiduciary part. As a society, we are dependent on news organizations to provide us with the information we need to exercise our responsibilities as free citizens. We have to be able to trust them. In recent years, we have seen a shift in priorities from providing information towards providing entertainment. If this trend continues, and there is little reason to expect it will not, our legacy media sources will not be able to perform their fiduciary responsibilities, at least not to the consumers. In fact, the consumers will cease to be consumers and instead will become product to be sold to advertisers. If you think the internet will come to the rescue, think again. Comcast is a major provider of internet service. With the acquisition of NBC, they will have additional muscle with which to fight against net neutrality. Some might recall that Comcast ran afoul of the FCC back in 2008 when they tried to block file sharing.
The world we live in today is a complicated one in which events happen very quickly. Globalization has created a set of conditions that require us to care about what is happening in the most remote places. That means that we need news which provides us with quality context and analysis. How can we control our own destiny if we are merely products?
It seems that every time there is a major development in technology, there is a process of corporate growth that results in a condition in which the harm that large enterprises cause out weigh the goods they provide. The Reform Era addressed the excesses of the industrial revolution. One hundred years later, we need to come to terms with the information age.
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