Robert McChesney
Robert McChesney
american-critic behind closed commercial decades input interests licenses public took wealthy
The whole process of getting licenses to broadcast, which took place decades ago, was done behind closed doors by powerful lobbies, and wealthy commercial interests got all the licenses with no public input, no congressional input for that matter.
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You know, a left-winger, the barrier to success if you're on the left in commercial radio is a mile and a half higher than it is if you're on the right.
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Also, the commercial media in a superior position, really, to any other corporate lobby, because where would people hear about commercial media or corporate media criticism, where would they hear criticism of them other than in the commercial media?
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If you look at the history of broadcasting, what you find is the National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association whose mission is to protect the interests of the commercial broadcasters.
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The commercial broadcasters have tremendous influence in Washington, D.C., for a couple of reasons. First, they're extremely rich and they have lots of money and they have had for a long time, so they can give money to politicians, which gets their attention.
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The majority of this money goes to pay commercial broadcasters to run these ads, these TV spots, which are now the whole basis of campaigning.
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And they've got to be held accountable; our broadcasting system has to be made accountable; and unless it is, it's going to be very hard to change anything else for the better in this country.
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And understand that scarce spectrum is used today for example for cell phone operators, they have to pay for the airwaves they use, for their services.
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Our existing media system today is the direct result of government laws and subsidies that created it.
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As the mainstream media has become increasingly dependent on advertising revenues for support, it has become an anti-democratic force in society.
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Which is supposed to mean they're doing something in their broadcasting they would not do is they were simply out to maximize profit; if they were really public service institutions, not purely profit maximizing institutions.
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Maybe if you and ten of your friends could pool your savings and borrow some money and actually buy some obscure station in Sonoma, and then take some chances and have some fun.
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Basically what they're saying is, if you want to be on TV, if you want to be a credible candidate, you've got to buy ads. And if you're not buying ads, you're not a credible candidate, we don't cover you.
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So it's a much more difficult issue to organize around, because you can't get media at all to make your case. And that's where cases tend to be made politically.