Wednesday, October 18, 2006

The Vast Wasteland

I found interesting article on commondreams.org entitled Crime is on TV, but TV is often The Bigger Crime:

The airwaves, as we know, belong to all of us, but thanks to regulations shaped by big industries, they were allocated (i.e. handed out) FOR FREE to big commercial enterprises who then used their clout to monopolize the marketplace and dominate the spectrum.

There are many crime shows on TV but few if any ever deal with TV itself and how our broadcasting system was hijacked for the greater glory and ever escalating profits of a handful of moguls and their "brands."


I perfectly agree with him, the purpose of the Communications Act 1934 is to allow companies to rent valuable spectrum for the public interest. But the definition of the phrase "public interest" was deliberatly vauge by the tv corporations to maintain their licenses. Eventual end result:

Suddenly we were bombarded with tons of choices but without many distinctive new voices. It became largely a market-driven recycling operation aimed at key demographics. Public TV watched as its nature programs and historical docs were cloned and spun off by specialized commercial outlets. Home shopping became a vogue and recycled news a commodity. There was soon more on the air but less to watch as Bruce Springsteen sang in 57 Channels/Nothings On. Now there are 500 channels with very little worth watching.

They said they created or transmitted new channels to give the public more to watch-but actually it fragmented the audience-and enabled them to get paid two ways-with fees per subscriber and advertising. Their only "payback" to the public were public access channels with offerings that remain poorly produced and promoted.


I perfectly agree. Most prime time television programs these days, with a few execeptions are:
  1. Crime drama
  2. Reality tv
  3. Sitcoms

Even with cable you'll get plenty of channels, but due to the fact that there is a monopoly of media corporations, you still see the same programs. So it's plenty of channels but same choices. (Probally that's what I think when lobbyists argue for media consolidation it is for competition: The illusion of competition). As for PBS, true: while there are a few programs I enjoy, most of it's programing either consists of British imports ended long ago, cooking, and stupid Suze Orman pledge specials.(Public Broadcasting my ass) The same for public service channels, they're rarely prmoted and if they did promote them, the quality of those programs by those who knew of such a channel would suck.

Beleive me, in Comcast (Prince George's, MD) we have University of Maryland Television, Bowie State University Television, Prince George's Community College Television, and two channels for Prince George's County School,which it seems like no one watches, a public safety channel that a PowerPoint knockoff of America's Most Wanted and lease access channel that repeats the same shows and episodes every week.

Today, there is a new fight underway to keep the internet free. Remember, the underlying technology was created not by Al Gore but with taxpayer funding and Defense Department know how first as a way for academic scientists to communicate with each other, and then in a few years, became a global medium touching the lives of billions.

...Murcdoch gobbled up MySpace in an effort to commercialize the personal creativity of those millions and their "friends" who are posting away like demons. Google paid over a billion for YouTube with plans to do the same.


First they gone after the public airwaves, then cable, and finally the internet. This is just shameful. It's true that the only thing they want money, not for the interest of the public, just money. But corporations have every right to do, as long their regulated to serve a democratic society. Yet, since most Republicrats are one and the same, that may not happen anytime soon.

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