May 24 2003
Michael Powell is Crazy
We know he has a big business agenda for the FCC, but more easing of media ownership limits? It seems that he will be successful in his agenda…playing to big media outlets, letting them get bigger. Information is so pre-packaged, filtered, and homogenized by the major media outlets already. The consumer loses.
In the Spring of 1980 I was in the far east and europe as a college student. The US was in the midst of dealing with Ayatollah Khomeini and the hostage crisis. For my news, I listened on short wave to Voice of America (VOA), the BBC, and other more local broadcasts based on where I was at the time. For a couple of days I was even able to listen to Radio Tehran (note that VOA or other interference would suddenly blast over their frequency after a few minutes).
It was really interesting hearing about world affairs from so many different perspectives. My view at the time was that BBC was pretty accurate, there was major negative spin from much of europe, and significant propaganda coming out of VOA. I was pretty naive, and expected VOA to represent “truth”, so I was rather shaken up. A lot of illusions about my country and the press reports I took for “truth” were shattered that Spring. When I really thought about it (and I did, it really impacted me), I realized that I was bringing a lifetime of American perspective to my views of the world. If –I– thought VOA was biased and BBC was accurate, with my cultural bias, then I should acknowledge that an unbiased truth, not that there is such a thing, would put BBC over the edge of credibility too.
I’ve never looked at news the same since. I think Powell is contributing to things getting worse.
Please join me in asking Congress and the FCC to support a diverse, competitive media landscape by going to this web page and helping the effort.