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		PUT THE WORDS IN HERE:
		

	The FCC Giveaway
        ================
        Matthew Rothschild (Progressive Magazine)


        The FCC is about to give the big media companies a huge present. 
        The agency is proposing more deregulation, which will mean that 
        Rupert Murdoch and Viacom and Disney and AOL Time Warner can 
        concentrate their ownership of the media at even higher levels.

        The networks could buy up enough local stations "to reach 90 percent 
        of the nation's viewers," The New York Times reported.

        And the major newspaper in a big city now may be able to own more 
        radio and TV stations, so their domination over what you see and 
        read will become even more ominous.

        Or a major network could buy up the local metropolitan paper, as 
        well as three local TV stations and several radio stations.

        "Nationally, it will mean the largest firms will be able to swallow 
        up any other media firms they set their eyes upon, and industry 
        observers all expect a flurry of large deals," says mediareform.org, 
        a new web site founded by Robert W. McChesney. He's the author of 
        "Rich Media, Poor Democracy," and co-author with John Nichols of "Our 
        Media, Not Theirs."

        "At the local level, we should expect a single firm, or perhaps two 
        or three firms, to own the vast majority of the media-daily newspaper, 
        TV stations, radio stations, cable TV system-in a single community," 
        the site adds. "There is enormous profit to be made by having such 
        monopolistic power, and firms are scrambling to get the rules changed 
        so they can dominate markets and crush competition."

        This move by the FCC, headed by Colin Powell's son Michael, goes 180 
        degrees against the mission of the agency, which is to assure a "diversity 
        of voices, localism, and competition."

        You may not have heard much about this yet, because the huge media 
        companies that give you the news have a vested interest in downplaying 
        the story.

        But this is a money grab, pure and simple.

        And what is at stake is any semblance of a competitive media in this 
        country.

        Already, so much of our news is homogenized and dumbed down and Foxified. 
        But if Michael Powell gets his say, it's only going to get worse.

        Yes, there are alternatives--community radio, leftwing magazines, the 
        Internet. And thank god for them.

        But most Americans consume their news from TV, commercial radio, and 
        mainstream newspapers. When fewer and fewer giant corporations own the 
        debating forums of our society, they make a mockery of the free exchange 
        of ideas.
 
        The airwaves belong to the people, not Rupert Murdoch, Clear Channel, 
        and their ilk.



         
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