Big media have gutted newsrooms and closed foreign bureaus. They no longer carry out investigative journalism that provides an important check on our government and corporate leaders. Lapdog journalism and infotainment are at an all-time high. And instead of fulfilling their obligation to educate and inform the public, Big Media only serve us cheap, hyper-commercial fare.
The Newspaper Guild-CWA reports that 44,000 news industry employees lost their jobs from 2001 to mid-2006 -- at least 34,000 of them at newspapers alone.
Since the 1980s, American newspaper publishers and television executives have reduced their coverage of foreign news by up to 80 percent. They've replaced in-depth local coverage with celebrity news, sports and weather.
As Federal Communications Commissioner Michael J. Copps has written: "We have a system that has been buffeted by an endless cycle of consolidation, budget-cutting, and bureau-closing. We have witnessed the number of statehouse and city hall reporters declining decade after decade, despite an explosion in state and local lobbying. As the number of channels has multiplied, there is far less total local programming and reporting being produced. These days, if it bleeds, it leads."
This crisis in American journalism has an obvious cause: A system with a single-minded focus on the bottom line and Big Media conglomerates that place profits ahead of the public interest.
Veteran TV correspondent Tom Fenton explains: "Lightweight news is relatively cheap to put on the air and can make a substantial contribution to the bottom line -- especially if the networks, and the corporations that own them, can pare costs and keep the federal regulators off their backs."
And the FCC has been a ready accomplice for Big Media. Over the past 25 years, the agency has allowed wave after wave of consolidation -- steadily increasing the number of stations a single corporation can own -- while failing to ensure accountability to the public.
Unless we put a stop to unchecked media consolidation, quality journalism will continue to suffer -- and so will the public's right to know.
Coalition Resources
>> SaveJournalism.org
>> Newspaper Guild - CWA
>> Center for Media and Democracy
>> National Association of Hispanic Journalists
Other Resources
>> Project for Excellence in Journalism
>> Poynter Institute
The marriage of Comcast and NBC is bad news for consumers. But Washington and Wall Street have already bought into the idea that it's a done deal. That's why Americans need to speak out now and stop the mega-merger!
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