This pamphlet describes the problems caused by the disastrous wave of mergers in the communications field. American citizens no longer have access to a diverse range of opinions and analyses, the information needed to have a fully functioning democracy. The missions of the corporate owners are maximum return to shareholders and avoiding anything that would cause public scrutiny. The authors write that we now have less expensive stories and canned crime reports, the sensational, the trivial, and the salacious. They deplore “the commercial marination of the American mind” and the targeting of young people to crass commercial schemes. Communication mergers are also happening worldwide, and the authors devote a chapter to these problems. Nichols and McChesney maintain that these commercial media systems are the linchpin of the global marketplace.
The reader is left with hope for the restoration of our broken system. There is a rise in media reform activism around the world and the authors tell how New Zealanders reformed their media. Fixing the problems requires an expansion of funding: the public owns the airwaves and should collect rent for needed reforms. This money could be used to develop noncommercial community-run television and radio programming. Congress needs to put teeth into our anti-trust laws and revisit the problems with the current media corporations. New competition needs to be created, possibly with the help of subsidies and tax deductions.
John Nichols is the author of “The Milagro Beanfield War,” “The Sterile Cuckoo,” and other novels. Robert W. McChesney is a communications professor and a media analyst. This title is available through the publisher, Seven Stories Press, 140 Watts St., New York, NY 10013, 1-800-596-7437, www.sevenstories.com. If you are concerned why the press is so little interested in immigration reform read “It's the Media, Stupid!”
— by Carol Joyal
