FCC Changes Media Ownership Rules
From the Associated Press just minutes ago:
WASHINGTON – The Federal Communications Commission, overturning a 32-year-old ban, voted Tuesday to allow broadcasters in the nation’s 20 largest media markets to also own a newspaper.
What does this mean? That’s difficult to say. Are broadcasters itching to buy newspapers? Are broadcast corporations, or the larger corporations that own the broadcast corporations, interested in buying into the news chains? I have no idea.
The idea behind the rule was to make it more difficult for a limited number of owners to control the news. Is this a proper function of government? There are excellent arguments that it is not. And, perhaps, with the ability of citizens to publish and distribute information, news, and entertainment at low cost, perhaps it doesn’t matter anymore.
Well, assuming the internet stays free and open.
Tag: journalism
Tag: rhetoric
Tag: politics
