Truthfully, in the US, the Internet is currently the last, and
only, bastion of free speech and unfiltered news.
~William R. Clark, PetroDollar Warfare
There's really five
companies that control 90 percent of what we read, see and hear. It's not healthy.
~Ted Turner
Who says you don't have a choice when it comes to getting
information in the U.S.? There is plenty of information to go around, just the wrong kind. All you have to do is look back to 2003
during the start of the Iraq War and compare the media coverage in the U.S.
to the coverage in other countries. Control is much easier when the sources are limited.
Ted Turner's quote and the info provided below were taken from the book,
Petrodollar Warfare.
This book was published in 2005 and there have
been several changes to the conglomerates since then. But let's look back eight years and see who owns who. The myriad of choices available for staying informed, you will see, will be whittled down to a mere five or six.
AOL Time Warner:
CNN and related networks, Home Box Office; Warner Brothers movie and television
studio, WB television network and affiliated record labels; AOL Internet
service, and Time Inc. magazines, such as Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated,
People, and Entertainment Weekly.
News Corporation: Fox broadcast television network and cable
new channel, 20th Century Fox movie studio, New York Post and several foreign
newspapers and television networks in Europe and Australia. Conglomerate also includes extensive radio
network of 34 owned and operated stations, 9 duopolies, 188 affiliated
stations, several book publishers, sports franchises, and satellite companies,
such as Hughes Electronics Corporation.
Walt Disney Company: ABC television network, ESPN cable sports
network, 10 stations/226 local affiliates, 62 radio stations/ 4600 affiliates,
several publishing companies and internet portals. As well as Disney amusement parks and related
resorts, Miramax and Hollywood Pictures, etc.
Viacom: CBS and
UPN television networks; Infinity radio network, with nearly 200 stations;
cable television networks MTV, Showtime, and BET; Paramount
movie and television studios.
Vivendi Universal: Large internet portal in the US and Europe,
cable and satellite TV Universal Studios, Music, Film, Telecom, and non-media
corporations, etc.
Well, that was way back in the early 00's.
I'm sure things have gotten better (as in
less consolidated) now, right?
Hold on for a second.
I have to admit that every time I see Ted Turner's name in print a
strange Pavlovian association occurs and my mouth begins to water, and my mind
turns to...bison, bison and more bison.
Where was I? Oh
yeah... Well, that was way back in the early 00's. I'm sure things have gotten better (as in
less consolidated) now, right?
Take a look at this infographic from a 2012 Business Insider
article.
Check out the full article and
infographic here. More shifts and changes in ownership since 2012 but still... the song remains the same.
You don't get rewarded in commercial broadcasting for trying to tell
the truth about the institutions of power in this country...
~Bill Moyer
Of course if these companies are publicly traded, I've got to look at
the charts; another Pavlovian response, I would assume.
No complaints here after looking at the five year
performance of Disney, Viacom, Time-Warner, CBS, and Comcast versus the
S&P.
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be
limited without being lost.
~Thomas Jefferson
