Re: [A-List] Russia: Stiglitz on shock therapy

[Rob Schaap <rschaap@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Americans have long been concerned with
> the dangers of concentration of media power, and concentrations of power in
> the United States on a scale comparable to that in Russia today would be
> unacceptable. Yet U.S. and IMF officials paid little attention to the
> dangers posed by the concentration of media power; rather, they focused on
> the rapidity of privatization, a sign that the privatization process was
> proceeding apace. And they took comfort, indeed even pride, in the fact that
> the concentrated private media was being used, and used effectively, to keep
> their friends Boris Yeltsin and the so-called reformers in power.
> --Joseph Stiglitz, "Globalization and its Discontents", London: Allen Lane,
> 2002, pp. 163-5

Pravda knows what it sees when it sees it then:

Sep, 25 2002
Pravda.RU:Top Stories:More in detail
12:57 2002-09-25
CNN AND ABC MERGE: MINISTRY OF TRUTH COMES NEXT

  Total information domination requires a new
  propaganda instrument

  America's largest TV companies, CNN and ABC,
  may merge into a single TV news channel. Both
  companies explain this prospective merger with the
  crisis they are experiencing and with their drop in
  ratings. One more thing is also evident: to gain
  domination over the world, the USA needs a
  powerful propaganda engine, something similar
  George Orwellís Ministry of Truth.


  Russia's NTV.Ru has reported about the possible merger of two TV
companies with reference to the Los Angels Times. The American newspaper
declares that it learnt about the merger possibility discussed at an AOL
Time Warner board of directors meeting (the company owns CNN) last week,
the directors were well-disposed concerning the deal. Moreover, the
information about merger talks was also been confirmed by both AOL and
Walt Disney Co. (ABC News owner). AOL Time Warner press-secretary Bred
Tarell told the newspaper that "talks have been held with both networks;
however, no agreement has yet been reached." Disney spokeswoman Zenia
Mucha added that the talks have been held for the last 18 months
already. The Los Angeles Times reported that the merger is likely to
help both TV channels overcome the crisis connected with the decline in
ratings and the reduction in advertising income.

  In any case, if the rumors prove to be true, a new information monster
will appear in the world, which will be the largest ever seen. It is
supposed that the annual profit of the merged news channels may exceed
1.6 billion USD. In this case, 600 million of the sum will go to ABC
News and 1 billion USD to CNN.

  It is very likely that the merger aims not only to increase profits.
When America decides to pursue its interests in any part of the planet,
the US Administration is unhappy to face considerable resistance, not
only from countries of the third world, but also from its allies in
Europe.

  The fact that the world's only superpower doesnít hold a monopoly on
the world's information is very distressing for America. For instance,
at the time when the USA was hunting Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda
terrorists, Qatarís al-Jazeera television channel openly broadcasted new
revelations of the Muslim jihad leader and interviews with his
accomplices saying that the WTC was an easy target to blow up. At the
same time, the European media circulated an unfavorable comparison of
George Bush and Adolph Hitler all over the world. Therefore, there are
many problems for US politicians and US Department of State analysts to
think about.

  What is more, CNN has always been the mouthpiece of the US
Administration, pushing American values and standards upon the whole of
the world. CNNís strength and authority is based upon the concept of
news in an American product for export. There is hardly a country in the
world where news from the CNN point of view is not currently being
broadcasted. In this respect, ABC is much weaker than CNN; however, it
enjoys very strong positions on the domestic TV market.

An attempt to place control over the large information services under
one editorial policy certainly raises hails of protest inside the USA,
where believe that CNN and ABC have different slants.

The TV market will considerably reduce in this case.   But the USA is
even ready to neglect such trifles for the sake of absolute information domination.

Moreover, experience has already shown that any audience, even an
American one, becomes used to any radical change rather quickly. Let's
remember the events in Russia's NTV television owned by oligarch
Vladimir Gusinky. Although the editorial
policy of the channel has been considerably improved, NTV has retained
its permanent
audience.


After the merger of both TV companies, the US Administration will have
an unbelievably strong propaganda instrument that can exert influence
not only in other
countries of the world, but in the USA as well. This means that George
Bush will never have problems with ratings, and he is sure to gain the
support of the American people for any suggestion to wage war anywhere
in the world. These ideological results mean that the USA wonít need to
ask for permission of the US Security Council to bomb various countries.
However, people born yesterday will continue to believe that the merger
is about declining profits and ratings.

  Dmitry Slobodanuk
  PRAVDA.Ru

  Translated by Maria Gousseva

And I see stuff's in process accordingly.  This from the New York Post:

NEW YORK POST   FCC NEARS RULES SHIFT OVER MEDIA OWNERSHIP By TIM ARANGO


                                 October 3, 2002 --

                                 Armed with several studies that make
the case for a radical overhaul in the nation's media ownership rules,
Federal Communications Commission chief Michael Powell told Wall Street
yesterday to expect a vote on changes by next spring.

                                 "Most of the media ownership rules are
old," Powell told investors at a Goldman Sachs conference yesterday in
New York. "The media industry has changed."

                                 His speech came after the FCC released
12 studies on the media industry.

                                 Changes in the current regulations
would pave the way for companies such as Viacom and News Corp., which
owns The Post, to own TV stations that account for larger pieces of both
local and national markets. Both
companies, analysts say, are above the legal thresholds.

                                 One study suggests the FCC ax the rule
forbidding broadcasters from reaching more than 35 percent of the
national audience.

                                 The study found network-owned
affiliates produce more local news than local affiliates, turning the
argument for the rule on its head.

                                 Another study found a proliferation of
independent news outlets in a survey of 10 major markets since 1960, a
factor that could challenge the so-called "duopoly rule," which caps the
number of TV or radio stations that can be owned in a single market.