Why worry about media consolidation? Shifting the news media to the purely profit driven model of a century ago (I guess that's real conservatism!) will ensure the drift into "infotainment" we are now shoveled as news. Beyond that, economic interests rather than political, moral or legal mandates will be the essential decision rule for what is published. (I speak as if this isn't already fairly well established.) The result will be imited attention or no attention paid to politically embarrassing or complex or anti-management stories. The ease by which information will be laundered without fear that a competitor will "tell the tale" will be stunning. If that future looks frightening, take a look at this report:


Sonoma State University's Project Censored says "a plan for global domination by neoconservatives'' is the top un-reported or under-reported news story in 2002-2003.

Project Censored released its annual list of the 25 most-censored stories last week. The stories were selected by more than 200 student researchers and faculty.

The list of the most under-covered stories illustrates the dangers of media consolidation in the United States, claim Project Censored advocates.

Project Censored is hosting an awards ceremony for the winners at the Jewish Cultural Center in San Rafael on Oct. 4.

Project Censored said the top story involves the Bush administration's plan to exploit the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to solidify military and economic control of the world at the expense of democracy, true justice and the environment.

Other stories in the top ten include: "Homeland Security Threatens Civil Liberties''; "U.S. Illegally Removes Pages From Iraq Report''; "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's Plan To Provoke Terrorists''; "The Effort To Make Unions Disappear''; "Closing Access To Information Technology'' and "Treaty Busting by the United States.''

Also included are: "U.S. and British Forces Continue Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons Despite Massive Evidence of Negative Health Effects''; "In Afghanistan: Poverty, Women's Rights and Civil Disruption Worse Than Ever'' and "Africa Faces New Threat of Colonialism.''

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2003/09/20/stories20.DTL

Again, three cheers for the Senate! Encourage your representatives in the House to vote likewise and let's at least not allow the present conditions, as bad as they are, to worsen to the place where we have no window on the world that can be trusted.