Wednesday, April 09, 2003

All The More Reason Not To Trust The Corporate Media Business Interest

They are a business right? So we're supposed to trust them to not play up the war fever for fun and profit? I may sound jaded, but does anyone remember the tobacco companies? The concept of self-interest? Profits?

Can anyone give me any reason to trust a media corporation not to operate in its own self-interest and to maximize profits?

Is toxic sludge good for me?

Media diversity and distributed ownership are essential for the freedom of information and thought.

Let's not look back years from now and rue the day we allowed the creation of Big Media.

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In some cases, we need checks against self-interest, especially of the extremely large, more influential monopoly-style variety, as it effects others ability to pursue self-interests. Especially with the media, you're talking about a business that as part of the pursuit of its self-interest has an unprecedented platform to shape and influence the self-interest of others.

They spend googles on research, I know, and I've studied the relevant influence theory. The danger of 1984 is unchecked freedom of a core group's self-interest parlayed into the transformation of all other self-interest to its own.


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Not to mention the nature of the business itself, and the restricted medium with which to play. Whether it's bandwidth or transmission, the free market is already distorted in this industry.