SOLOMON: Dean and the Corporate Media Machine

[unfrigginreal]

By Norman Solomon, AlterNet
December 4, 2003

Howard Dean is asking for media trouble.

On Dec. 1, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination went where few national politicians have dared to go – directly challenging the media conglomerates.

Don't get me wrong. Dean's record in Vermont hardly reflects an inclination to take on corporate power. His obsession with balancing budgets and coddling big business often led him to comfort the already comfortable and afflict the afflicted. Low-income people suffered the consequences of inadequate social services.

But let's give the doctor-turned-politician some credit for a new direction. Midway through his Dec. 1 appearance on MSNBC's "Hardball" show, Dean said that he wants to "break up giant media enterprises."

Dean went well beyond the hold-the-line stance adopted last summer by large majorities in Congress, who voted to prevent more media deregulation by the Federal Communications Commission. He declared that maintaining the media status quo isn't good enough.

<snip>

Howard Dean's recent comments may turn out to be a fleeting excursion into criticism of media monopolization in the United States. But if Dean continues to raise sharp questions about media diversity and democracy, he is likely to face the wrath of a corporate media behemoth that does not tolerate major threats to its outsized power.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17317

[madfloridian]

1. Look up Solomon and Dean on Google.

He has written some really scathing things about Dean. My opinion is that Dean take chances, and I am surely glad someone does.

I believe that even the Republicans voiced their opinion on this, and they see that media ownership works both ways. They voiced as much or more opposition to more deregulation than the Democrats did.

The media is already to the point of being dangerous to the Democrats. They are already. It is already happening.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

2. Dean lives dangerously

but I think the voters will reward him for telling the truth about big media.

[whathappened]

3. this is why

this nation is dieing , the so called media is asleep at the wheel and no good will ever come from it , our country has fallen to it knee's with the help of these sick media whores

[blm]

4. Dean won't bite the hand that feeds him...YET.

As soon as they stop feeding him, which will be shortly.

Look what they have been doing to Kerry. He filed the Senate Resolution in September. The media knew he was going after them months before.

USA: FCC Rule Fight Continues in Congress

Opponents of Ownership Consolidation Also Plan Legal Strategy

By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
June 4, 2003

Several lawmakers and advocacy groups vowed yesterday to fight in the courts and on Capitol Hill to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's new media ownership rules, saying they give big newspapers and broadcasters too much influence over public opinion and hurt smaller media companies.

On Monday, the FCC voted 3 to 2 along party lines to relax or eliminate some ownership restrictions, such as a rule barring media companies from owning television stations in markets where they publish daily newspapers. The commission's three Republicans, led by Chairman Michael K. Powell, voted for the changes, while the two Democrats dissented.

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said he would file a "resolution of disapproval" to block what he called the "wrongheaded vote." Such a resolution can overturn rules set by regulatory agencies and requires a simple majority of each house of Congress to pass. In March 2001, a resolution of disapproval was used to strike down an ergonomics standard set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Even if the resolution were to pass both Republican-majority houses, it would require President Bush's signature.

Kerry, a presidential candidate and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said Monday's rule changes favor big media companies at the expense of small ones.
>>>>>>>>

BTW....they gave Dean a press plane in JUNE. Nothing to see here.

[DrFunkenstein]

5. Characteristically Vague

Kind of like Dean's "even-handed" policies in the Mid-east. Sounds good until you look at the details, or lack thereof.

[w4rma]

6. IMHO, Dems have no choice but to go after the media oligopoly

because the media oligopoly is already going after the Democratic Party.