Monday, April 17, 2017

Fighting Media Consolidation

Fighting Media Consolidation

Today absentee corporations own more and more of our news media. Focused only on the bottom line, they’re cutting journalists and gutting newsrooms nationwide. And many of these corporations are dodging the FCC’s ownership rules to snap up more outlets and create monopolies in markets throughout the country.
The more independent outlets a community has, the more different viewpoints will be presented. The reverse is just as true. The FCC needs to close the ownership loopholes that have enabled this runaway consolidation, and it needs to craft policies that would boost ownership among women and people of color.
Consolidation has also long run rampant in the cable and broadband industries, where companies like Comcast would rather spend billions to kill off their competitors than improve their service or build out their networks to unserved and underserved communities. Meanwhile, the soaring price of home internet access continues to strand too many people — in particular, low-income people of color — on the wrong side of the digital divide.
Free Press pushes the FCC to promote competition and hold media and technology companies accountable to the public interest.

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