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    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read

    By Michael, on October 4th, 2010

    Back in 1983, approximately 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the United States. Today, ownership of the news media has been concentrated in the hands of just six incredibly powerful media corporations. These corporate behemoths control most of what we watch, hear and read every single day. They own television networks, cable channels, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, music labels and even many of our favorite websites. Sadly, most Americans don't even stop to think about who is feeding them the endless hours of news and entertainment that they constantly ingest. Most Americans don't really seem to care about who owns the media. But they should. The truth is that each of us is deeply influenced by the messages that are constantly being pounded into our heads by the mainstream media. The average American watches 153 hours of television a month. In fact, most Americans begin to feel physically uncomfortable if they go too long without watching or listening to something. Sadly, most Americans have become absolutely addicted to news and entertainment and the ownership of all that news and entertainment that we crave is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands each year.

    The six corporations that collectively control U.S. media today are Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., CBS Corporation and NBC Universal. Together, the "big six" absolutely dominate news and entertainment in the United States. But even those areas of the media that the "big six" do not completely control are becoming increasingly concentrated. For example, Clear Channel now owns over 1000 radio stations across the United States. Companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are increasingly dominating the Internet.
    But it is the "big six" that are the biggest concerns. When you control what Americans watch, hear and read you gain a great deal of control over what they think. They don't call it "programming" for nothing.

    Back in 1983 it was bad enough that about 50 corporations dominated U.S. media. But since that time, power over the media has rapidly become concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people....

    [I]In 1983, fifty corporations dominated most of every mass medium and the biggest media merger in history was a $340 million deal. … [I]n 1987, the fifty companies had shrunk to twenty-nine. … [I]n 1990, the twenty-nine had shrunk to twenty three. … n 1997, the biggest firms numbered ten and involved the $19 billion Disney-ABC deal, at the time the biggest media merger ever. … [In 2000] AOL Time Warner’s $350 billion merged corporation [was] more than 1,000 times larger [than the biggest deal of 1983].

    --Ben H. Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly, Sixth Edition, (Beacon Press, 2000), pp. xx—xxi

    Today, six colossal media giants tower over all the rest. Much of the information in the chart below comes from mediaowners.com. The chart below reveals only a small fraction of the media outlets that these six behemoths actually own....

    Time Warner
    Home Box Office (HBO)
    Time Inc.
    Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
    Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
    CW Network (partial ownership)
    TMZ
    New Line Cinema
    Time Warner Cable
    Cinemax
    Cartoon Network
    TBS
    TNT
    America Online
    MapQuest
    Moviefone
    Castle Rock
    Sports Illustrated
    Fortune
    Marie Claire
    People Magazine
    Walt Disney
    ABC Television Network
    Disney Publishing
    ESPN Inc.
    Disney Channel
    SOAPnet
    A&E
    Lifetime
    Buena Vista Home Entertainment
    Buena Vista Theatrical Productions
    Buena Vista Records
    Disney Records
    Hollywood Records
    Miramax Films
    Touchstone Pictures
    Walt Disney Pictures
    Pixar Animation Studios
    Buena Vista Games
    Hyperion Books
    Viacom
    Paramount Pictures
    Paramount Home Entertainment
    Black Entertainment Television (BET)
    Comedy Central
    Country Music Television (CMT)
    Logo
    MTV
    MTV Canada
    MTV2
    Nick Magazine
    Nick at Nite
    Nick Jr.
    Nickelodeon
    Noggin
    Spike TV
    The Movie Channel
    TV Land
    VH1
    News Corporation
    Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
    Fox Television Stations
    The New York Post
    Fox Searchlight Pictures
    Beliefnet
    Fox Business Network
    Fox Kids Europe
    Fox News Channel
    Fox Sports Net
    Fox Television Network
    FX
    My Network TV
    MySpace
    News Limited News
    Phoenix InfoNews Channel
    Phoenix Movies Channel
    Sky PerfecTV
    Speed Channel
    STAR TV India
    STAR TV Taiwan
    STAR World
    Times Higher Education Supplement Magazine
    Times Literary Supplement Magazine
    Times of London
    20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
    20th Century Fox International
    20th Century Fox Studios
    20th Century Fox Television
    BSkyB
    DIRECTV
    The Wall Street Journal
    Fox Broadcasting Company
    Fox Interactive Media
    FOXTEL
    HarperCollins Publishers
    The National Geographic Channel
    National Rugby League
    News Interactive
    News Outdoor
    Radio Veronica
    ReganBooks
    Sky Italia
    Sky Radio Denmark
    Sky Radio Germany
    Sky Radio Netherlands
    STAR
    Zondervan
    CBS Corporation
    CBS News
    CBS Sports
    CBS Television Network
    CNET
    Showtime
    TV.com
    CBS Radio Inc. (130 stations)
    CBS Consumer Products
    CBS Outdoor
    CW Network (50% ownership)
    Infinity Broadcasting
    Simon & Schuster (Pocket Books, Scribner)
    Westwood One Radio Network
    NBC Universal
    Bravo
    CNBC
    NBC News
    MSNBC
    NBC Sports
    NBC Television Network
    Oxygen
    SciFi Magazine
    Syfy (Sci Fi Channel)
    Telemundo
    USA Network
    Weather Channel
    Focus Features
    NBC Universal Television Distribution
    NBC Universal Television Studio
    Paxson Communications (partial ownership)
    Trio
    Universal Parks & Resorts
    Universal Pictures
    Universal Studio Home Video

    These gigantic media corporations do not exist to objectively tell the truth to the American people. Rather, the primary purpose of their existence is to make money.

    These gigantic media corporations are not going to do anything to threaten their relationships with their biggest advertisers (such as the largest pharmaceutical companies that literally spend billions on advertising), and one way or another these gigantic media corporations are always going to express the ideological viewpoints of their owners.

    Fortunately, an increasing number of Americans are starting to wake up and are realizing that the mainstream media should not be trusted. According to a new poll just released by Gallup, the number of Americans that have little to no trust in the mainstream media (57%) is at an all-time high.

    That is one reason why we have seen the alternative media experience such rapid growth over the past few years. The mainstream media has been losing credibility at a staggering rate, and Americans are starting to look elsewhere for the truth about what is really going on.

    Do you think that anyone in the mainstream news would actually tell you that the Federal Reserve is bad for America or that we are facing a horrific derivatives bubble that could destroy the entire world financial system? Do you think that anyone in the mainstream media would actually tell you the truth about the deindustrialization of America or the truth about the voracious greed of Goldman Sachs?

    Sure there are a few courageous reporters in the mainstream media that manage to slip a few stories past their corporate bosses from time to time, but in general there is a very clear understanding that there are simply certain things that you just do not say in the mainstream news.

    But Americans are becoming increasingly hungry for the truth, and they are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the dumbed down pablum that is passing as "hard hitting news" these days.
    So what do you think about the state of the mainstream media? Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below....


    Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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