Josh Stearns on the Proposed Comcast/NBC Merger
And why it's Bad for America
Free Press Stages an Uprising Against a Mega-Merger in Media Power. We hear the details from Josh Stearns, Program Director at Free Press, FreePress.net. Free Press has held many highly successful campaigns to win significant battles against media consolidation. Their new letter writing campaign is designed to get President Obama to make good on campaign promises he made about media consolidation and the need for diversity and net neutrality. We discuss what Obama said in 2008 and hear a clip posted on FreePress.net. One year after these exciting promises were made we are watching Comcast make a bid for the biggest mega merger yet in a take over of NBC. "We've never seen anything like it," explained Stearns.
Free Press is calling on President Obama to step in and block this merger. Josh Stearns also explains why we need public challenges to media monopoly. He discusses what groups are doing to provide citizen data bases and expert experience as they build community involvement in media. He hopes they will also work with community radio and independent media organizations like Democracy Now, Pacifica, Free Speech Radio News, and others, to expand their voice. See Public Insight Journalism, Media Consortium, and Freepress.net/Comcast.
Produced by Dori Smith
TRT: 29:23 music fades
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You can find more information at FreePress.net/Comcast and at FreePress.net or
The Media Consortium
Comcast would control the mega giant MSNBC network of programming including Bravo, E!, and Universal Pictures. According to Free Press this will mean they can raise prices for competitors, and those price increases will be passed on to consumers. They are also worried about fewer choices for consumers, and we know what that means during election time in this age of billion dollar Presidential campaigns. An ever smaller focus for news and discussion about candidates and issues.
* We discuss the Uprising Campaign against what Free Press calls a Mega-Merger in media power. What it would mean in terms of media access and news coverage.
* The Free Press challenge to President Barack Obama. They are asking the President to make good on his 2008 campaign pledges to act against excesses of power in the hands of any one media corporation, interest or small group.
* And we look at Marc Cooper's report at Free Press on anti trust laws and other topics. Could a legal case stop the merger?
See: FreePress.net/Comcast
· SavetheInternet.com
· SaveTheNews.org
· StopBigMedia.com
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