lest we forget WHY the media is in BushCo's pocket . . .

[OneBlueSky]

harken back to this 2002 article by David Podvin . . .

The Payoff
http://www.makethemaccountable.com/podvin/media/020131_Payoff.htm

In 2000, when Karl Rove called General Electric Chairman Jack Welch to guarantee that a Bush Administration would be extremely generous to media conglomerates that were sympathetic to the Texas governor’s presidential campaign, it was a notable moment in history. If only this once, Rove wasn’t lying.

Since taking office, George W. Bush has lavished spectacular taxpayer funded largesse on the corporate media that made excuses for his inadequacies, overlooked his corruption, shielded him from scandal, and escorted him into the White House. It has been a squalid quid pro quo that has gone largely unexamined, because those whose job it is to report on such corruption are too busy benefiting from it.

The payoff began immediately. Two days after he was inaugurated, Bush appointed industry puppet Michael Powell to head the Federal Communications Commission. The media conglomerates were thrilled. The New York Times editorialized about Powell’s virtues, as did the Washington Post. They knew that, as an FCC commissioner, Powell had supported every media mega merger without ever voicing any concern about the consequences to the consumer. They knew that he had stated that the government should not protect the public interest against media conglomerate excesses because he had “no idea what the public interest is”.

They knew that Powell advocated total deregulation of the airwaves, meaning a transfer in ownership from the public to the multinational corporations that currently need licenses in order to broadcast. They knew that he opposed any rules to restrict media monopolies. They knew that the son of Colin Powell was so brazenly unethical that he had failed to recuse himself from considering the anti-trust implications of the AOL/Time Warner deal, despite the fact that his father was on AOL’s board of directors.

- more . . .

http://www.makethemaccountable.com/podvin/media/020131_Payoff.htm

[Sporadicus]

1. Don't Forget FEAR

Recall that the first victim of the anthrax mailings was a photo editor who - it is rumored - was in possession of * photos painting a very unflattering portrait. Second in line to receive an anthrax-gram was Tom Brokaw. I have no doubt these were sent as a warning - a shot fired across the bow of anyone in mainstream media who dared to point out the chimperor's shortcomings.