In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in the famous "Red Lion" case that "it is the purpose of the First Amendment to preserve an uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will ultimately prevail, rather than to countenance monopolization of the market." Most Americans share the belief of the framers of the First Amendment that genuine democracy requires free, open, and vigorous public discussion of a wide range of ideas. To assure news diversity, information must come from a large number of sources that make independent news selection decisions. While this was possible in the early days of our country, conditions have changed. Corporate consolidations have sharply reduced the number of independent voices in the marketplace, and the courts are doing little to slow the pace.
The facts about concentration of ownership of media enterprises are startling. Ninety-eight percent of the daily newspapers published in the United States have a virtual monopoly in their location. Cities with more than one daily newspaper have become as rare as the bald eagle. While local broadcast media offer a sliver of competition, their coverage is so brief that it adds little to the information pool made available to citizens.
The 1,750 newspapers published each day do not represent 1,750 independent voices. Three out of four now belong to national and regional chains. The largest chains, which combine print and broadcast media holdings, each encompass well over a hundred media outlets. Groups owning twenty or more papers control 45 percent of all the papers in the country.
Though many of these papers excel in their handling of the news, the breadth and polish of their performance do not compensate for the dangers of excluding a multitude of independent voices from the media scene. If the old adage is true that "he who pays the piper calls the tune," the medley of media voices is getting progressively more homophonic.
In television (though not in radio) control is even more concentrated than in the print media. Three networks provide the bulk of programs for the hundreds of stations that are affiliated with them throughout the country, as well as for many nonaffiliated stations. Expectations that cable television would bring new entrepreneurs and current events programs on the scene have not materialized. Most cable programming comes from corporate combinations that include the established entrepreneurs responsible for the policies of multiple media enterprises.
The newsmagazine business, which caters to audiences with above-average political influence, is also dominated by three giants--Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report.
...
