Fwd: One big happy channel?

[brian carroll <human@electronetwork.org>]

below is an article on the United Statesian fiasco that
is the media industry, where freedom of speech is regulated
by private industry executives and their connections with
government insiders via lobbiests and personal friendships,
while economic freedoms are without any checks and balances.
growing up on the propaganda of freedom, one would think
all of this smells a lot like the one-channel Soviet system
that was blasted into Mass Consumers' heads, via the media,
lauding how great it is that there are 50 kinds of toothpaste
and 80 kinds of cereal to 'choose' from. yet, fact being, they
are mostly owned by company x, y, or z. in any case, the issue
of relevance with regard to EM is that both media (tv, radio,
phone, computer), power (electrical/energy), and technology
(software, online services, hardware) are of the same model,
and, as an EM-based cult/ure, re-present the economic, social,
and political structure, through their interconnecting influ-
ences. such that, say, if something went terribly awry in the
realm of media, but was not considered such. and also in the
power sector. and also in the technology sector. then, who's
to complain? and, maybe more importantly, who's to know who's
complaining if they cannot be heard? etc etc. as if it is a
total system of compliance. bounded. rules of engagement in
expert systems of order and control (see Thomas P. Hughes'
Networks of Power, Evolution of Large Technical Systems,
American Genesis). beyond US, the them of the world, are
also on some variant. Whatever the Evil Empire is today,
it will be agreed upon, from the top down. as is the way
things worked so well in the industrial era. a counterpoint
to all that networking is today, and that which is now fastly
disappearing to consolidation, and the targeting of opponents.
the first through third waves of internet extinctions have
now occured it seems. Yet Toffler's Third Wave will be peddled,
along with the Gilder's Powercosm, and whomever's Mediasphere,
to make sure the only moon that shines in mind is electronic...

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One big happy channel?
By Eric Boehlert

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/06/28/telecom_dereg/index.html



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Thu Jun 28 21:12:49 2001
"So how did all this happen? How did the Telecommunications Act 
ignite a radio deregulation revolution that some jealous TV 
broadcasters now want to duplicate?

The quick and easy excuse is to blame it all on Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Or, more specifically, on the success of the 1994 Republican 
revolution, which is often credited to -- or blamed on -- Hillary 
Clinton's healthcare fiasco. Because literally within hours of 
capturing control of the House of Representatives, legislative 
leaders, led by Newt Gingrich, began working on sweeping new media 
deregulation legislation. Gingrich's affiliated think tank, the 
Progress and Freedom Foundation, even put together the "Magna Carta 
for the Knowledge Age," a veritable call to arms for 
telecommunications deregulation.

"Losing the House in '94 was without question a seminal moment in the 
political history of the media," says former FCC chairman Hundt.

As the New York Times reported in early '95, broadcast "lobbyists 
have seldom met more receptive lawmakers. Committee Republicans have 
held numerous meetings with industry executives since January, at 
which they implored companies to offer suggestions about the ways 
that Congress could help them."

The version of the telecom bill that originally passed easily in the 
House offers ample proof of the New York Times' report. That version 
would have allowed one company to own the only cable television 
system in a market, the only daily newspaper, a TV signal and every 
local radio station."

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