Massive Corporate Consolidation of Local News … The Death of Truth!

Massive Corporate Consolidation of Local News … This is NOT Good!

By: Roger Landry (TLB)

In the latter half of the 20th century and throughout the passage of time in the 21st century, the press has failed us miserably as the harbingers of truth and freedom, and at an ever accelerating rate. These so-called voices of truth have increasingly aligned themselves via ownership or greed with those who would subvert our freedoms and liberties for the benefit of a few elitist oligarchs, or would-be emperors.

In an article I recently published, The American Mediaocracy: When Lies Become Truth I state…

“Today Americans are sifting through the massive media outpour concerning our relatively new President (under constant attack), an ineffective Congress, and most of all … those damn Russians. This is surely cover your ass time for most media corporations who have been caught in so many lies it makes your head spin, and a time when their voices are the most distrusted and increasingly ignored in American history. The saddest part of this scenario is that this media is all owned by the very oligarchs that pick our leaders … what the hell happened to antitrust laws? The concept of a Fourth Branch … a media that keeps We The People informed so we can steer our leadership away from tyranny, and keep them on the track of truly serving the people, is now a joke … a serious misconception that is aiding and abetting the fall of the American Republic as sure as we are breathing!”

Again, this has never been so blatantly apparent as what we saw in the farce this country witnessed during the past Presidential election. Information perversion by the media, its countless challenges of the voice of “We The People”, the major push to overturn our voices via (failed) recounts, skewed polls, misrepresented facts and outright lies, all at a level unprecedented in American history.

Today We The People suffer a corporate media of constant lies and hidden truths. The global corporate elitists have an agenda far beyond anything that benefits us, all trumpeted or parroted by a totally complicit and subservient Mainstream Media (MSM), or The Fourth Estate. This is not a guess and we can see the goals of past CIA Director William Casey …

We will know our program of disinformation has succeeded when everything the American people believe is … FALSE …

… being supported and advanced by this complicit Mainstream Media (MSM) in an attempt to facilitate an unaware and compliant citizenry, fully realizing the benefits of this reality for their masters (Oligarchs).

Now we are witnessing the final consolidation of this massive media power through the control or purchase of local news companies or stations. In some cases these were the last bastions of truth with select independent stations daring to report the real news local, national and global … but this cannot be permitted in a global corporate monopoly.

Once this mechanism is solidified and the circle is closed … say goodbye to the truth and hello to the programmed ignorance these oligarchs seek so diligently, because a programmed society is much easier to manipulate and control.

Today the presentation of the truth is now wholly the task and/or mandate of alternative or independent (of corporate influence) media, and even some of these sources have been infiltrated or have sold out to this corporatist faction. Now it is even more vital to question everything, and do the research required to pull the truth from a flood of propaganda and … retread lies.

The article attached below was written in 2017, but I could find nothing to demonstrate the situation and its many pitfalls as clearly, or as well, as what I present below. Please continue reading this short attached article about the death of the truth in Mainstream or a more correct title … Corporate Media!

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Massive Corporate Consolidation of Local News Underway

In a deal that will allow one broadcasting company to reach 72 percent of U.S. households through ownership of local news stations, it was reported this week that Sinclair Broadcast Group is buying Tribune Media for nearly $4 billion.

Such a move wouldn’t have been possible a few weeks back, but Donald Trump’s new Federal Trade Commission (FCC) chairman, Ajit Pai, just began implementing sweeping changes to previously established media ownership rules. Bloomberg explains:

A Sinclair-Tribune merger was made easier last month when the FCC restored a rule that allows TV station groups to count just half of their coverage area for Ultra High Frequency stations to comply with a 39 percent nationwide cap set by Congress.”

Reporting on the news, Democracy Now invited the president and CEO of Free Press, Craig Aaron, to comment on the significance of the purchase.

Well, you know, we’re really concerned about so many things happening at the FCC right now,” Aaron told host Amy Goodman, “because Ajit Pai, Donald Trump’s pick to head the agency, has been dismantling all kinds of consumer protections and regulations, certainly net neutrality, which many of us consider the First Amendment of the internet, what protects your ability to go online, do whatever you want, go wherever you want, and download whatever you want.

Continuing, Aaron calls the Sinclair-Tribune merger — and the others that will surely follow given the loosening of regulations at the FCC — an “unprecedented” wave of “media consolidation.” He asserts that an awful lot of power is about to be concentrated in only a few select spots:

So we’re seeing a concentration of power on the broadcast side at the same time they are building up these powerful new gatekeepers, really doing the bidding of the most powerful companies and just paving the way for them to do whatever they want.

Using Sinclair as an example, Aaron goes on to talk about how broadcasting giants are able to push the content they want across multiple platforms simultaneously:

So they both like to try to buy up multiple stations in the same market, have one newscast going on multiple channels, as well as doing as much as they can from Sinclair headquarters in terms of pushing content out to their whole network.”

Calling Ajit Pai’s moves at the FCC “scandalous,” Aaron highlights the complexity of modern media and says that now — more than ever — we need an aware, conscious populace:

So, at a time where we need more local news, more competition, more choices, better-informed communities, what we’re getting is the same cookie-cutter content coast to coast.

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The attached article (Massive Corporate Consolidation of Local News Underway) originated on theAntiMedia.org and is republished here with permission and attribution to author Anti-Media Staff and theAntiMedia.org.

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Roger Landry

About the Author: Roger Landry (TLB) spent about three decades of his adult life either in, or working for the military, with about two decades working directly for the Military Industrial Complex facilitating DOD contracts. His awakening to Political, Economic, and Health realities was less than seven short years ago. Since that time he has founded The Liberty Beacon Project (TLB) consisting of over a dozen proprietary global websites, media projects such as TLBTV, and partner websites across the planet. He contributes regularly to multiple forums both in and outside of TLB Project. Most of his work can be found on the TLB Flagship website TheLibertyBeacon.com

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