By Brian Carnell

Thursday, November 18, 1999

This week |The Nation| looks at media conglomerates. I think the problem with the Left is they just don't get it when it comes to free speech and the media. The articles here are a good example. On the one hand there is Robert McChesney who argues that "neo-liberal free market" policies are to blame for the consolidation of media empires, while Evelyn Messinger complains (in a rather good article) that in the former Communist bloc, the state crushes pirate TV.

Look folks, its simple. The problem with the media today is that the government, rather than the market, determines the winners and losers in the media game. Compare the Internet to traditional media -- why are there so many diverse web sites but such little diversity in broadcast media? The answer: because you don't have to go and beg permission from the government to set up a web site like you do with traditional broadcast media.

The idea that there exists a free market in broadcast media is absurd. Try to set up a radio or television station or private cable network without getting the state's permission and see how long you last. In fact micro radio has been feasible for years but has been held back by government regulatory bodies in league with large radio concerns.

But the Left doesn't learn the lesson that regulation of any media is counterproductive. Rather people like McChensey want more, not less, nationalizatoin of the airwaves. McChesney lauds countries that subsidize local film production, but for the most part these state-funded films are crap (there's a reason people in France want to see American films rather than state-funded French films, much to the consternation of the government there).

All McChesney and his ilk want to do is replace the regulatory scheme that favors big corporations with a regulatory scheme that favors the Left. No thanks. Just give people the freedom the FCC and other regulatory bodies stole from them and we'll take it from there.

Source:

The New Global Media. Robert W. McChesney, The Nation, November 29, 1999.

Tiny Television: Against the odds, pirate TV banishes barriers. Evelyn Messinger, The Nation, November 29, 1999.

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