It is indeed!! What is really detrimential to our nation is the fact that too many Americans fail to understand that most of what they read in our papers and see on television is the product of only a handful of giant corporations and that The War on Terror and the attacks on "religion" in America are on-going examples of the dishonest and blatantly incendiary "reporting" by agenda driven representatives of these mega-corporations' ~ reporting specifically intended to undermine national and international confidence in President Bush and his administration and to undermine the moral foundation of this "one nation under God".
Yet, under the Clinton Administration (and despite laws specifically designed to prevent it) merger after merger took place within the media industry until finally, by the end of the millennium, a handful of mega-corporations totally controlled the flow of news, information and entertainment within this country ~
this includes books, magazines, television, newspapers, movies, music, internet access, etc.,etc.
The actual number of corporations dominating most of every mass medium dropped, under clinton's administration, from from 23 media firms to 6 mega-media corporations by the Spring of 2000!
But even this number is deceiving ~ the power and influence of these mega-conglomerates is understated by counting them as 'six.' For, in reality, these six are actually intertwined: they own stock in each other, they cooperate in joint media ventures, and among themselves they divide profits from some of the most widely viewed programs on television, cable and movies.
As foreseen by the Supreme Court in 1945, this consolidation of power and control has been to the detriment of us all as the media role has shifted from ensuring democracy to undermining the function of true democracy
Under this condensed, goal oriented management, our nation's "Guardians Of The Peoples Right to Know" have mutated into little more than "information brokers" and "opinion shapers" who present very specific information in a manner which meets a very specific agenda. Shielded behind the cloak of 'journalism' and without regard for truth, accuracy, or impartiality, a countless variety of sources now continually present us with carefully manufactured versions of world events. Sadly, most citizens are completely unaware that 'news' stories repeated by numerous, and seemingly 'different' sources are actually a single, unencumbered voice.
