Media Monopoly
“…communities have become information deserts.’
April 1, 2016
(Bagdikian, the Armenian-American immigrant who became one of this country’s great journalists and then the greatest media critic of his time, died in March at age 96.)
‘…with his 1983 book, The Media Monopoly, have always recognized that the genius of this Pulitzer and Peabody Award-winning journalist was not in his charting of the steadily increasing control of communications by a handful of conglomerates. It was in the understanding Bagdikian provided about the danger that was inherent in allowing the dominance of the discourse by a handful of wealthy and self-interested corporations.’
[…]
‘No national paper or broadcast station can report adequately the issues and candidates in every one of the 65,000 local voting districts. Only locally based journalism can do it, and if it does not, voters become captives of the only alternative information, paid political propaganda, or no information at all.
[…]
‘Ben Bagdikian saw the crisis of journalism coming, and he knew that this would be a crisis for American democracy.’
This post originally appeared at The Nation.
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