
First off, I want to give a big shout out to all the people of Freepress.net for all the great work that they do. Having said that, one of the main things they are working on currently is trying to stop the Comcast/NBC merger. This is extremely important for everyday people who don't ascribe to feminism or refuse to be labeled a democrat or a republican, in additional to it being extremely important to feminists and minorities.
Why should we care?
1. Remember all that "Too big to fail" business our government was talking about? About how they HAD to give tax-payer money to businesses in order to float the whole economy? Well Comcast and NBC are "too big to fail" by themselves anyway... so let's let them merge? It is nonsensical. And not to be a total cynic, (well... yes, I am being one..) I don't exactly have a lot of faith in big business and corporate take over's these days...
2. On a material level, this means higher cable bills for you! Here is an excerpt from a FreePress press release: "Corie Wright, policy counsel for Free Press, said, “In this testimony, we warn Congress, the FCC and the public about the effects of the takeover: higher cable bills, less competition and the concentration of power in one company across multiple media markets and platforms."
3. On a democratic level: more concentration of power means that you, the viewer, will only get to see a few shows. There will be less diversity of views that have the opportunity to be heard, thus cutting of the "media agency" of many groups of people. If everyone doesn't have equal access to communication and media in our country, then how is our democracy going to work? The point of democracy is that everyone has the opportunity to be heard, and then everyone has the opportunity to vote. If not everyone has the opportunity to be heard, then we are essentially canceling out a large part of what makes democracy function.
4. On a Feminist Level: Like I said, this concentration of power means that audiences will receive a lack of diverse perspectives. If one company is in charge of a majority of our media, than whatever views that company holds are going to be the ones people see. My best hypothesis is that these views are more than likely patriarchal and status quo, not views that are going to enhance women's rights.
And if you REALLY don't care if about women's rights, and democracy, your cable bill WILL be higher, and this merger WILL be bad for the economy. There ya have it.
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