Robt Kennedy, Jr- Corporations control of Media/government

[LaWood]

RFK Jr. warns Canadians about corporate media


When U.S. President Ronald Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine in 1988, he killed a piece of American democracy, says Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The duty to inform was taken from the media and replaced with the aims of corporations, to deliver people to advertising and to hell with balance, fairness and critical thinking.

Kennedy, who founded the environmental group Waterkeepers in the 1980s, was the keynote speaker at the International Association of Great Lakes Research conference in Peterborough, Ont. at Trent University May 22.

It was Reagan, he says, who let it all happen with his gift to the Christian Right in 1988 (this group later came to dominate radio across the nation). That was the year he eliminated a law that forced American media to present balanced and fair news coverage as a public good. Some saw the law as censorship, while others a method of presenting all sides to the public.

"Today as a result of that [the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine] there are five major corporations that control 14,000 radio stations in the United States. All 2,200 TV stations," he said.

"They no longer have an obligation to serve the public interest. Their only obligation is to serve the shareholders, so they cut costs, they got rid of all their investigative reporters. Eighty per cent of investigative reporters have lost their jobs over the past 15 years," he said.

"When I was a kid there used to be 47 foreign news bureaus just in Europe. Today they have none. You buy news from a can.

entire story at link

http://www.rabble.ca/news_full_story.shtml?x=72400

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In June 1987, Congress had attempted to preempt the FCC decision and codify the Fairness Doctrine (S. 742, 100th Cong., 1st Sess. (1987)), but the legislation was vetoed by President Ronald Reagan. Another attempt to revive the doctrine in 1991 ran out of steam when President George H.W. Bush threatened another veto.
wikipedia

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[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

That and media consolidation (continuing as we type). If we go completely fascist, and that is an unfortunate possibility, later historians will pinpoint the loss of 'free press' as the start and driving force of the Fall of the American Republic.