Media in the U.S. and XXX

The media plays a major role in shaping people’s opinions about the rest of the world. Unfortunately, global media ownership has dwindled from 50 (in 1983) to currently about nine mega-corporations, including AOL Time Warner, Disney, General Electric, News Corporation and Viacom, resulting in an increasingly banal and parochial selection of news and issues for the American public. Foreign news is lacking except in the events of disasters, wars or ruffled American interests. The industry has become more interested in profits than responsible journalism.

For example, the systematic and illegal purging of many thousands of voters (mostly democrats) in Florida during the 2000 presidential election was reported by BBC but given a complete miss by American mainstream media until months after President Bush’s inauguration. In an on-going lawsuit, two reporters accused FOX of firing them for their refusal to air a story containing inaccurate information. The story, describing the danger...