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Who Controls The News?
"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own me."
-- A.J. Liebling, writer and media critic, 1960
Today, chances are that your daily newspaper -- once locally owned -- is owned by a large company in a city many miles away. Likewise for your local television network affiliates. Why? Because the news media yield profits and power. Not long ago, most newspapers and TV stations were independently owned. But the allure of wealthy and influence drove some owners to buy more and more newspapers, and later, to expand into radio, television and cable. In time, the individual owner gave way to a board of directors and a corporate CEO. Vast conglomerates of news outlets grew -- some of them controlled by corporations with no ties to journalism. |