Media Vertical Integration

The classical version of vertical integration is the steel company who owns the ore mines and the railroads. They are responsible for finding the ore, mining it, transporting it to the steel mills and shipping finished products to customers. There is nothing wrong with this as long as there are other steel companies who can compete and keep prices in line.

The media version of vertical integration is to control production and distribution of “news” and “entertainment” content offered in newspapers and magazines and on TV, radio and movies. There are several dangers here. The media in the US has adopted socialist, globalist goals using political correctness to shame citizens into supporting things that can kill our economy. It is the vanguard for liberal political propaganda.  This doesn’t ring true in the US, because we are dependent on a robust free market economy, not socialism.

The decline of the socialist liberal media is a problem for this industry.  There are several reasons for this decline. The first is the “in your face” propaganda that wears thin. The next is the betrayal of the “free press” to print the truth. Finally, a “free press” should not have published “values” that promote a socialist form of government that always fails. It is clear that the liberal media is the publicist for the Marxist Democrat Party.

TV content is at a low point, because of the dumbing down and propagandizing of entertainment content. Promoting false content has left a void they fill with distractions that are not that entertaining. Filling air-time with distractions and trivia and calling it news is useless to listeners.

When I read the newspaper, I scan the headlines and hone in on news that affects our economy. I am interested in facts.

I rely on the internet to capture the facts that newspapers leave out. Websites like Wikipedia are often behind on updating their myriad of postings, but I can still get facts that are close enough to answer my questions and reach conclusions that are closer to the truth.

I watch PBS, the History Channel and CSPAN. The historical documentaries are valuable supplements to our abysmal revisionist public school coverage of history. It covers actual US historical information in context with the economics and behaviors at the time.  The musical presentations on PBS are excellent and entertaining. I keep Fox News, Fox Business News and Bloomberg News channels on while I am doing my internet research and writing this blog.

There is very little candor in TV News. Most of the time, News channels are airing filler. Time is taken up with endless speculation and coverage of every disaster they can find.  There is no real debate of serious issues. There is lots of “he says, she says” gossip. There is endless coverage of politicians visiting each other and lots of speculation about what they might have talked about or might do. When real facts are broadcast, they are glossed over.

What we know is that Democrats will use air time to recite their political talking points, will not answer questions and look happy to have the air time. We also know that Congress uses Roberts Rules of Order to avoid answering questions.

I watch a few good movies when I can find them. I like “Decades” to see the “Laugh in” and “Ed Sullivan”. I like movies by Woody Allen and Mel Brooks and movies like Police Squad, Airplane and other great comedies. I like the Greg Gutfeld Show and Monty Python.

I don’t watch “Zombie” movies. I don’t watch the grouping of 30 second ads that appear 6 at a time. That gives 3 minutes to check the other channels. I don’t watch sitcoms, reality TV, Jerry Springer, MSNBC or the View. I don’t watch movies that are broadcast in Spanish. If I see another obscure pharma ad on TV I will scream.

I would like to see cable TV move to allowing us to pick the channels we get, but I understand that their “one-size-fits-all approach allows them to spread the expenses. I doubt that allowing media distributors to merge with content providers will help. I believe there isn’t any difference between AT&T’s CEO and Board and Time Warner’s CEO and Board. If we allow them to merge, they won’t make anything better.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader