To anyone who ever thought that newspapers and television and radio stations are profit-driven servants of the huge corporations that control many of them, now's your chance to say so on record.
Philadelphia-based activist groups Prometheus Radio Project and Media Tank are encouraging people to speak out to federal regulators about the media and whether it's a wise idea to allow more media mergers as a Jan. 2 deadline for public comments draws near....
Various commission officials have pointed out that the current media ownership regulations were made decades ago, when there were but three television networks and alternative information sources such as the Internet did not exist. Therefore, the officials have reasoned, it is time to see whether those old rules still apply in today's multimedia, information-soaked world.
But activists and consumer advocates warn that there could be dangers in changing some of those rules. They say that allowing media conglomerates - such as Viacom Inc., General Electric Co., Walt Disney Co. and News Corp. - to own even more properties could lead to blander programming and an unwillingness to cover news that parent companies or their affiliates might find unflattering.