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Special interests and self-serving groups have evolved into positions that allow them to control the flow of information and wealth. To serve their own values they can effectively distort any debate and exclude the majority of people from meaningful participation in important decisions. Any organization or society that does not elicit the full voluntary and participative intelligence of its individual members--as well as that of each group within the society--is not fully enjoying the adaptive power of the democratic process. CED Brochure, 1995 |
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From the CED video "Democracy In Time:"
In the United States, the mass media, which significantly influence public opinion on most issues by their control of the content and flow of information, are now largely owned and operated by ten huge corporations.
In his book, The Media Monopoly, Bagdikian reported on the increasing concentration of media ownership in fewer and fewer hands. "At the end of World War II...80 per cent of the daily newspapers in the United States were independently owned, but by 1989 the proportion was reversed, with 80 per cent owned by corporate chains." By 1997 Bagdikian was reporting that large corporations had acquired a taste for owning and controlling not just one but all the available media--combining control of newspapers, radio, TV, books, and magazines--and in the future, perhaps, even the Internet. "Of the 1500 daily newspapers in the [U.S.], 99% are the only daily in their city. Of the 11,800 cable TV systems, all but a handful are monopolies in their cities."
Proposal? If the FCC were to distribute licenses equally among the private for-profit, private non-profit, and public sectors, we¹d get more balanced and accurate news, more comprehensive reporting on real social issues, and more reports on comparative studies of proposed solutions.
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The Story of Modern Democracy (to be cont.):
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