It owns the mammoth publisher Random House, and plenty more in the media universe. Try pitching a book proposal to a Random House editor about the dangers of global media consolidation. Well, you might comfort yourself by thinking about cyberspace. Amid rampant overall commercialization of the most heavily trafficked websites, AOL steers its 22 million subscribers in many directions-and, in the future, Time Warner's offerings will be most frequently highlighted. Hype about the new media seems boundless, while insatiable old hungers for maximum profits fill countless screens.
Centralization is the order of the media day.
We may not like the nation's gigantic media firms, but right now they don't care much what we think. A strong antitrust movement aimed at the Big Six could change such indifference in a hurry. Norman Solomon is a syndicated columnist. His latest book is The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media.