Mr. Bagdikian is a Pulitzer Prize winner and dean emeritus of the Graduate School of Journalism at Berkeley. By 1997, only 10 corporations control almost everything we see, hear and read, leading to loss of depth and quality in the news and limitation of subjects addressed on the national agenda. It may be an uphill battle to regain public initiative and get our foot back in the door where it used to be before the growing media monopoly usurped the power the people once had over our own airwaves. You can adapt the ideas below in your letters to Congress, the President, the FCC, the FTC, the Justice Department anti-trust division, and to state and local democratic institutions, calling for media reform. Share the list to friends to study.
Education is key.
Other areas DO involve Congress and the President, and these are carved out in Congress Action on Media Reform. Below is a rough document to be debated and refined until it forms a clear and resounding declaration of media independence. Its final report must be frank, specific and unsparing of any special corporate interests or the status quo. How this commission will be chosen and administered is a major riddle, since it cannot involve government. The National News Council, which existed from 1973 to 1984, should be revived.