Since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Reform Act, giant media mergers have accelerated, culminating this year with the merger of America On-Line, the Internet gateway used by 22 million subscribers, and Time Warner, the biggest media company in the world. Time Warner now controls 40 percent of the magazine industry's revenues, plus Internet services, book publishers, music labels, film studios, TV networks, sports teams, theme parks, etc. Because massive media mergers negatively impact the quality of both journalism and democracy. At magazines and newspapers across the United States, the firewall that has traditionally divided the business from the editorial side is breaking down. In this new media order, profit is king.
News becomes entertainment and there is little space for new or unpopular ideas.
This is a terrible development for a democratic society, where the key to a successful polity is diversity and accountability. Small, independent, partisan media are just as essential to democracy's health as are big, commercial, allegedly objective media. It is easy to forget that suffrage for women and African Americans, an end to slavery and de jure segregation, and health and safety standards for consumers and workers all were issues first raised and fought for by a press many derided as outside the mainstream. Culturally, media mergers and commercialism kill innovation. In the year 2001, American media resemble a suburban strip mall, a pretty place where things are bought and sold.