Comments on: a day with the “fretters”

By: David Cassel

David Cassel — Sun, 20 Apr 2003 20:17:52 +0000

About all those new forms of media. Surely someone's noticed that many are owned by the same original handful of players. And that they're often simply cross-promoting and re-purposing their original monopolies. Disney Radio plugs a Disney TV star; a FOX movie gets special promotion before FOX TV shows... Audiences who miss the movie then snatch it up on FOX's DVDs and buy CD soundtracks.

I mean, take a hard look at these new outlets. Nickelodeon's "killer app" for the new distribution outlet is re-runs of Gilligan's Island. While the outlet may be new -- the content surely isn't.

And that's a direct result of media concentration.

By: Karl

Karl — Thu, 17 Apr 2003 19:30:33 +0000

Thanks for the cite. I've found a hard copy and will see what I can do about getting a copy up on the net.

-kd

By: Lessig

Lessig — Thu, 17 Apr 2003 14:13:18 +0000

So Valenti's testimony is not online anyplace I can find. It would be great if someone could scan it (I'll try to get it done), but here is the cite:

Media Ownership: Diversity and Concentration, Hearings before the subcommittee on Communications of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, US Senate, 101st Cong., 1st Sess (June 14, 21, 22 1989), page 611-14.

By: Lessig

Lessig — Fri, 11 Apr 2003 12:43:33 +0000

Paulina's book is great. I'll try to find a link to the congressional testimony. If I can't, I'll download it and post it.

By: Adam Brate

Adam Brate — Thu, 10 Apr 2003 02:18:56 +0000

Ah, the strange and beautiful dreamworld of the technolibertarian. I've always been baffled as to why giant, completely secretive corporations motivated purely for survival through profit are intrinsically better and safer than giant, secretive but forced by law to be accountable governments motivated by ideals of common good as well as self-survival.

Especially when the corporations tie their existence to the support of the governments, through legal structures that allow them to maintain their profit sources and discourage or prevent competition.

But then, this has all been better explored in Paulina Borsook's Cyberselfish.

By: john g

john g — Wed, 09 Apr 2003 22:35:37 +0000

That was a nice finish.

By: Karl

Karl — Wed, 09 Apr 2003 17:17:17 +0000

Is there a link to a full text of that Valenti testimony? I'd like some context.

-kd

By: Dan Sickles

Dan Sickles — Wed, 09 Apr 2003 14:33:57 +0000

...we�ve got �satellite TV, satellite radio, DVDs, CDs, video-on-demand, hundreds of cable channels, movie rentals and � the Internet.�

The Internet...just another distribution channel. That pesky two-way feature can be legislated away so that it can be a 'proper' consumer media type.

Clue-free is care-free.