What the Impact of the British Tabloid Scandal on American Journalism SHOULD BE.

By Octopus

There have always been rogue journalists on both sides of the Atlantic. This time, the sleazy narrative is about telephone hacking, invasions of privacy in the pursuit of lurid celebrity gossip, criminal interference in a murder investigation, and payoffs to politicians and police investigators. The British tabloid scandal is about press abuse in extremis; and the One Ring that binds them together is Rupert Murdoch whose half century of acquisitions have turned his media empire into a malignant force in British and American journalism. As an old adage sates: If power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, the British tabloid scandal should remind us about the dangers of consolidating power in the hands of rogue operators.

Little noticed beneath the garish headlines of the week is this story: A federal appeals court overturned the Federal Communications Commission’s attempt to further weaken media ownership rules. Had these rules gone into effect, it would have unleashed a new wave of media consolidation across the country.

In 2007, the FCC ignored letters and calls from millions of Americans when it tried to rewrite media ownership rules that would let companies own both newspapers and broadcast stations in the same market. This change would have opened the floodgates to new media mergers … leading to massive layoffs, less local coverage, fewer voices in the marketplace of ideas, and more opportunities for abuse.

The court pointed to public comments from people like us as a deciding factor in overturning the FCC’s attempt to change its rules. But the struggle does not end here. Right now, media conglomerates are using loopholes and backroom deals to get around media ownership rules and further consolidate their power.  The conglomerates must be stopped if we are to salvage what little integrity is left in American journalism.

To help raise awareness, I am re-posting an article contributed almost a year ago, A Contest of Madmen for the Primacy of the Sewer, which appears immediately below this post.