consolidation
GRITtv: Douglas Rushkoff: Keeping Corporate Hands Off Our Media
"It seems that when you flip the switch too late you actually promote the revolutions in your country. What would've happened if Egypt hadn't flipped the switch? If people are home blogging their discontent they're a lot more controllable, a lot less dangerous," says Doug Rushkoff, author of Program or Be Programmed, of the role of the Internet in the recent revolutions. Doug joins us via Skype to discuss corporate control over our communications, the fight for Net Neutrality, the AT&T and T-Mobile merger, the attempts to defund NPR, and more.
Email this pageGRITtv: March 22, 2011
"It seems that when you flip the switch too late you actually promote the revolutions in your country. What would've happened if Egypt hadn't flipped the switch? If people are home blogging their discontent they're a lot more controllable, a lot less dangerous," says Doug Rushkoff, author of Program or Be Programmed, of the role of the Internet in the recent revolutions. Doug joins us via Skype to discuss corporate control over our communications, the fight for Net Neutrality, the AT&T and T-Mobile merger, the attempts to defund NPR, and more. Bradley Manning, the accused leaker of many of the documents posted on the website WikiLeaks, remains in jail under increasingly harsh conditions. This weekend, protesters, including regular GRITtv guest Col. Ann Wright and Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, were arrested at Quantico Marine Corps base, rallying in support and demanding better treatment for Manning. This Saturday, protests are planned in the UK, the US, and Canada against corporate tax avoiders and government austerity cuts. The UK Uncut movement has been going strong, occupying retail outlets as diverse as Vodafone and TopShop, and its solidarity movement in the US is just getting started. Using street theater and organizing largely on the web, the direct action movements aim to make tax dodging a whole lot less profitable for big banks like Bank of America and corporations like Verizon and FedEx. Allison Kilkenny has been covering the US Uncut movement for The Nation, and she joins us along with J.A. Myerson, a "tax avoidance consultant", to discuss the new resistance to paying for corporate welfare. Finally, Republicans have declared war on Elizabeth Warren. But what will it take to get Warren some real power, enough to really put some fear into banksters and their allies in Congress? Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: The F Word: Media Monsters Threaten Net Freedom
Comcast, the nation's biggest cable and broadband Internet company, has plans to take over NBC Universal. The result would be a new kind of media monster that would not only produce some of America's most popular entertainment but also control viewers' access to it. Comcast would control the joint venture's day-to-day operations but Pentagon contractor GE would retain a 49 percent stake. The likely impact on consumer choices? Well you tell me: the Washington Post reports that all in all, the joint venture would control more than one out of every five television-viewing hours. With almost one in four cable subscribers in the U.S. a Comcast customer and NBC Universal owning not only NBC but also dozens of cable channels, including Telemundo, MSNBC, CNBC and Bravo as well as theme parks, TV stations such as Washington's WRC (Channel 4), and Universal movie studios, the NBC Comcast deal is a biggie. In the meantime, it's time to cherish ever more all that remains in the way of independent media. And yes, that's our self interest speaking. -- Laura Flanders
