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February 10, 2012
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David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
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Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
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Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
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Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
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February 6, 2012
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Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
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Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
Feb. 7, 2006
/ 9 Shevat, 5766
It's not traditional media that we should be monitoring for monopolies
By
Edward Wasserman
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Last spring the press was all aflutter with news that big media companies were actually getting smaller. ''The media moguls built them up, and now they are breaking them apart,'' Business Week reported. After a ''decade of unprecedented consolidation'' the conglomerates that dominate the news and entertainment industries supposedly realized that their bulk might be keeping them from getting richer. Sometimes, a really fat guy has trouble reaching over the buffet table.
Financial writers nationwide were talking deconcentration: Instead of fewer and fewer companies controlling more and more of the media, these bloated businesses was spawning smaller, better focused and more sharply competitive companies.
It was a good story, a nice change from the dark warnings of monopoly from commentators on the right and left we'd been hearing. Those alarms had churned up an unparalleled wave of public anger that broke over the Federal Communications Commission in 2003, in opposition to FCC proposals to weaken limits on how much audience share a single broadcast owner could control and when companies could own both newspapers and broadcasters in the same place.
Instead, media were scaling back all by themselves. What a relief. One influential Merrill Lynch stock analyst declared that after all, Wall Street preferred spry little companies with clear focus: ''What's working right now are the pure plays like Pixar,'' Steve Jobs' animation boutique.
Actually, evidence of downsizing was sparse. The news peg was that Viacom, the No. 3 U.S. media owner, would split in two, with go-go MTV and Paramount Pictures on one side and boring old CBS and the radio business on the other. Beyond that, there were little more than hints that Time Warner and AOL might divorce, and that Disney might sell some of its vast holdings.
None of that happened, and some of us were skeptical that the trend was real, and if so, that it meant anything. Simply because companies stuffed into cumbersome conglomerates don't play well together doesn't mean they won't end up reconfigured into equally mammoth clusters that do just fine. Monopolistic control would be shifted, not eased. We'd end up with another wave of consolidation.
Sure enough: Now Viacom is spinning off UPN, its youth-oriented cable network, so it can merge with WB, Time Warner's youth-oriented cable network, to create a bigger youth-oriented cable network, to be known as CW. (Speculation is that this may be a prelude to a much bigger deal in which CNN and CBS News merge.) DreamWorks SKG, the studio co-founded by Steven Spielberg, is being bought by Viacom, and Disney just gobbled up independent filmmaker Miramax, its erstwhile partner.
And remember Pixar, the ''pure play'' Wall Street was drooling over? Disney's buying it for $7.4 billion, creating an unassailable dominatrix in animated entertainment.
So media owners are back to buying up and bulking up. Traditional media aren't shrinking after all.
But never mind that. Connoisseurs of monopoly need to shift their attention to the Internet, where we're on the brink of a concentration of media control that a few years ago would have been unimaginable. Consider this: Roughly one-fifth of the human race, the 1.3 billion people of China, have been denied access to huge areas of critically important information about their own country such as the annihilation of the 1989 democracy movement thanks to the self-serving complicity of just three U.S. companies: Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google.
Now that's concentrated power.
And it's just the start. Most of us see Yahoo! and Google as mere search engines, tools for browsing the Internet. Forget that. That's nothing. Within a few years we will depend on these immensely rich companies or their close cousins for most all of our media TV, movies, games, newspapers, blogs, e-commerce, e-mail, interactive advertising, phone service and to conduct ever-expanding realms of our daily affairs, personal and professional.
And they aren't just conduits. These are no reborn phone companies. Increasingly they're getting into producing content of their own, parleying their astonishing control over audience access into power over content and other content providers.
Worse, they don't just distribute and produce content; they preside over a two-way street. They compile information most of it about us. Witness the current dustup in which Google is resisting pressure from federal prosecutors to hand over information about searches for sex sites. Turns out these guys know quite a lot about what you've been poking around in, and this is information they can trade, sell and use.
No, the problem of media concentration isn't over. It hasn't even begun. Technological advances have moved us way beyond quaint issues of how many obsolescent TV stations one company should own. The same Internet that promises empowerment and unprecedented informational abundance has made possible a depth of control that the most visionary tyrant of the past would not have dared aspire to.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Edward Wasserman is a writer and consultant who lives in Miami. He wrote this column for The Miami Herald.Comment by clicking here.
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