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“In the opening years of the 21st century, the trend in America is to concentrate certain services into complete monopolies. We are seeing the cell phone giants being joined together in fierce competition. To public objections, the answer always is that efficiency can cause lower rates. Don’t believe this canard. Monopolists first undercut their less well funded rivals and, after they have absorbed all of them, raise their rates. There is no one else to compete with them and the consumer gets, as they always do, the very dirty end of the stick.
And, of course, with billions in income, the monopolies have immense assets with which to bribe Federal and state legislators and regulatory agencies. We see WalMart driving out competition and slowly but surely taking over mass merchandising in one American city and town after another. In the wake of their passing lie the wrecks of the small local merchants, small manufacturing companies and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.
In the media, we can see the same thing. There is a drive to grab up all the television stations, all the daily papers…but none of the magazines. Why is this? The American public does not read anymore. It does not read because of a terrible public education system that inhibits reading and watching television and reading newspapers with lots of pretty pictures and nice, large type is the norm, not the exception.
And with television stations being snatched up and “amalgamated” into press empires that also control news outlets of all kinds, he who owns the monopoly can, and does, control public opinion. Advertisers, establishment politicians and other business entities all vie to be on the winning side. If a press baron decides that this or that politico is not suitable and not in tune with his views, he has his staff trash him. How? Fake polls showing him with single digit approval ratings; pictures of him kissing a black woman or scratching his ass in public; snide hints about his background or the background of his family. On the other side of the coin, favorite political figures are shown waltzing with the angels while basking in 90% public approval ratings. And how does this pay off? Big. Senators are practically guaranteed of reelection in spite of that sheep they were caught with at the motel and presidents with approval ratings the size of their shirt collars are also guaranteed reelection. And with this kind of power, who would dare to question their greedy, rapacious and carnivorous business practices?
Monopoly is now the trend, a trend back to the nineteenth century when monopoly ruled and men like J.P. Morgan controlled the railroads in America (and set the rates to suit themselves.} Monopolies were eventually seen as what they were; dangerous to the market and then broken up. But if you drive a hog out of your truck garden, you had best put up a strong fence because Mr. Hog will come back the next day, eager to root up all the rest of your produce and leave nothing behind but hog crap and holes in the ground.
The growing media monopoly is allying itself with the telecommunications industry and the major Hollywood movie production centers and when they are through, George Orwell would have had a roaring laugh…”
See also:
Controlling the News February 12/13
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?id=1536
Controlling the News Part 35
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?id=1470
Controlling the News Part 33
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?id=1425
Controlling the News Part 30
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?id=1388
Controlling the News Part 22
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?id=1200
Controlling the News Part 21
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?id=1163
Bush Has to Go
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=1150
Sensational Memos Lift the Lid on News Control
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?id=982
Last updated 29/06/2004
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