Here we go again. It’s time, once again, to write or email the five-member Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and beg them not to lift limits on the number of broadcasting and newspaper outlets a corporation can control within a local market. As over two million U.S. citizens did in 2003. Time, once again, for the Pencil Warrior to help fill the void that still exists - in newspapers, magazines, on radio, television - on the negative effects of centralized big media on our communities and way of life. As I did in December of 2004 and again in October 2006. And probably, time once again for the Republican majority on the FCC to ignore our entreaties.

The forces of deregulated free trade have found another bright young man to carry their water, now that former FCC chairman Michael Powell, who failed in his underhanded attempts to weaken ownership limits, has fled back into those shadows of non-accountability the corporate world prefers. Newly appointed Republican FCC chair Kevin Martin has renewed the call for the lifting of limits, with the usual free-trader’s flair for gaming the regulatory system. Having been confronted last year with proof his commission had suppressed its own studies which failed to support the ideology behind unlimited media conglomeration, Martin no doubt hopes his sudden call for action by December of this year will somehow catch those ¬two million dissenting citizens napping.

Most Americans realize that centrally controlled, one-size-fits-all media eliminates reporting of local news, views, and culture, and undermines the Jeffersonian ideal of the informed citizenry required to make a democracy work. In 1983 the number of major media ownerships stood at about 50 (media scholar Ben Bagdikian), yet through mergers, takeovers, and mutual shareholding, that number had shrunk to just eight by 2006 (Mother Jones Magazine).

In referring to the evidence deep-sixed by the FCC majority, S. Derek Turner, research director of the non-profit Free Press, contends that "This is the nail in the coffin for the FCC’s pro-consolidation agenda.”

If only it were. Such statements make me marvel at how we fail to see the utter futility of the strategy for redress that we’ve been sucked into. Well-meaning citizen advocate groups such as Free Press, the Consumers Union, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the United Church of Christ, the AFL-CIO, Common Cause, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the National Organization for Women, the Media Access Project, and more – have allied under the tent of StopBigMedia.com, urging us to once again raise our puny voices against the corporate boom boxes. As if we didn’t know, or at least sense, that corporations and their trade associations in the communications and technology sectors spent $152.4 million on federal lobbying in just the first six months of 2005 (Congressional Quarterly).

Do we honestly expect allied corporate entities that expend that kind of cash to give up? Can we really rejoice when we finally win one round in one fight, in one ring, in one part of the world?

Centralization in any industry poses problems for local economies and community autonomy as outside interests hold sway through unmatchable financial power. In the case of media – print, radio, television, cable, the internet, theatres, performance – the threat is profound due to the inherent power to frame the debate and with it the very parameters of our thinking.

Consider the term “cross-ownership,” considered in public dialog the acceptable word to describe one media corporation owning others, sometimes many others. I much prefer the old term, monopoly, but unfortunately due to the nasty connotations the robber barons of an earlier era gave the word it's become taboo among the robber barons of today.

In such an environment I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that the historically honorable (and necessary) resort of dismantling harmful monopolies is no longer deemed a realistic course of action. How ironic is it, that a people with roots in proud rebellion –against forces no more threatening to their freedom - now dare not run the risk of upsetting their masters?

I encourage you to once again lodge your protest against monopolization of media. But please, as you’re doing that, let’s begin to Think Big – after all, isn’t that what we tell our children they should do? At the rate corporations that control communication continue to swallow one another, this may be a limited-time offer.

Dave Wheelock, davewheelock (all one word) at yahoo.com, is a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin who lives in Socorro, NM. He holds a degree in history from the University of New Mexico. Reach him at Mr. Wheelock’s views do not necessarily reflect those of Socorro News, but frequently do.

Copyright 2007, Dave Wheelock; all rights reserved.