Wednesday, May 28, 2003 :::
 
They control the horizontal, soon they'll control the vertical, too.

FCC To Vote on Media Ownership Laws

I find it continually astounding that decisions like this are made by a council of 5 old men, called the FCC. The new laws would allow a single corporation, say Newscorp (Fox News), to buy and control more than the current 35% of the TV stations in an area. As one opponent of the deregulations has said:

"Absent a change of direction in the chairman's office, we will likely have dramatically altered our nation's media landscape," Copps said. "At stake is who will control the gateways to the media, who will control the content of the media and for what purposes."

So just like Hearst's control of newspapers in the early 20th century, providing support for the Spanish-American War, we may see even more of the controlling media presence providing support for other wars (say, "Operation: Iraqi Freedom"). Again, all of this is being decided by 5 men on a panel, far above the heads of the American public.

::: posted by Andrewski at 6:50 PM

 
Happy Summer! Here's an amusing legal quandry to ponder, if your summer days are passing too slowly:

Woman Sues For Right To Wear Veil For License Photo

I can't see how this would be ok. I mean, what's the point of a license photo if your face is veiled? If she did manage to get her veiled photo on the license, what's keeping her from, say, giving it to an underage, veil-wearing kid to buy beer? If the state does "respect her right to religious freedom" by letting her get a veiled photo, I plan to get my next license photo taken with a plastic Hulk mask from a party store.



::: posted by Andrewski at 12:25 AM