Turner on media conglomerates: Bust 'em up
AJC.com
07/22/04
"Ted Turner argues that big media companies must be busted up — like the railroad trusts were in the early 20th century and Ma Bell was more recently — in an article he penned for Washington Monthly magazine.
Turner, the founder of CNN and Turner Broadcasting, is still a major shareholder in parent company, Time Warner, one of the largest media companies in the world.
Turner says in the piece that he would never have been able to start his companies in today's climate. Lax regulation has made it impossible for entrepreneurs to succeed, he says.
"This is a fight about freedom—the freedom of independent entrepreneurs to start and run a media business, and the freedom of citizens to get news, information, and entertainment from a wide variety of sources, at least some of which are truly independent and not run by people facing the pressure of quarterly earnings reports," he writes in the article.
Turner winds up the article with a comparison to professional wrestling: "Today the government has cast down its duty, and media competition is less like boxing and more like professional wrestling: The wrestler and the referee are both kicking the guy on the canvas." "
Well I totally agree with Ted but what's he gonna do about it? Can he make the government regulate the media and perhaps think about reviving those pesky anti-trust laws so that regular people have a chance in hell of survival?
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