May 7, 2009
Dear Senator Klobuchar,I heard you speak on CSPAN last night regarding the newspapers who want a variance on antitrust laws so they can collude and all charge for their content at the same time. I loved hearing the story about your father's career as a journalist. And I fear that this very romantic idea of the newspaper industry will cloud your judgment. The mainstream media at one time felt obligated to serve the public interest. Let's not forget that that's an old idea. We are way beyond journalists serving the public interest. Media serves their board of directors who want access to powerful people and profits, period. Remember Judith Miller, the New York Times and the Iraq War? How much has this cost Americans in lives, money, wasted resources, wasted time? The costs to us, U.S., have been enormous, and we're still paying for it. Everytime I read the New York Times, I remember that. It's deep within me. I want to love the New York Times, but Judith Miller is in the forefront of my mind everytime I look at it. Because it's cost our country so much, as in the lives of U.S. troops (and innocent Iraqis), less money to educate our kids, no political will to change healthcare, and kept us in an oil economy instead of moving to a 21st century green economy. These newspapers serve special interests. Take the global warming issue, I would say that mainstream media has been largely responsible for keeping the idea that global warming isn't anything to be concerned about alive. These are issues that effect the life of our species, whether we are to survive or go extinct. Very serious, yet, newspapers (and mainstream media as a whole) have not allowed us to have a serious debate that would actually inform the public in a way that allows the political will to develop to make the change we need. We should have moved to a green economy back in the 1980s. February 15, 2009 George Will's column in the Washington Post distorted facts about global warming to say it's not man-made. I mean, is it ever going to end? Not if our government gives them the tools to continue to support this garbage. Garbage into the public will get you more garbage from the public because these kinds of acts keep the public confused and that's not good for making change.Also, it appears that many of their so-called journalists reporting on the financial sector may have been planting stories for the purpose of stock manipulation. And during the Obama campaign, the so-called journalists would ask the dumbest questions because they seem to be more interested in creating conflict (where one didn't exist) than going deep into the issues and facilitating a real discussion of them between the newsmakers and the public. Huffington Post is a good example of how to do this differently. CSPAN also had very good election coverage.When reading these so-called journalists, one has to be very careful to read everything very critically. I wish that when I read an article online, that I could mouse-over the article to get a pop-up window that would also report on the journalist's past articles and their pattern of reporting so that I can clearly see if they've been reporting fairly, or if they've been reporting to support a special interest. For instance, how about CNBC and the stock market? How about Bloomberg and the subprime mortgage meltdown? All these so-called journalists were banging the drum for free markets and deregulation. Now they want to change the laws because they're losing money. Is this fair to the greenshoots like Huffington Post? Is it fair to the public?The issues and the way reports are slanted to serve special interests (and advertisers) is obvious and it's the norm these days. If the newspapers are failing, it's because they haven't managed themselves wisely. It's because they have a bad board of directors and bad leadership. It's because they bought into the idea that markets only go up and they unwisely took on more debt than they can now handle. Yes, it's about survival now, but I say that they have not served the public interest. In fact, they have played a huge role in the destruction of our economy. They are concerned only with profit and to weaken antitrust laws would hurt the public interest.You know what really gets me about all this? The argument that the newspapers are using could also be used for the Employee Free Choice Act. That a single employee doesn't have much leverage, but if all employees can organize, they then have the leverage needed to make the corporations play fair. But if you were to investigate where these newspapers (who are corporate entities) stand on unions, I'm sure they would think it's ok for corporations to organize, but it's not ok for individual people, say working at Walmart to organize. I would guess that if you were to study their reporting on Employee Free Choice Act, you would see a bias for corporations like Walmart and against unions like UAW, etc. It's disgusting. Where has the point of view of labor and unions been in the mainstream media over the last 30 years? Certainly not in the newspapers, unions and labor don't have a seat at the table as is reflected in the bulging bags of cash the CEOs have compared to the stagnated salaries, 50% loss of value of 401Ks, and loss of homes of ordinary Americans. So please, leave your romantic ideas about your father's career at the door when considering the interests of the newspapers versus the public interest. Let the market decide regarding the newspapers. Our government already allows media to organize into huge conglomerates that serve special interests against the public interest, why give them any more power? Let the market decide if they pass or fail. Let the new greenshoots like the Huffington Post have their chance to grow in the market. We can have a bright future if only our government will support and nurture the greenshoots that really do serve the public interest. The public needs a media that we can trust to serve our interest. To support entities whose bad practices have contributed largely to our current economic disaster is not change I can believe in. Please, do not give the likes of Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News Empire any more power. They are killing our country and we need to move on.It's time for change Senator. Please, let it happen.Kindest regards,Maggie Knowles
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