(home)
Your Comments on the NBC
Vivendi Proposed Merger
(send yours to editor@radiodailynews.com)
| One can only imagine the
down sizing which will take place on this one. If what Viacom did with
CBS News and Disney with ABC News is any indication, kiss the NBC News
we know goodbye NBC gets 80%; the French keep 20%. It's a bad deal with Vivendi's huge debt. This is another case of buying it now and figuring out what to do with it later. Of course, it's equally true that if NBC didn't do this deal, they would be a prime takeover target for Viacom, Disney or Murdoch. The new FCC rules, which allow one network to buy another created this new buying frenzy climate. How about the fact that an American television network is 20% owned by a foreign company. The merger also reduces competition. There are fewer outlets for independent production companies to peddle their programming to. If NBC and Universal are one and the same, who needs product from "outside" sources. What most observers missed on this merger is the fact that Vivendi-Universal's music group was pulled from the offering of assets. As a side note, the only remaining US music label conglomerate, Warner Bros. Music is expected to merge with BMG, the German firm - as soon as this week - and if that falls through, EMI out of the UK is waiting in the wings. That means NOT ONE of the major label groups will be owned by an American company. The RIAA should change its name. This country is selling its media assets like a clearance sale at Filene's Basement. John Gorman Freedom TV? This recent merger of NBC and French (yes, the same French we are supposed to hate because they oppose our quest for world domination) is yet another blow to the First Amendment. As the American Media continues to merge, the available outlets for free speech continue to disappear. What do I mean by this? Well, if a few extremely wealthy men, both foreign and domestic, control what is heard and seen on OUR airwaves only THEIR points of view will be heard. This is evident now with the lack of an opposing voice to the right wing extremists who dominate talk radio. There is not even a MODERATE talk show host. Ask yourself these questions: What motivation do billionaire media moguls have to report that poor children need better schools or health care or day care? What motivation do billionaire media moguls have to let proponents of middle and lower class tax cuts be heard on the airwaves? What motivation do billionaire media moguls have to report about corporate fraud or corporate air/water pollution violations? You get the idea. So, in the name of the pseudo patriotism of Bush Regime II, NBC-Vivendi should be referred to as Freedom TV. I will eat my Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast as I watch foreign controlled Freedom Television. We as Americans better wake up to the truth of what lies below cleverly spun freedom talk. John
Brian Nicholas
|