One Ring

One ring to rule them all …and in the darkness bind them.

Today’s One Ring is the corporate controlled media. The ‘news’ produced by the corporate-military-industrial-media binds the American people in Darkness. Important stories are ignored and unimportant stories are covered obsessively. ‘News’ is used to distract the American public and to keep us from focusing on the real reasons that this country is going to hell in a supersonic handbasket. The ‘News’ is used to subtly and not-so-subtly mold the populace into compliance with the goals and purposes of the corporate plutocratic kakistocracy.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said, during a speech at the recent National Conference for Media Reform (organized by Free Press) in Memphis, Tennessee, “If you are concerned about foreign policy in Iraq, if you are concerned about health care, if you are concerned about the economy, if you are concerned about global warming, you are kidding yourselves if you are not concerned about corporate control of the media.” He groks it - One Ring. He who controls the media controls the debate.

Another speaker at the National Conference for Media Reform, Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), “plans to reintroduce the Media Ownership Reform Act (MORA) that would break up media monopolies and restore the Fairness Doctrine, which was eliminated by the Federal Communications Commission under the Reagan administration.” You can see a summary of the original MORA, H.R.3302 and download a pdf of the full bill at this link. One Ring - he groks it, too. In an article in the February 6, 2006 issue of The Nation he explicitly says so: “While every topic addressed in this special Nation issue is vital to America’s future, one issue binds them all together: media ownership reform. Whether it’s the war in Iraq or the latest Supreme Court decision, how and where Americans receive their news is critically important.” [emphasis mine]

The Free Expression Policy Project has an excellent “fact sheets” page where you can get a quick overview of the current state of affairs with some history, too, if you would like to get more information and news. Another good resource for info and news is the Center for Digital Democracy.

Direct action, for those of you can attend(via STOP BIG MEDIA):

The FCC is holding its third official public hearing on media ownership issues in Harrisburg, Pa., on Friday, Feb. 23, 2007, at 9:00 a.m. at the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts on 222 Market Street.

I invite you all to watch Orwell Rolls in His Grave at Google video. The quality of the video is pretty low and you can’t read the graphics, but the message comes through in the voiceovers and interviews:

“Could a media system, controlled by a few global corporations with the ability to overwhelm all competing voices, be able to turn lies into truth?…”

This chilling documentary film examines the relationship between the media, corporate America, and government. In a country where the “top 1% control 90% of the wealth”, the film argues that the media system is nothing but a “subsidiary of corporate America.”

“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.”