Barnett Gets It All Wrong Again
Barnett Gets It All Wrong Again
Yesterday�s Observer has a poorly-thought-out piece by Steve Barnett on the Communications Bill and efforts by some to quash the ability of large media companies to acquire Channel 5.
Barnett overstates the so-called �mass protests� that occurred in the U.S. as the FCC voted to reform its decades-old media ownership regulations. Barnett also fails to note that the U.S. debate was dominated by uncritical rhetoric about �big media� (rhetoric repeated in his article) and widespread ignorance about the purposes underlying, and the effects of, the former U.S. media-ownership provisions.
It�s too bad Barnett did not offer a more thoughtful perspective of how, for example, the Internet and other new sources of news and entertainment requires society to confront regulations that were in most cases written in an era before multichannel video platforms.
