before Rupert Murdoch owns all of the media. Then it will be Fair and Balanced everywhere, all of the time.

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Ever see the movie "1984"? I can't believe these fucking FCC assholes.

I hate being cynical but the MSM has its head so far up its a** that the effect of this probably won't be noticeable.

The "news" as it were, whether its on the tube via cable (CNN, Fox, MSNBC,...) or mainstream Katy Couric type networks and the paper press (The NYT and the Washington Post) is so slanted to the talking head blather of the punditocracy and hollywood tabloid crap that I can't imagine a ripple.

Although I might stick my head out the window and scream "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."

I just want to say to the Hill-dawg supporters out there, if the subject of this post makes you ill, angry, or irate: how do you reconcile that reaction with Senator Clinton (and her inner circle's) long standing ties to the telecommunications industry?

Media Ownership Regulations- with their undeniable role in shaping the dynamics between the all-American principles of capitalism, anti-trust protections, and the First Amendment- went largely unchanged from inception right on up to the Reagan Presidency. It is worth noting that many of the people in that administration, as well as the current one, were either directly and intimately involved with the Nixon administration- or at least they're political viewpoints were shaped by it. It is also worth noting that Senator Clinton's husband was the first Democratic President since the Reagan-Era deregulations- and that they did nothing to restore the primacy of freedom of speech above the freedom to contract business. Now we face similar goings-on between the government and the telecommunications industry: warrant-less spying and eavesdropping and a lack of judicial review, the deregulation of Media ownership.

With all the goings-on about FISA, Telecommunications Immunity, authoritarian lawbreaking and the Unitary Executive, and now this- how can one NOT be troubled by the multiple, intimate ties between the Clintons and the Telecoms? I find it irreconcilable; that someone could be viscerally opposed to media de-regulation and the Telecommunication's cartel, yet still support a politician whose close personal and political ties to the cartel are undeniable, is a mystery to me.

Maybe this country needs to look closer again, and the deep connection between freedom of speech and the regulation of media ownership. Maybe Democrats need to look especially close.

This guy reminds me of all the true believers fresh out of college that were appointed to positions within the CPA and managed to make Iraq completely FUBAR.

I mean, look at him. He should be working in the copy room, not running the FCC. But he has one attribute vital to the Bush administration: he follows orders and doesn't ask questions.

I hope his tenure at the FCC becomes a huge stain on his resume.

It amazes me that anytime a subject like this comes up and gets voted on by any group with the word "Federal" in its header, the public - who financially supports everything the "Federal" does - loses. This is just another protection for big business - most of whom seem to be able to create more money, power and control, just by asking.

Democracy is worse for this consolidation, certainly. But the decision itself says a lot about how broken our democracy is. There is no popular demand for this policy change, but it moves ahead, unencumbered, like so many other unpopular policies. Meanwhile, issues that vastly larger portions of the public want to see addressed -- single payer healthcare, an end to war in Iraq, corporate regulation -- have few real champions in government.

Whose government is this?

I looked at the front page of the Washington Post this morning... and there was nothing on this. You'd think this was an important story.. I wonder why it wasn't... oh... never mind.

a radio station, and then another, and then another. This is not a slippery slope, it's a steep and unstable cliff that is leading to a collapse of our Republic. Thomas Jefferson demanded that our fledgling nation develop a Public Educational system so that all citizens could engage in governance via making intelligent decisions based on the availability of factual information. Placing the allocation of any information into the hands of corporate entities will doom this country and it's citizens to a dearth of reliable information not unlike the kind we see splurting out of the mouths of those corporate lemmings on Fox. You can see it slipping into the likes of CNN and even NBC, CBS, and ABC. The last major, MSNBC has only Olberman speaking reliable truth to power and perhaps at times, Matthews (who by no means in immune to pedestrian tactics) still dispersing thought provoking reliable and exacting information.

Make no mistake about it. We are one election away from losing it all.

Once again the people's will has been thwarted. We'll be getting the same bull shit from the newspaper media that we are treated to on the networks.

Where will it end........or has it?

You folks typically believe and like anything churned out by Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Syria, South Africa and if not state owned outright are under the thumb of the government. I guess it depends on which lies you prefer.

WSLN, Fairer and Better Balanced!

After all, you can't have a fascist, totalitarian government without solid control of the media. It is an absolute necessity.

Of course, if we were attempting a democracy, then that would be an entirely different story...

But we're not...

Just look what Clear Channel did for the music business!