What's required to have and sustain a democratic republic is being defeated by a media monopoly. Is it OK if I recommend an essay by Ted Turner -- from Atlanta, GA -- that was published on The Washington Monthly in 2004? And request that we start doing what needs to be done to restore a free press. Here's just one excerpt from Ted Turner's essay: "...the climate for independent broadcasting was turning hostile. This trend began in 1984, when the FCC raised the number of stations a single entity could own from seven–where it had been capped since the 1950s–to 12. A year later, it revised its rule again, adding a national audience-reach cap of 25 percent to the 12 station limit–meaning media companies were prohibited from owning TV stations that together reached more than 25 percent of the national audience. In 1996, the FCC did away with numerical caps altogether and raised the audience-reach cap to 35 percent. "
What's required to have and sustain a democratic republic is being defeated by a media monopoly. Is it OK if I recommend an essay by Ted Turner -- from Atlanta, GA -- that was published on The Washington Monthly in 2004? And request that we start doing what needs to be done to restore a free press. Here's just one excerpt from Ted Turner's essay: "...the climate for independent broadcasting was turning hostile. This trend began in 1984, when the FCC raised the number of stations a single entity could own from seven–where it had been capped since the 1950s–to 12. A year later, it revised its rule again, adding a national audience-reach cap of 25 percent to the 12 station limit–meaning media companies were prohibited from owning TV stations that together reached more than 25 percent of the national audience. In 1996, the FCC did away with numerical caps altogether and raised the audience-reach cap to 35 percent. "
Here's a link to the timeless Ted Turner essay: https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/julyaugust-2004/my-beef-with-big-media/