Governent Dependence
Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman state; "Another structural relationship of importance is the media companie's dependence on ties with government". While a company wants to express themselves in the most free manner it is not always possible. One such example of this came in 2004 when the F.C.C. started to crack down on Howard Sterns moring show because of his negative open opinions about President Bush. While Howard used to get away with an accidental curse here and there before, he now was getting fined and scrutinized for any little slip up. While K Rock did support him, they also did not want to lose everything they had. KRock is a prime example of how the relationship with the government is importnat for a media company. Thye have to maintain a good relationship if they want to be able to keep running smoothly. While there is freedom of speech in our society, it is not unlimited and media comapnies know that this is a fact of life for them.
posted by RGulotta at 8:25 PM
1 Comments:
A good post.
While Stern may believe that his fines came from his criticism of the Bush Administration. The FCC fined other media corporations for obscene material as well and those companies were not criticizing Bush. Lots of people criticize the Bush administration on the air everyday and those channels are not fined by the FCC. So what does that mean?
On the one hand, we do have freedom of speech in this country. On the other, government communications policies do limit that speech and the need to renew broadcast licenses does have an effect on their behavior. Is that censorship? Would many stations even have news if the FCC did not require some form of public service in exchange for a license?
Post a Comment
<< Home