Funny how things work. Now that the FCC media ownership vote is past, it’s getting lots of press. Is it a case of “it ain’t over till it’s over?” (FCC Rule Fight Continues in Congress) or a case of “closing the barn door after the cows have left?” (FCC media ownership vote dealt blow to democracy
). Choose your cliche.
Today, Clay Shirkey’s The FCC, Weblogs, and Inequalilty makes some interesting points about inequality and media. Says Shirkey,
“In the aftermath of the FCC ruling, and given what we have learned from the development of weblogs, the debate on media concentration can now be sharpened to a single question: if inequality is a fact of life, even in diverse and free systems, what should our reaction be?”
He argues the tradeoffs are: Diverse. Free. Equal. Pick two.
