As I pointed out here before (see, “And so the Comcast-NBC Merger Hysteria Begins: Help Me Document It!“), every time a media merger is proposed we hear all sorts of silly Chicken Little predictions of impending doom as well as preposterous conspiracy theories about supposed nefarious schemes to take over the media universe and control our minds. For good measure, there’s also plenty of talk of “the death of deliberative democracy,” or efforts to weed out one sort of perspective or another.
As history has shown, it’s all complete bunk. But that doesn’t stop critics from concocting asinine theories about media providers seeking to “silence critics.” Here’s two bits of Chicken Little-ism that I missed in my previous essay documenting this silliness. First, over at Huffington Post, Marvin Ammori tells us that America is about to become Italy or Argentina because of the deal:
Putting so much power in the hands of one company–and, specifically, its executives–is dangerous for a democracy. There is a reason why autocratic regimes control the media–media shape public opinion and define what is “possible” in politics. We have seen the problem of private media consolidation in many countries. In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi used his massive media empire to win elections and is now Prime Minister (Italy’s longest serving ever). In Argentina, the government had to pass a media consolidation law because of the power of one media company that happens to be far smaller than a combined Comcast-NBCU.
And then we have Wade Norris writing about the deal over at the Daily Kos, saying: “If you don’t want to see the progressive voices on MSNBC silenced, then join the ‘no merger’ petition.” Ah yes, another automated “stuff-the-online-complaint-ballot-box” petition. I love those gimmicks. But ignore fake complaints for a moment and focus on the accusations at hand here. The Ammori-Norris theory is: If Comcast and NBCU are allowed to marry (a) progressive voices will be driven off their platforms and (b) Silvio Berlusconi will take over America democracy will somehow suffer. Is there really any truth to this? Continue reading →
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