Wasteland America

Comcast Merger with NBC – Congressional Hearings Feb. 4th

If you haven’t heard by now, for about two months now Comcast has been talking about buying up NBC from GE. Actually, it’s not just talk. They actually are going to go through with it. I have good reasons to suspect that the more consolidated the media market is, the more reasons we have to fear for our way of life.

The first reason is simple. If media distributors don’t understand that the media is something far greater than a money making machine, they will damage all of our psyches. Broadcasters who put content up that’s shocking and appalling for ratings miss media’s real power, and that’s the power to shape and reinforce cultural values. You can either use this technology to keep drug use and materialism in middle schools, or use it to educate to a higher calling. The second reason is equally simple. When you understand how the media industry shapes what we think, it becomes pretty clear that the power to do so shouldn’t be kept in the hands of a few people. One executive’s decision to run a particularly disturbing ad effects us all, even if we say we’re too smart to be affected by ads.

But this is no ordinary purchase. In addition to everything that’s been said, Comcast is an internet company, and NBC is a cable company. This is the first buyout to cross the two realms, I think. Not only does it create a really, really, big company that puts too much power into the hands of too few people; What this does do is make Comcast keenly interested in keeping NBC’s content only to Comcast subscribers in more ways you can imagine. Say goodbye to 30 rock!

Is it realistic? Unfortunately, yes. I would be somewhat at peace with the merger if NBC was going to bought by Verizon. Comcast has a legacy of attempting to control your actions online. If there was a company going to violate net neutrality, I’d put my money on Comcast. And I wouldn’t trust Comcast’s ability to self-regulate themselves. I wouldn’t even trust Comcast executives to watch my kids. Would you?

What can be done? Not much right now. The public hearing is happening on Feburary 4th, but all that just means is that Congressmen and Senators can ask whatever they want to the Comcast and NBC representatives, but they’re not going to bring it to a vote yet. I’ve listed the phone # before, give ‘em a call if you’d like to ask them a certain question. It’ll be filmed on Cspan, or at the least open to the public so someone’ll be taking notes and post it on the interwebs. You can always call up your congressmen and tell them you’re not a fan. That’s what I do…every day…for fun…I swear I have a life somewhere underneath all the magic the gathering cards scattered around my room…

And one final note: as much as I hate to say that the guy in the xkcd comic was wrong on my first post, there actually is a chance that an employer could read this, and without an employer I won’t have enough money to be able to post. So please don’t use my name here.

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