The recent Federal Court ruling that overturned an FCC rule limiting the amount of media outlets a company could own in a single market will make the next few years interesting.

In Chicago, the media giant is the Tribune Company which owns a popular radio station, broadcast TV channel, and Cable news outlet, and a major newspaper.

The old rules that barred their ability to gobble up additional outlets have been removed. It makes you wonder how power will shift in the future.

This weeks Polling Place asks, "From which company do we have more to fear in the future?"

(If you pick "Another", please let us know who you think it is in the Forum thread.)

And your absurd priorities are too...

Just read the 03/04 edition... Shows how clueless some/most people are about certain matters. The quotes selected from this thread to be used on the homepage of ResEx (03/04) were nothing but an example of shambling intellectual rot.

And themes? That's one of the pet peeves of this site's owner, that Apple has put the kabosh on 'em. Jolly good, I say. Good riddance to those fugly themes. I've yet to see even one that looked less than a pile of poop.

Disney is the company that 'funded' the SSSCA bill, which if passed would mean an end to most freeware, shareware and open source software in the US. That alone puts them up there with AOL and MS on the pedestal of evil.

Disney. They have enough clout to affect the US' adherence to international law. They are a media juggernaut. They have an almost viral interaction with any culture they come into contact with. They destroy literature. They plagiarize.

I don't know about you all, but I don't see MS cracking down on third party themes/schemes for their soon-to-be-obsolete older OS versions and/or the tools for creating them.

What ever happened to macthemes.org and Theme Machine, eh?

Apparently "Think different" really means "I'll do the thinnin' around here, and dooooooon't ya ferget it!" -- Steve Jobs, the OTHER Great Satan!

The biggest danger we face is from any company or country that either has the word "oil" in the name or gets over 75% of it's wealth from that particular commodity.

Oil makes the world go 'round. Those computers, CD's, DVD's, etc., don't come from trees, ya know ... unless they were buried, compressed, liquified, and emulsified into black ooze ...

...controls the think of the populace. You guys better wake up to the real "1984 Guy"...Steve Case. Bill Gates is just a rich geek with popular software. AOL/Time Warner already owns half the world and you're already eating out of their hands.

Half? Maybe more! Look at their website:

http://www.aoltimewarner.com/index_flash.adp

Having the ability to obtain unbiased well-researched news is vital to individuals and society. Monopolies in this area work against that need. Small programming companies, while struggling, can still (and do) make good programs to rival the giants. Web news from smaller companies can be useful, but can't begin to reach major news stories that we need to know.

I don't see Time Warner/AOL as evil. They are a business, and naturally want to earn as much profit as possible for their shareholders. They are, however, a threat to balanced news.

BOTH: AOL and MS... I chose "Another" in the poll because I consider that AOLSlimeWarmer and Microslop to be roughly equal threats.

MS wants to own the online world in ways that i feel do not really need to be delineated... they have already squeezed out nearly all OS competition and now they set their sights on the internet with .NET tech.

And it is foolish to assume that just because you do not get *your* news TODAY from AOLSlimeWarmer sources that someday soon AOLSlimeWarmer will not gobble up all *your* favorite news outlets, online or otherwise!

Students of journalism and others "in the know" will have heard of this term: "gatekeepers". The fewer gatekeepers there are of the various media outlets, the more likely that the news you get is "tailored" to be what they want you to know. Period, and end of story.

Too few gatekeepers (media power concentrated in the hands of a very few) is unquestionably bad, and the USA *used* to regulate the industry to keep too few from owning too many media outlets!

#*$(@!!! It's Monday, already?!?! :(

I don't care about AOL/Time Warner. Seriously, why would I have to fear them? I can get my news online, from non-AOL/TW sources.

Microsoft is a goodie, but no, I do not believe that is where the threat comes from.

I think the main threat comes from Sony, along with other members of the RIAA, or the MPAA. These two organizations have a systematic plan for eliminating the personal freedoms we can use in the products we buy. Why is making a copy of my DVD which I purchased illegal/difficult? Because the MPAA wants it that way, and the DMCA (digital millenium copyright act) makes it illegal to reverse engineer (or circumvent) the encryption used on the disks, that's why.

Seriously though, the DMCA makes it illegal to work around stupid things like the CSS encryption on DVDs, or the Cactus Data Shield used to make Audio-(Non)CDs nonplayable in computers. It also limits first amendment rights by letting content producers effectively silence whoever publishes data about circumventing it by threatening legal action.

Microsoft? AOL/Time Warner? NO! It's the evil companies like Sony, Universal, and various others...

Clear Channel Communications is one of the most evil corporations around, they bought two of my favorite radio stations and completely destroyed them. Plus there in bed with XM Radio, which is quickly looking like it may become the future of radio. Much of the programming on XM is produced by Clear Channel, several of the stations are simply rebroadcast Clear Channel stations. Here's a blurb about them from XM's web site:

"A global leader in radio, television and event producing, Clear Channel owns or operates approximately 1,170 radio and 19 television stations in the United States and has equity interests in over 240 radio stations internationally. It produced over 25,000 shows and events in 2000, and also operates approximately 700,000 outdoor advertising displays."

As it says above besides radio they own several TV stations, Billboards and Venues. They have the same sort of AOL/TW Microsoft evil wanting to control everything you see and hear thing going on, but most people have never heard of them.

Yeah I agree about Clear Channel. In fact that is what I was going to post. They already own like 8 of the top 10 radio stations in my area. The funny thing is is that the DJ's on 3 of their stations (all 3 of which are in the top 4 for this area and the DJ's are the very popular morning or evening rush hour DJ's) have a habit of dissing Clear Channel all the time. How they keep their jobs I don't know, but they are seeing what is quickly shaping up to be a new Evil Empire from the inside so they should know how bad it really is.

Not a company. The government.
At least M$, AOLTime etc don't use guns to take your money

You know no matter how far behind I get on my taxes I have yet to see the IRS roll up with the army behind them or anything. If you fear the government over big business then at least fear it because you have no idea what the motives of most of the people in it really are. At least with big business you know the motive is alway money and the motto is "Alway squeeze as much money out of them as we can."

There is a general trend both in the corporate arena and here in the comments made, not to mention governmental complicity. A trend which has a name , a new word coined for it alone. That word is Globalisation.
This is seemingly insecapable, this will roll over us and squash us, whatever we do, whether we believe in God or Allah, whether we support corporate giants or not. The only place where we may have had a chance to alter world opinion, to slow and alter this inexorable rolling slimeball, was here on the WWW. Maybe there is still time.....

As long as they keep including the on/off (power) switch on everything (computers, TV, radio,etc.), we should be fine. They said the same thing about Newspapers way back. What's the differenec between the NYT and the National Enquirer today?, many would ask. There will always be insiders that know the real story, get up from the couch and the computer desk and get out and about, and you will stay informed.

the worst i can imagine at the moment
is my friend mr silvio berlusconi.

he owns 54% of all italian TV, 21% of the
radio,and about 35% of the newspapers.
they have online services, a small bank,
a few insurances and several releated coms.

in addition he is the prime minister of italy,
and soince the other guy retreated, he is also the
foreign minister of italy, all in one person.

currently he uses all of his forces, the media,
and his political force, to drive a campaign against
the lawyers and police which are trying to
bring him to jail, where he belongs.

he is one of the 20 richest guys in italy, but he
did never pay a fuck of income tax.

ok enough of that stuff, before i start to suggest
a solution fo this problem.

if you want help just say so I can get La Famiglia to pull him down from 16,000 miles away, no problemeo