An exploration of the impact of media consolidation. Host Peter Coyote interviews Walter Cronkite and moderates a panel of media experts, who discuss why, since the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the number of major U.S. news organizations has shrunk to six.

FCC chairman Michael Powell, a vigorous opponent of regulation, has dismissed the concept of public interest as "an empty vessel" and adds "the market is my religion." Powell who is ultimately in charge of revising the FCC rules, has stated publicly that today's complex broadcast environment may need looser rules, and that he doesn�t believe larger companies are necessarily worse than smaller ones.

Other expert guests on the program are: Jeff Chester, author and director of the Teledemocracy Project, a D.C. media watchdog group; Michael Parenti, author and media critic; David Honig, Director of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Counsel, Christopher Murray, Consumers Union, and Adam Thierer from the CATO institute.>

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For a transcript, click here (157KB PDF).

Coalition for World Peace
www.coalitionforworldpeace.org
This is the website that list congressional people to call and what to say

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
www.fair.org

Media Alliance
www.media-alliance.org

Just Think
www.justthink.org
Just Think strives to equip young people with the literacy tools critical for their future.

Center for Investigative Reporting
www.muckraker.org

AlterNet.org
AlterNet.org
A project of the Independent Media Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening and supporting independent and alternative journalism.

Institute for Public Accuracy - IPA
www.accuracy.org/
As a nationwide consortium of policy researchers, the institute for Public Accuracy seeks to broaden public discourse by gaining media access.