On Jun 17, 2006, at 2:13 PM, B. wrote:
> It isn't just "liberals" who're worried about media control resting
> in relatively fewer hands, unless Chomsky and Zinn are now
> liberals. You can say folks like this wax nostalgic for an era run
> by Hearst and Chandler, but those two don't, and nor do I. Chomsky,
> Zinn, etl. a. often speak of "the lively working class press of the
> 19th century" that with the advent of the 20th century began to
> progressively disappear.
So again it's misspecifying the problem to speak about "concentration" - it's the class ownership of the means of consciousness production that's at issue. The problem with the US media isn't its Herfindahl index - it's the conditions under which it's produced: by capitalists under shareholder pressure to maximize profits. The focus on "concentration" is perfect for a Naderite critique of capitalism, which is obsessed with scale and scope, and not social relations.
Doug