Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read
by ilene - October 6th, 2010 8:49 pm
Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read
Courtesy of Michael Snyder at Economic Collapse
Back in 1983, approximately 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the United States. Today, ownership of the news media has been concentrated in the hands of just six incredibly powerful media corporations. These corporate behemoths control most of what we watch, hear and read every single day. They own television networks, cable channels, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, music labels and even many of our favorite websites. Sadly, most Americans don’t even stop to think about who is feeding them the endless hours of news and entertainment that they constantly ingest.
Most Americans don’t really seem to care about who owns the media. But they should. The truth is that each of us is deeply influenced by the messages that are constantly being pounded into our heads by the mainstream media. The average American watches 153 hours of television a month. In fact, most Americans begin to feel physically uncomfortable if they go too long without watching or listening to something. Sadly, most Americans have become absolutely addicted to news and entertainment and the ownership of all that news and entertainment that we crave is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands each year.
The six corporations that collectively control U.S. media today are Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., CBS Corporation and NBC Universal. Together, the "big six" absolutely dominate news and entertainment in the United States. But even those areas of the media that the "big six" do not completely control are becoming increasingly concentrated. For example, Clear Channel now owns over 1000 radio stations across the United States. Companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are increasingly dominating the Internet.
But it is the "big six" that are the biggest concerns. When you control what Americans watch, hear and read you gain a great deal of control over what they think. They don’t call it "programming" for nothing.
Back in 1983 it was bad enough that about 50 corporations dominated U.S. media. But since that time, power over the media has rapidly become concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people….
In 1983, fifty corporations dominated most of every mass medium and the biggest media merger in history was a $340 million deal. … [I]n…
Disney Dope Gets Busted Trying to Sell Earnings
by ilene - May 27th, 2010 9:26 am
Here’s more on the Disney employee and friend’s failed crime spree. Courtesy of Jr. Deputy Accoutant.
Disney Dope Gets Busted Trying to Sell Earnings
Were Bonnie Jean Hoxie and her boyfriend stupid or just desperate?
Regardless of the motivation (we hear it’s shoes, no kidding), you have to hand it to the FBI for bidding them down before busting them. That’s got to hurt. And after all of this, the dynamic duo couldn’t even deliver Disney’s earnings, just some vague earnings per share crap. Now that’s just sad.
The SEC alleges that Bonnie Jean Hoxie and her paramour attempted to sell Disney’s second-quarter earnings ahead of their official release. The method: the two sent as many as 20 hedge funds a letter offering to provide the earnings release for a fee. The text of the letter, contained in the SEC complaint, begins:
“Hi, I have access to Disney (DIS) quarterly earnings report before its release on 5/03/10. I am willing to share this information for a fee that we can determine later….My email is XXX I count on your discretion as you can count on mine.”
One of the hedge funds notified authorities about the letter and a pair of FBI agents got in contact with Hoxie’s boyfriend, Yonni Sebbag.
At one point, Sebbag asked for a $20,000 fee. The FBI agents, who were posing as traders, bid him down.
“$15K sounds great. $30K even better as I hope you will make a killing form Q2 earnings,’’ Sebbag allegedly wrote in an email to the agents, according to the SEC complaint. They settled on $15,000.
So what about the other 19 hedge funds who failed to report this boneheaded move?
While You Weren’t Looking, Disney Got Cool Again
by ilene - May 5th, 2010 3:45 pm
While You Weren’t Looking, Disney Got Cool Again
Courtesy of Joshua M. Brown, The Reformed Broker
The House of Mouse has its swagger back, mostly thanks to its CEO Bob Iger.
What follows will not be a analysis of Disney ($DIS) the stock, rather a look at why Disney is once again the coolest company in the media game. Whether or not it’s worthy of investment is up to you.
Movies: If there is a parent in America who doesn’t take their child to Toy Story 3 this summer, email me that parent’s contact info so I can alert Child Services. The Pixar acquisition was the best thing Disney has done in 20 years. Oh wait, they also bought Marvel, setting themselves up to capitalize on franchises like Iron man, Spider-Man, The Avengers etc.
The studio also can mine their existing properties forever. There’s a Tron remake coming out shortly and one can only imagine how many …
End of Summer Blues
by ilene - September 2nd, 2009 7:26 pm
End of Summer Blues
In my larval, pre-blogging days, I always faced the back-to-school moment with abject dread. It meant returning to a program of the most severe, mind-numbing regimentation in the ghastly New York City public schools after a summer of idyllic unreality in the New Hampshire woods, where I went to a Lord of the Flies type of summer camp. And so here I am, many decades later, still uneasy as the final page of the August calendar flies away in a hot Santa Ana wind, and a great hellfire closes in on the far eastern reaches of Los Angeles, and the American money system falls into a peculiar limbo, and every fifth person is out of work, or going bankrupt, or glugging down the seawater of default, or being denied coverage by health insurance that he-or-she has already shelled out ten grand for this year, or getting shot in a trailer park.
I was in Los Angeles for a few days last week, as chance had it, marveling at the odd disposition of things there. I’ve been there many times over the years, but you forget how overwhelmingly weird it is. Altogether the LA metro area has the ambience of a garage the size of Rhode Island where someone happened to leave the engine running. To say that LA is all about cars is kind of like saying the Pacific Ocean is all about water. But one forgets the supernatural scale of the freeways, the tsunamis of vehicles, the cosmic despair of the traffic jams. The vistas of present-day LA make the Blade Runner vision of things look quaint in comparison.

Mickey Mouse Brings Merger Monday Back
by ilene - August 31st, 2009 1:53 pm
Mickey Mouse Brings Merger Monday Back
Courtesy of John Carney at Clusterstock
Wow..
First we had the $5.5 billion dollar deal between Baker Hughes and BJ Services. Now Disney picks up Marvel. It’s suddenly feeling like the old days when Monday mornings meant merger announcements. That’s $9.5 billion in deal flow today.
No details yet on the banks working the deals or the financing involved.
From the Associated Press:
Walt Disney Co. says it is acquiring Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing characters like Iron Man and Spider-Man into the Disney family.
Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters.
Disney said Monday that Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own.
It said the boards of Disney and Marvel have both approved the transaction, but it requires an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.
See Also:
Disney To Acquire Marvel In $4 Billion Deal (DIS, MVL)
Disney (DIS) announced this morning it was acquiring Marvel Entertainment (MVL) for about $4 billion, or $50 per Marvel share. The acquisition price represents a 30% premium to Marvel’s current share price.
Operationally Marvel appears to be a good fit for Disney. Disney’s distribution could quickly exploit Marvel’s strong licensing business. In addition, Marvel has recently gotten into making its own productions (versus just licensing its characters for films), which has helped drive better-than-expected results the past few quarters.
And also:
Disney Should Buy Electronic Arts, Says Analyst (DIS, ERTS)