The 3-2 ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to further deregulate media ownership has been met with overwhelming grassroots opposition. From trade unions to internet activist groups like MoveOn.org the anger towards and engaged interest in the FCC ruling is unprecedented. Critics of the ruling say allowing such concentration of power will further limit diversity of views, information and opinion; squash any community or local control of media and increase lay-offs. Currently five or six corporations own and control most of what Americans hear and see. This decision will put this power into even fewer hands, allowing newspapers, TV and radio stations, in many markets, to be owned by the same company.

Determining in whose interest the media serves, like other democratic questions, is part of the overall class struggle. This question is galvanizing an important part of the working-class and social forces who can effectively challenge the Bush administration’s far-right and monopoly corporate agenda. There is a direct contradiction between serving the public’s interest and serving the class interests of the corporate boards and stockholders of the news and media industry.

The decision does not come in a vacuum. It comes at a time when previously hard-won democratic rights are being flagrantly attacked and rolled back by an administration determined to represent the most ultra-right section of the ruling class with an iron fist. War and militarism are used to back up attacks on civil, trade union, women’s and immigrant’s rights in the name of fighting terrorism. Further down-sizing government and turning it over to corporate interests continues, as does deregulation, privatization and more monopolization. Racism and anti-immigrant scapegoating are used to justify cuts to already bare-boned social programs, public education and health care. Constitutional checks and balances are being constantly undermined. Far-right ideologues are being proposed for federal courts.

The future of the Supreme Court, and many important democratic decisions like Roe v. Wade, hang in the balance. Corporate monopolization and the erosion of democracy go hand-in-hand. The far right, in order to carry out their “grand scheme” of a world ruled in their likeness, need the media to help them carry out their agenda. They need a brain-washing machine to justify their agenda through news and music programming, talk radio, editorial pages, TV shows, movies and even the Internet. They need the media “to stay on [their] message.” Fox and Clear Channel are guard dogs of the industry, helping to lead the way against the notion of journalism as the watchdog of government. They are attempting to turn it on its head – with the media being the government’s “watchdog” of the public.

Media monopolies have a self-interest in following this path. Immediately after the FCC announcement, media stocks soared. Shares of Viacom Inc. gained 3 percent, while Fox’s shares climbed 4 percent.

The problem of the monopolization of the media and its implications for democracy are at once both a systemic problem – stemming from the laws of capitalism – as well as an immediate political and democratic struggle from which a broad coalition is emerging. An immediate task is to overturn the FCC ruling in the Senate, but more longer-range demands must also be made, including reimposing anti-trust laws and regulations. Instituting support for community, independent and public-interest media must also be part of the solution. These are winnable struggles. The grassroots upsurge has forced even conservative Senators to speak out against such a concentration of media power.

The role of the independent media – that is the media, which is independent of the far-right and monopoly corporate influence is taking on greater importance. These media outlets have self-interests that are independent of the far right and can be an important factor in challenging the corporate strangle-hold of news and information. This media is a mirror image of the coalition of working class and social forces, needed to make social change. In a nutshell, the independent press encompasses the newspapers, radio and other media outlets of the trade union and labor movement, Black, Latino, Asian, Native American Indian and immigrant communities, women, students, GLBT and environmentalists. It also includes the left, progressive and social justice press and media. It includes internet-based media sites like the Independent Media Centers.

There are also many who work in the corporate media world who are very dissatisfied with the present state of journalism and can play important roles in developing a people’s media movement.

All throughout our history the role of the independent press has been critical in shaping public opinion on the issues of the day. During slavery, the abolitionist press – from William Lloyd Garrision’s The Liberator to Frederick Douglass’ The North Star helped to shape public opinion against slavery and to build the abolitionist movement. That challenge, in present day circumstances, is before the independent press now to help build an effective movement against the Bush administration’s agenda and to shape public opinion in favor of peace, not war; equality, not racism and discrimination; democracy, not a corporate, police state; and economic justice for workers and their families, not economic policies which serve the very wealthy.

--Terrie Albano is editor of the People's Weekly World.