“Well, so what,” some might say, “what’s the problem with letting the media spoon feed us what we want?” Put simply, the media is our most relied upon porthole to the world that sur

To recap the spark which started this conflagration, the February 2002 Court of Appeals ruling struck down an FCC rule that prevented any one company from owning a television station and a cable system in the same market and it additionally ordered the FCC to justify why it bans TV companies from owning stations that reach more than 25 of U.S. households. Clearly, the rule attempted to keep these media giants from buying up all the smaller companies to squeezing out as much competition as possible. But, just as our anti-trust laws seek to curb monopolies in business, so must the FCC continue to force competition into the media marketplace where the anti-trust laws are failing to reach. The question is, how? The trend is favoring deregulation, and it seems the emerging policy is “all or nothing” with the media ownership rules, judging by the court’s demand for validation of current FCC rules.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent United States government agency, directly responsible to Congress. The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934 and is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. The FCC's jurisdiction covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. possessions. We created this governmental body as a means by which to regulate the various media outputs and, though many don’t see it this way, to protect 1st Amendment freedoms. In February of 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down several rules relating to the ownership of media companies. These rulings “set off shock waves in the media business ” and consequently stirred up hornet’s nest of debate concerning the FCC and its rules gover

Some topics in this essay:
Court Appeals, Bertlesmann Vivendi, District Columbia, Ownership Introduction, Saddam Hussein, Colin Powell, Communications Act, Commission FCC, media ownership, Writer’s Opinion, fcc rules, media companies, fcc media ownership, President Bush’s, fcc media, media ownership rules, writer’s opinion, media giants, district columbia, court appeals, 2002 court, 2002 court appeals, media ownership restrictions, february 2002 court, february 2002,