Yesterday, I was listening to Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now!" and heard a story about a train derailment five years ago in Minot, ND:
Five years ago this week a train derailed in Minot, North Dakota leaking thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals into the air. One person died and hundreds were treated for immediate health problems. The city’s six non-religious commercial radio stations – all owned by Clear Channel – never aired warnings for local residents.
"EXCLUSIVE... 911 Calls in North Dakota Town Reveal Dangers of Media Consolidation"
Perhaps I'd been living under a rock at the time, but I hadn't heard anything about this. In fact, I'd never heard the story until yesterday on DN. I was shocked. It was chilling to listen to the 911 tapes of emergency dispatchers faithfully telling worried residents to tune to local radio for further information, knowing that when those residents did they would only get music.
I've heard lots and lots of criticism of the media consolidation that's gone on over the last two decades, and generally agreed in part or in whole with that criticism. However, most of those criticisms are couched in somewhat abstract terms: the elimination of diversity in the media, the hedging out of small business advertisers, and the potential conflicts of interest when a media outlet reports on its parent company.
Never had it occurred to me that media consolidation would actually endanger human life, as it apparently did in Minot, ND in 2002 (or, for that matter, two weeks ago in Sacramento, CA).
The fact that I hadn't heard this story worries me even more about the implications of media consolidation. Maybe I was just unplugged that day or that week. It's possible. However, I generally pay attention to what's going on, and it makes me wonder if the reason I heard about it on Pacifica Radio's "Democracy Now!" and not on ABC News, CBS News, CNN, MSNBC, or any other "mainstream" media outlet, is that the "mainstream" media generally quashes stories about media consolidation.