(From
http://www.freepress.net/ownership/.)
Too much code to reproduce completely.
Here's the gist of it, though. With more from me at the bottom.
Much more.
NEWSTRIKE!!!
Big Media are getting bigger. This interactive chart tells you who owns what. (
Go to the above site for complete linking. AG)
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This chart is primarily based on information from Columbia Journalism Review's Who Owns What? site, one of many excellent resources on the web regarding media ownership. Click here for links to a variety of online resources on media ownership.
Currently listed: News Corp.. | GE | Viacom | TimeWarner | Disney | Vivendi| Bertelsmann
News Corp.- TV Movies Publishing Sports Other
2003 revenues: $17.5 billion
News Corporation's holdings include: FOX Network, DirecTV, 34 TV stations, National Geographic Channel, FX, 20th Century Fox, the New York Post, Harper Collins Publishers, Regan Books, and sports teams
General Electric - TV/Cable Film Parks & Resorts Other Non-media
2003 revenues: $134.2 billion
General Electric holdings include: NBC, Telemundo, Universal Pictures, Universal Parks & Resorts, CNBC, Bravo, MSNBC, and vast holdings in numerous other business sectors (click a category for complete details)
GE/NBC recently acquired many of the highest-profile media properties previously held by Vivendi.
Viacom - TV Film/Movies Radio Publishing Other
2003 revenues: $26.6 billion
Viacom holdings include: CBS and UPN networks, over 35 TV stations, MTV, Showtime, Nickelodeon, BET, Paramount Pictures, Blockbuster Video, over 175 radio stations, Simon & Schuster, and vast billboard holdings
Time-Warner - TV/Movies Music Publishing Internet Other
2003 revenues: $39.6 billion
TimeWarner holdings include: Warner Bros, AOL, CNN, HBO, Time Warner Cable, Turner (TNT, TBS), Cartoon Network, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock Entertainment, Atlantic Recordings, Elektra/Sire, Rhino, Time-Life Books, DC Comics, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, People, and Netscape Communications
WALT DISNEY - TV Radio Multimedia Movies/Music Other
2003 revenues: $28.4 billion
The Walt Disney Company holdings include: ABC, Disney Channel, ESPN, A&E, History Channel, E!, Buena Vista, Touchstone Pictures, 10 TV stations, 60+ radio stations, ESPN Radio, Miramax Films, Hyperion Books, & theme parks.
VIVENDI/UNIVERSAL - TV Movies Music Interactive Other
2003 revenues: 25.5 billion (roughly $30.1 billion)
Vivendi Universal owns: CANAL+, Cineplex Odeon Theatres (42%), MCA Records, PolyGram Records, Vivendi Telecom, and 26.8 million shares of TimeWarner stock
Vivendi Universal recently sold its cable and movie properties (Universal Pictures, Sci-Fi Channel, and USA Network) to GE/NBC.
BERTLESMANN - TV/Radio Publishing Periodicals Music Other
2003 revenues: 16.8 billion (roughly $19.8 billion)
Bertelsmann AG's holdings include: 11 TV networks, Random House Publishing (which includes Alfred A. Knopf, Ballantine, Doubleday, among many others), BMG Music, Arista Records and RCA Records
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DO THE MATH.
OK...I'll do it for you.
2003 revenues alone...$279 billion, more or less. And THAT'S just what they couldn't hide.
Hell...they could finance this war themselves.
Come to think of it...maybe they ARE.
And the NEWSTRIKE!!! IDEA (Please go here, here, here, and here to read several recent diaries and over 50 comments (so far) on this.) begins to look like the spectacle of a very few people pissing into a VERY big wind when compared with revenues of upwards of $300 billion dollars.
But it is NOT that small an idea.
In fact, it is an idea whose time has come.
To tell you the truth, the media could very well be cut down by the very same weapon they USE, in this instance.
Media MAGNIFICATION. (See my recent diary Media As Magnifier. Perception Skew 101 for more on this.)
The media actually believes its own hype. Trust me on this...I know these people on a very intimate level.
IF we could get their attention, our paltry efforts at harming their bottom line would be multiplied by MILLIONS.
Just as every news item covering the carnage during 9/11 multiplied THAT tragedy into a complete panic in the U.S. Not to minimize the 3000 9/11 deaths, but...well over 40,000 people in the U.S. die in car accidents every year, and I will GUARANTEE that bad design and maintenance is responsible for at LEAST 3000 of them.
Probably many times more than that number.
Do we bomb Detroit?
No.
Should we?
An interesting idea, actually, but...should or shouldn't, if a media blitz like the one that occurred after 9/11 DID happen, aimed at the (internationally owned) automobile industry for its responsibility in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians worldwide in automobile accidents...things would change.
Bet on it.
Now of course this is a reductio ad absurdum argument, but nevertheless...the media could get hoisted on its own petard if a "Newstrike" movement ever actually made the news.
Think about it.
And then...DO IT!!!
NEWSTRIKE!!!
Just imagine.
Read all those holdings of the seven major Conglomerates listed above.
Which ones do YOU patronize?
Well...STOP!!!
And then TELL them that you have stopped.
Frankly, I think that it would scare the SHIT out of them if enough people did it.
I can hear it now...
"HELL, J.B.....WHAT IF IT'S CATCHING!!!???"
NEWSTRIKE!!!
An idea whose time has come.
NEWSTRIKE!!!
Try it.
You'll like it.
NEWSTRIKE!!!
AG