Essay on Media Monopolies are Not a Threat to Democracy

The Idea which became the United States of America was invented in 1776. A country founded on Democracy, where a government chosen by the people, would be led and protected by the very persons they would elect to carry out this important job. Long before this was established, the explorers and settlers left their homelands in Europe and Asia seeking profit and fortunes in a brave new world. They were entrepreneurs and were business oriented as well as trade driven. The concept of â€Å"Supply and Demand† was mostly governed by whomever had the needed or wanted product, and at a competitive, but reasonable value of the trade or price. Free Trade contracts and laws that protect consumer’s financial and political interests has always†¦show more content†¦Thus requiring laws, to protect consumers from media companies restricting or controlling information, via monopolizing the industry, which would surely threaten democracy. More interested in the opinion that the large printed headlines about world events, would produce via his newspaper empire, William Randolph Hearst, printed only what he saw fit to print, with little regard for the impact that it had on the democratic society. At the pinnacle of his career, he owned twenty-six newspaper companies in eighteen cities across America, as well as leading magazines, radio and television stations and an international news agency. Hearst was a major force in the world of media where he controlled his empire and the information they supplied all according to his specific influence. In an excerpt taken from a book entitled: The Chief: The Life of Randolph Hearst, written by George Evans, it is stated that he was a task master and a bully and he controlled the flow of information as a dictator, â€Å"You will please conduct the paper and all its editorial departments in accordance with the instructions you receive from me.† He told one of his editors.† (372) Having such a rigid contro l over the flow of such influential information is what our laws from the antitrust acts, like the Sherman Act of 1890, protect the freedom of speech and the consumer simultaneouslyShow MoreRelatedRegulating The Digital Communication Nationally1218 Words   |  5 Pagesof women, indigenous people and cultural diversity. This forms under the basis of which the media should not promote prejudice and intolerance of these issues. 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