The public interest

Go read a short article by Dave Johnson called "The Media Does Not Act In The Public Interest". Here's how it gets started:

Before 1987 the government required that our broadcast frequencies be used in the public interest. Broadcasters were required to present a diversity of information and opinion. This was because it was understood that it was essential to democracy that the public receive diverse ideas and information.

In 1987 the Reagan administration removed the requirement that our broadcast frequencies be used in the public interest. They said that “the market” (a few people with lots of money) rather than the public (the public) should decide the best way to use this public (public) asset.

No longer required to act in the public interest, the media immediately ceased acting in the public interest. Instead they, of course, began to advance the profit interests of the corporatocracy, exactly as was predicted back when the requirements that the broadcast media act in the public interest were imposed. That is what "the market" means. The market serves the market's interests, not the public's.

Some examples are then given. For instance, we no longer hear on TV anything about the benefits of joining a union and union leaders are no longer interviewed. When I read that, it gave me a start. It's true. We don't. And there's something very wrong with that.

Reagan did a lot of damage during his eight years.