Sale Away with WIVB

The January 30, 2016 Buffalo News reports in the Local Section that WIVB is up for sale again. It was purchased last year and now, the organization that purchased it is facing the possibility of being bought.

So here we have media consolidation, as it is called in Communications classes. It is also a form of monopoly control. Fewer people owning more of a commodity. In this case, the news. More dangerously, it is called information. The information that we as a society need to govern ourselves and be informed about what is actually going on.

WKBW is owned by Scripps. It broadcasts ABC News, which is owned by Disney.

WIVB is potentially going to be owned by Nexstar. It broadcasts CBS, which is owned by Viacom.

WGRZ is owned by Gannett (pronounced “money”). It broadcasts NBC, which is owned by General Electric last I knew.

Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch and we all know his conservative tendencies.

CNN is owned by Ted Turner and, contrary to popular misconception, he is hardly a liberal.

PBS is owned by the US government. As Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting points out in at least two studies and in numerous articles, it has a bias towards conservatives and their viewpoint over centrists and liberals. It ignores progressives pretty much and totally boycotts socialists. Our local station and its sub-channel stay fairly mainstream in what they broadcast and report.

There are two independent TV stations, WBBZ and WBXZ. Nice nostalgia programming. No news that I am aware of or political talk shows. There used to be a political discussion show on WBBZ but it was basically capitalist and I can only listen to so much Carl PalidiNO before I wish I never had the surgery that saved my hearing.

The Buffalo News is owned by Warren Buffett. While he is fairly charitable with his money, we must remember that he makes his money off of Wall Street. At heart he is a capitalist and t shows in what is reported in the News.

We don't really have another major newspaper in this region. There are smaller, local papers, but show me something socialist or labor oriented in their reporting.

I won't go into the radio market because the situation is so similar, but a few own most of the stations and what is independent doesn't go far from the mainstream. There is a low power FM station in Jamestown, but I can only listen to it on the Internet. Not much help in my car.

Even Sirius XM (which I subscribe to in order to get something other than the play list music that I hear on WNY radio) doesn't go far. It's left wing station is, at best, progressive and, aside from Black Agenda Report, what I've heard has a reformist tendency. They want to reform capitalism, not overthrow it,

WNY needs a socialist media, I subscribe to the Socialist Action Newspaper, but that doesn't cover local news. We need to have socialists of all stripes band together and make a newspaper that espouses socialism as a solution to the repeated crises that capitalism heaps upon us. (BTW – Get ready for the next stock market crash and economic crisis.)

We need a local socialist newspaper that gives a socialist and labor viewpoint on what's going on in our region.

We need a socialist radio station (or at a minimum, radio program(s)) that allows us to get our message out.

We need time on local TV stations to present our point of view and perspectives.

In my browsing on the web of independent media sites and of various other news resources I am not really surprised at the candidacy of VT Senator Bernie Sanders. He is speaking what the people on the street say, as opposed to former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who espouses Wall Street.

People are open to the ideas of socialism. I think more to the left of what Bernie talks about with his vision of social democracy. Even further to the left of Dr Jill Stein of the Green Party with what seems to me to be environmentally friendly capitalism with social democratic tendancies.

How are they going to get this information and find out about America's rich socialist history?

The media is the best way to reach a wide variety of people.

It's time we started pushing in on the glass doors that keep us out.