Monday, June 2, 2003

FCC loosens media concentration, screws America The FCC has, as predicted, loosened up the rules of media concentration, casting aside the last vestige of competition and diversity in the media, opening the gates for even more uniformity in the news and information we receive. Me, I'm just glad that ClearChannel's afternoon Three Minute Hate show will be on every channel on my dial every day. The coaltion in opposition to this was the most diverse I can remember seeing. Bipartisan, from all walks of life. The FCC was innundated with thousands and thousands of comments from the public in opposition to this. Meanwhile the main voice in favor of this came from the same self-interested parties who will benefit under the new regulation. It's a revolting and perverse demonstration of "regulatory capture," where a regulated industry calls all the shots at the body that's nominally overseeing it -- the fox guarding the henhouse. [Boing Boing Blog] 9:42:54 PM

AOL Agrees to Get Under Microsoft's Desk So recently, Microsoft and AOL settled their pending antitrust lawsuit. [...] Congratulations to AOL on yet another stunning negotiation. Incidentally, I would like to invite the entire AOL legal team to one of our games of Monopoly. Let's play for real money. [Hixie's Natural Log] 9:29:30 PM

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