16 illinoisentertainer . com august 2017
I
t ’ s been ten years since I wrote my first novel $ everance ( ENC Press , 2007 ). That book was a satire about what had become of the media business since the original deregulation in 1996 . It was intended to shine a light on the dangers of entrusting so much control over news and information in the hands of so few individuals . I pointed out that the checks and balances stopping them from imposing their will over our information flow ( like the Fairness Doctrine and media ownership limits ) had eroded and in some cases disappeared . I used satire to take this subject to its logical extreme , which included what could happen in the political realm . It was intentionally ridiculous to make a point . I hoped that comedy would help people see the red flags on the horizon .
Sadly , most of those ridiculous predictions have now come true . And with the recent moves to further deregulate the media business , it ’ s about to get worse . The first sign of that is happening right here in Chicago . Tribune Broadcasting is merging with Sinclair Broadcasting , which threatens to fundamentally change one of the last truly independent media companies in America . Sinclair is sure to create a more political WGN , which is the last thing we need in Chicago .
I don ’ t even blame Sinclair for doing so . They see potential riches in their future . They are simply following a game plan that has served broadcasters well over the past two decades . Once the media companies discovered that they could make more money targeting a niche audience based on political beliefs instead of broadcasting to a mass audience , they started doing it everywhere . It ’ s been good for their pocketbooks . Rupert Murdoch didn ’ t create his media empire at Fox to affect political change . He founded it to serve an underserved political audience , and the dollars fell from the sky . That was a financial decision first and foremost .
It took a little longer for the political left to create a similar eco-system , partially because the political right was correct when they noticed a slight liberal bias in mainstream news coverage , although it was totally different than the Fox News model . In $ everance I created a Fox-icized liberal network just to show the difference . It wasn ’ t enough to have a slight bias , which is what the mainstream media has . Foxing it up required a full-fledged cheerleading of one party , and a total demonizing of the other . I wrote it as a joke . Satire . Comedy . I didn ’ t think it would really happen , but it did a few years ago . MSNBC was reinvented as the mirror image of Fox News , and has been handsomely rewarded for doing so .
From these tentacles of left and right , entire political information eco-systems have emerged . We now have media bubbles on both sides that allow readers , viewers , and / or listeners to consume only the things that reinforce already held beliefs (“ Us Good , Them Bad ”). The media companies that provide that content know darn well how lucrative it is to do so , and have zero motivation to stop it .
Unfortunately , the damage has already
By Rick Kaempfer
A DECADE OF '$ EVERANCE '
been done to our political system , and that ’ s very obvious . The Russians even figured that out when they created fake news stories . They didn ’ t share those stories with the few remaining real news outlets like The New York Times , the Washington Post , the Wall Street Journal , or the nightly national network newscasts . Most of the stories were shared through social media and ( perhaps unknowingly ) complicit digital or broadcast outlets that were simply providing their audiences with what they wanted to see , hear , or read . And when the other side of the political divide didn ' t report these obviously bogus stories ( like the child-sex ring Hillary Clinton supposedly ran out of a pizza joint in Washington ), it was held up as proof of media bias .
Sorry , but that ship left the dock when the Fairness Doctrine was repealed in the ' 80s , and when six corporations gobbled up 90 % of the media companies in America after deregulation in the ' 90s . It wasn ’ t done on purpose . It wasn ’ t done for conspiratorial reasons . It happened because allowing so few corporations to control our media was and is a bad idea .
Why ? Well , once they acquired so many properties , they had to cut costs to meet their debt payments , which were astronomical . News departments were eliminated or “ slimmed down ” all over the country at local radio and television outlets . Support staff was cut to ridiculous levels . Corporate “ synergy ” replaced local autonomy . Newspapers merged or folded . The employees that remained were forced to do the job of many--and that job was something that we took for granted before this happened . Those media professionals provided us with the shared set of facts that formed the basis of rational political debate in this country .
In a world that appears to deliver us more information more quickly and more voluminously than ever before , we actually have far fewer unbiased news gatherers providing us that information . We now have lots more people analyzing news , but not nearly as many people reporting news . And it ’ s harder to tell the difference anymore , which is why it is so easy to disregard anything that doesn ’ t fit your preconceived notions of the world .
It took us a while to get here , but that ’ s where we are today . More consolidation is beginning to take place , and that ’ s only going to make the situation worse .
Boy , was I wrong when I wrote about it in 2007 . It ’ s definitely not a comedy .