In today’s media landscape, the vast majority of companies are owned and controlled by five men. Those five men are Michael Eisner of Disney, Rupert Murdoch of News Corp., Summer Redstone of Viacom, Reinhard Mohn of Bertelsmann and Richard Parsons of Time Warner.
This week, Parsons announced he was stepping down as the chief executive officer of Tim Warner Inc. on
This comes after a summer full of rumors and lengthy discussions over the proposed purchase of Dow Jones by Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. Is this a good trend for just a few people to control the media in an era of the independent voice? I don’t think so.
In all media, but especially journalism, it is critical to keep open dialogue going without fear of being censored or toned down. Take the case with Murdoch, who is hoping to finalize his deal to buy Dow Jones, which includes the Wall Street Journal, very soon, according to the linked article above.
The Wall Street Journal is a well respected publication for many reasons. One such reason is their unbiased opinions that could be compromised by Murdoch, whose past record suggest that this could be an issue.
Now, I think joining the resources does create a better product, but it also can be troublesome if those in power don’t use it properly. So, as we await to usher in a new face to their exclusive and powerful club, we can only hope Bewkes can keep Time Warner as the top media cooperation and not make it a constricting filter of information.
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