Prometheus 6   

Media Deregulation

Have you noticed that "deregulation" hasn't quite worked out the way it's been promised? Everytime deregulation of an industry has been proposed, its proponents have promised the same thing: gredater competition, lower prices. Telephones. Cable. Airlines. Electricity.

Do you see greater competition in these industries? Most of them were common carriers, and even in my most economically ignorant state I found myself wondering, "How can I get lower prices from vendor A than vendor B when vendor A is just a middleman between me and B and both are to make a profit?" It was a good question. Deregulation has flat-out failed, in different ways for each industry. Telephone companies have simply reorganized a little such that long distance no longer subsidizes local service… and worse (in my eyes) no longer subsidizes the fundamental research by Bell Labs that literally has brought us to the point that you're able to read this from wherever you are. Cable rates rise incrementally every few months. In fact, deregulation caused them to break out and price pieces of their services such that nationwide prices rose the very first month deregulation took effect. Airlines dies and broke unions. As for electricity, can you say "Enron?"

Media deregulation has already begun. You can count on the effects being different, yet the same.

How important is the media?

In prehistoric times there were hobbyist PC networks, bulletin board systems (BBS) that connected over plain old telephone service (POTS). Serving that tiny, tiny market was a magazine called BoardWatch, by a man name Jack Rickard — it's been a while, I may not have his name spelled correctly. Jack was fugging brilliant. He was the only technical prognosticator I knew of whose every prediction came true. And BoardWatch, under his ownership and guidance was the technical magazine extraordinaire.

In the dawn of the Internet Age, the local ISPs that most of the old heads used, the ones that forced AOL to recognize they had to get into the pool, the ones that connected us to the point that Microsoft had to change its policies, grew out of the BBS systems. And Jack was in the front of all that. BoardWatch was the first to publicize that DSL eas possible with existing technology, existing wiring… wiring that telephone companies were selling to support alarm systems at a fraction of the cost of POTS… service and pricing that was a serious threat to the still-profitable T1 services they were marketing. The first to challenge the statement that it was impossible to produce reliable metrics on Internet connectivity performance, to prove that 56K modems never actually provided 56K of connectivity. He started a convention of ISPs that grew so big so fast that it became a semi-annual event in its second year. He was a voice that was heard among those who seeded the Internet we all know today.

BoardWatch was an extraordinary publication. So extraordinary that Rickard put every word of the print magazine online, the same month the print magazine was mailed out… and subscriptions went up. His magazine consistantly covered the issues you'd need to know to compete with, to fight back against, the telco giants. And he kept watch on the telcos because his market was dependant on them. When on of the baby bells delisted the telephone services that would support DSL, he called them on it in court. I believe he would have won.

What happend to Jack? The business of publishing took him further and further away from what he was truly interested in, technology and advocacy. He sold his magazine to a publishing and convention conglomerate, under the condition that he retain editorial control of the magazine.

Said conglomerate sold out to another one, which had no negotiation with Rickard and he lost editorial control. The magazine went from a techical and grass roots voice to a collection of articles on how to value your ISP so you can sell it at the proper pricing point, and how to best run it without causing the telco giants any problems.

I mention this to show that Corporations Do No Play Fair. DSL should be all over the place. We should have broadband capabilities that far outstrip those in place in South Korea because it's our tech. But it's been delayed, slowed until the existing monopolies could insure they would be in control of it… and I am convinced this was only possible because the key source of information that would have informed enough people whose interest lay in fighting the trend was diverted.

Media deregulation nee consolidation will make it possible for a few to do this on ANY TOPIC THEY DECIDE TO.

Consider that for a moment. They goes beyond musical choice. With no hysteria in my voice, I suggest this is a bigger threat to our independence as humans than soldiers stationed in our homes because it places guards around the gates of our minds.

As Dr. Carter G. Woodsen said, "When you control a man's thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him to stand here or go yonder. Hw eill find his 'proper place' and stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.'

posted by Prometheus 6 at 5/28/2003 07:57:38 AM |