Right-Wing Moves To Control Major Media

The sleazy tabloid National Enquirer spent most of the 2016 election campaign nakedly propagandizing for neo-fascist sociopath Donald "Rump" Trump and giving him fawning "coverage." It repeatedly slimed Rump's primary opponents and Hillary Clinton with bizarre conspiracy stories and innuendo. The publisher of the tabloid, the appropriately named David Pecker, is a close ally of Rump's.

Now, the Daily Beast is reporting that "Little" Pecker's company American Media, Inc. (AMI)  may be jockeying to buy Time Magazine, which was just sold to the Meredith Corporation, along with Time's sister weeklies Sports Illustrated and People. AMI denies having an interest in purchasing Time, but industry analysts point out that Meredith may wish to sell it off to a high bidder. "Little" Pecker is rumored to be looking to join forces with the Koch Brothers (who were part of Meredith's bid) to sell off Time and perhaps the other weekly magazines from Meredith. That would give the far-right wing publisher the ability to slant the news coverage of a prestigious national magazine that was established 94 years ago, and to create a virtual house organ for Rump.

This follows a pattern of right-wing oligarchs buying up media properties in order to push out propaganda supporting conservative and alt-right causes. The Sinclair Broadcast Group, headed by a right-wing Republican mega donor, is busy gobbling up local TV stations with the intent of making them more conservative-friendly. They are close to completing the acquisition of Tribune Media's 42 TV stations in a $3.9 billion deal, which would enable them to reach 72 percent of American households with conservative commentary and selected features slanted toward the right. This pattern was set years ago with the injection of the odious Rupert "Aargh!" Murdoch's News Corporation into the American media market, founding the transparently Rethuglican outlet Fux News and acquiring the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, which reliably push right wing viewpoints.

With the Federal Communications Commission firmly in the hands of Trumpists, we can't expect anti-trust laws to be enforced, unless they effect media perceived to be unfriendly to Rump. They're too busy working to destroy net neutrality to bother with curbing right-wing plutocrats from creating a monolithic, right wing narrative issuing from every radio, magazine and TV channel.