Campaigning in Pendleton, Ore., Sunday, Barack Obama said Big Media would be a target of his administration's antitrust enforcers if he is elected. What took him so long to target media consolidation?
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Preventing mergers in the news and entertainment business has been on top of the priority list for some of the staunchest activist groups in the Democratic Party base and you'd think Obama would have reached out to them long ago.
Sunday's vow is generally in line with promises the apparent Democratic presidential nominee made in September, when in a policy paper submitted to the American Antitrust Institute he pledged to reverse Bush Administration neglect of merger and competition oversight. At that time, however Obama singled out only health insurers and pharmaceutical companies as deserving of special scrutiny. Since then his advisers added energy producers to the list.
By adding media consolidation to the list, Obama has hit a trifecta of sorts of hot buttons for the Democratic Party. Much of the party base blames media consolidation for the rise of right wing talk radio, conservative TV talkers' unrelenting attacks on Bill Clinton while he was president and uncritical coverage of the Bush Administration's lead up to the war. - William McConnell
See story from Reuters
See The Deal's Sept. 28 article on his antitrust position
See Obama's antitrust white paper
