Although it’s not a done deal yet, according to this article, TV and newspapers may be deregulated just like radio stations were in 1995. Don’t you just love the nearly-identical radio stations you can pick up all around the country today, courtesy of such lovely people as Clearchannel (motto: Payola? We don’t know about payola.)? I particularly love all the “Kiss FM” stations you can pick up, with Rick Dees in the morning. Or, the oh-so-creative “Best of the 80s 90s and Today” breed, which is like quaaludes for the mind.
Strangely, the companies likely to be affected by this, the big networks, are not really covering it at all. What a shocker. If you appreciate having local news that is local, if you like the idea that your local newspaper is not just a satellite-cloned copy of USA Today, perhaps you might want to let your voice be heard? The FCC is soliciting comments from the public.
I already don’t get local news that’s local. All our news comes from LA. We had a dead body found in a trunk of a rental car that had been siting on our street for a week. ON OUR STREET. And it didn’t make the tv news at all. Hell, it only marginally made the local paper, on page five. The front pages were all covered with world and “southland news”, and as we all know, the Southland=Los Angeles.
However, I see your point, it wouldn’t amuse me much to have my Good Day LA replaced by Good Day USA. It’s enough we get Good Day Live (national) shown right after. And I suppose the LA Times would become meaningless if it was covering New York all the time.
Strangely, no matter what airport you’re in, you can find the New York Times. Almost every bookstore carries a variety of regional magazines such as Texas Highways. But, outside of SoCal, you can’t find the LA Times nor Los Angeles magazine. Go figure.
I’ve noticed that, that the rest of the nation is sort of “newyork-centric”, as if New York is our capitol instead of DC. Odd, that. And outside of SoCal, people are “LA huh? Oh, all them tofu-eatin movie stars, that’s right.”