One thing that we as Liberals/Progressives/Democrats have never really brought up for discussion when it comes to Media Consolidation is instead of fighting the game, we start to play the game. Why don't we start to buy shares in Media Companies and actually start affecting decisions using the stockholder system?
This is something that Greenpeace has started to do to impact companies like Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon-Mobil. Granted they don't have enough shares to make the companies totally change their ways, they atleast are getting a voice at the table.
If we looked into companies like
News Corp (owner of FOX),
Gannett (owner of USA Today), and
Tribune (owner of Chicago Tribune and the LA Times), we could start to put certain goverance issues to proxy votes by the shareholder. They may not win, but we could get the issues out there.
Issues like:
- Equal Time - News Coverage must be balance with a Point and Counter Point. This would be the called the Sinclair Proposal. If a commentary on a subject was given, then a counter point to that commentary must be given.
- Equal Donation - If a Media Company gave $500 to a Republican candidate, they have to give a $500 to a Democrat candidate. Again thanks to Sinclair and their heavy tilt to the Republicans.
- Independent Review - The Company will submit itself to an independent review committee, consisting of 3 Democrats, 3 Republicans, and 3 Independents. Any complaints of bias from the public would go directly to the board. If the board found that the organization showed a bias, it would have 90 days to correct the matter, or the CEO would have to resign.
The best way to probably do this is if groups like Media Matters, MoveOn, or even DailyKos opened a financial wing to their operations like Greenpeace did. Or that a liberal on Wall Street opened a mutual fund for the sole purpose of buying Media Company Stocks and pushing the issue, this would be similiar to the activism of the CalPERS' former president Sean Harrigan.
Either way, it is a way to fight the beast, by working inside the beast.