<story><title>These 15 Billionaires Own America&apos;s News Media Companies (2016)</title><url>https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/2016/06/01/these-15-billionaires-own-americas-news-media-companies/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fatsdomino001</author><text>That America and other countries have allowed the consolidation of media companies to such a degree is a large part of the reason why we&amp;#x27;re having so many problems today.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>RGamma</author><text>Not treating journalism as public utility&amp;#x2F;service with high standards for integrity has something to with it.&lt;p&gt;Compared to German standards, substantial parts of journalism in the US is a joke (an unfunny one, watching Fox News feels like a fever dream for instance). Too much bias and pollution with opinion and entertainment (opinions are fine, but only if clearly demarcated and from someone who has skin in the game and knows what&amp;#x27;s up, not random shrill plastic lady), too little self-reflection&amp;#x2F;introspection, too much clickbait, too short memory, blatant disregard for journalistic best practices. That said, the harsh financial environment there is at odds with sober, analytical (=boring) reporting.&lt;p&gt;Too bad &amp;quot;öffentlich-rechtlicher Rundfunk&amp;quot; (or information about it for that matter) basically isn&amp;#x27;t  available in English, it would do well to lead by example (I&amp;#x27;ve seen dw mentioned but that&amp;#x27;s a drop in the ocean really).&lt;p&gt;That said current US societal problems have a more complex etiology than just media consolidation, but it really doesn&amp;#x27;t help to have the &amp;quot;mirror of society&amp;quot; blunted as much.</text></comment>
<story><title>These 15 Billionaires Own America&apos;s News Media Companies (2016)</title><url>https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/2016/06/01/these-15-billionaires-own-americas-news-media-companies/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fatsdomino001</author><text>That America and other countries have allowed the consolidation of media companies to such a degree is a large part of the reason why we&amp;#x27;re having so many problems today.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>xtracto</author><text>A very long time ago (15 years maybe?) there was a great internet site (I don&amp;#x27;t remember the name anymore) which showed a graph of top ~100 largest companies in the USA,  their CEOs and their boards.&lt;p&gt;When expanding the graph you could basically see that the same 30 or 40 people where in the boards of major companies, from Pepi to Johnson&amp;amp;Johnson to Microsoft to Fox and other communication companies.&lt;p&gt;It showed a really interesting picture of how really consolidated the control was at the top.</text></comment>