The suspension and restoration of The Jimmy Kimmel Show has starkly revealed how media giants have become political actors with the ability to “gerrymander” the airwaves. But Ali Velshi sees how this incident highlights the power of the people, and how collective resistance can check authoritarianism when our institutions falter. This week he brings us a history of media consolidation and its consequences.
Two decades ago, our government dismantled New Deal protections against media consolidation in the 1996 Telecommunications Act. In 1983, fifty companies controlled 90 percent of America’s media. Today, just five companies control 90 percent.
This handful of media organizations, acting at the behest of Trump and his minions in the FCC, tried to tell Americans that they are in charg