The public media have an enormous influence upon the
thoughts and opinions of the citizenry. There is a great risk that a small
number of special interests will cease control of the media and hence have an
undue impact upon the outcome of elections. A method is proposed to foreclose
this eventuality.
An example of the method would be as follows:
- If a media entity has earnings of 1 million dollars or
less, it can be owned by any person, corporation or organization.
- If a media entity has earnings over 1 million dollars
but less than or equal to $500 million, no person, corporation or
organization may own more than 20% of the entity.
- If a media entity has earnings over $500 million, no
person, corporation or organization may own more than 5% of the entity.
- In all cases the financial status and affiliations of
each owning person, corporation or organization shall be available for
public scrutiny and updated annually.
- In no case shall more than one owner of a media entity
have similar affiliations. (Guidelines to determine similarity of
affiliations will need to be developed.)
The actual numbers to be used will need to be determined
after much analysis and debate; however, the intention and general scheme of the
method should be clear from the example.