Disney is a huge entertainment company, and there are definitely issues to be had with media ownership concentration, but they are still a multitude of global-scale media companies in competition with one another so I'm not going to get my panties in a wad worrying about them having a monopoly any time soon. The massive diversification of individual media through the internet has also helped to counter corporate interests.
Not as much as you'd think, and not enough by my reckoning. Most of the 'net is controlled by a lot of the big media to begin with, punching holes in your theory.
You're on a website right now owned by a large company. You are creating content. You are free to go to YouTube (also opwned by a big company) and create almost any content you can imagine. My point was that as far as creating new content goes, there are more ways for the individual to do it than ever. In the past we were 99% reliant on the big theatre, radio and TV companies for all of our entertainment and news, and it's no longer the case.
Give me one good reason why "in the past", Disney wouldn't have been allowed to buy Marvel, a second-rate company with a sketchy profit-making history that is only worth anything due to the intellectual property rights they barely have the resources to exploit in the first place.Oh, I can post some doozies for you:
Historical actions against monopolies:
United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.
Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States
United States v. American Tobacco Co.
I'm sorry, but did you interpret my request as requiring proof that monopolies have been halted before? I said I'd like proof that Disney buying Marvel was a bad idea, and I'm not sure what Universal monopolizing the theatre distribution system in order to shut out competitor's films has to do with Disney owning Marvel, unless you'd argue that them having exclusive access to Marvel intellectual property is illegally denying other companies the "right" to make movies about Spider Man, which of course would be untrue.
Arguments against media mergers like these:
Media Monopoly: Long History, Short Memories (also links to stories about the kind of biased, pro-corporate journalisim that ABC/Disney has made:
Media Outlet / Personality: Disney/ABC
Organization concerned about media monopolies like Disney, with links to like-minded others:
Media Reform Information Center
There is nothing inherently wrong with corporate mergers. There is nothing inherently wrong with a company getting bigger. The market keeps getting larger and more diverse too.
When media companies own the news, and when that news becomes netured/neturalized, and the culture of a nation is also made mediocre, then yes, these mergers are a problem.
(See also
Disneyfication and also this article on it as well:
A Reader's Guide to Disneyfication).
Think I'm being alarmist about this? Read what I've linked you to and then try to diss me.
Is this just Disney hate? If Sony had bought our Marvel would anyone have given a shit around here? Or just the Sony haters?
Again, see the articles on Disneyfication I've posted above.
People have been crying about media mergers being the end of democracy for decades. Getting rid of monopolies does not get rid of corporate interference in media, and we're pretty damned far from anyone having any kind of monopoly at the moment considering there are about a dozen
major (multi-billion dollar)media conglomerates working in the US, all with competing interests.
And that anti-Disney shit is tired. "They want to turn the world into a theme park!", "Old Lady Beckford can't sell her local crafts because the kids want a Mickey Mouse keychain for Christmas!" "Sure is too bad all the whores and drug dealers aren't staggering around Times Square!" Disney does NOTHING that a thousand other companies do, and I don't believe they are nearly as pervasive as their opponents would like to believe.
"The whole Walt Disney philosophy eats out of your hand with these pretty little sentimental creatures in grey fur coats. For my own part, I believe that behind these smiling eyes there lurks a cold, ferocious beast fearfully stalking us."
Yup,
that's the kind of reasoned and rational viewpoint I tend to subscribe to.
Again, I have nothing against keeping an eye on big media to make sure they stay responsible, and I don't believe all corporate mergers should be approved or are desirable, I never said that. I'm very happy, for instance, that some of my country's banks weren't allowed to merge a few years back as it might have caused us a lot of trouble in the current financial climate.
Some of the links on the page you linked to are alarmist propaganda by lobbyists and corporations that have their own vested financial interests in their own POV, just like Disney, and I hope you understand that.
