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FAIR says that TCI is buying MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour
``` [I don't have the original header for this note, but there's contact information at the bottom.]
/ Written 11:18 AM Dec 13, 1994 by fair in igc:alt.journ.crit /
/ ---------- "CounterSpin 12/9 - 12/16/94" ---------- /
>From: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
CounterSpin b'cast week 12/9/94-12/16/94
Finally, we mentioned the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour at the start of the show, well this week it came out that PBS's NewsHour is being bought out by TCI, the nation's largest cable operator. TCI, through its subsidiary Liberty Media, is buying two-thirds of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, the show's producer. The mere fact that the NewsHour can be absorbed by a corporate media conglomerate illustrates how little difference there is between so-called public and commercial media. MacNeil/Lehrer have long been funded by corporate giants like ADM and AT&T; now they're going to be owned by one. TCI is run by John Malone, an admirer of Rush Limbaugh who has joked about shooting the head of the FCC. He has a well-earned reputation for Machiavellian business tactics--his company sent out a memo instructing cable operators to raise cable rates and "blame it on re-regulation and the government." It was Malone who said, "Nobody wants to go out and invent something and invest hundreds of millions of dollars of risk capital for the public interest...One would be fired as an executive of a profit-making company if he took that stance." If no executive would invest money in the public interest, why is he investing in a money-losing show like MacNeil/Lehrer? In a word: influence. "For TCI, the investment into a well- respected journalism outfit may actually help better its image with Washington insiders," the New York Daily News reported on December 5. As a major player in designing the information superhighway, TCI has much to gain by buying an outlet like MacNeil/Lehrer that can affect Washington's decisions. None of this seems to bother PBS, however, which greeted the corporate takeover of its flagship with enthusiasm. "A welcome infusion of capital into the NewsHour," PBS president Ervin Duggan called it. These days, PBS doesn't seem to have any higher goal than that. We'll be talking more about corporate ownership later in the show....
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