BY DAN
KENNEDY
Serving the reality-based community since 2002.
Notes and observations on
the press, politics, culture, technology, and more. To sign up for
e-mail delivery, click
here. To send
an e-mail to Dan Kennedy, click
here.
For bio, published work, and links to other blogs, visit
www.dankennedy.net.
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
The big get big-big-bigger.
NBC is owned by the megacorporation General Electric. It's a business
partner with Microsoft. It's a content partner with the Washington
Post Company.
Obviously, the problem with NBC is
that it's just not big enough.
Today the morning papers report
that Vivendi Universal and General Electric are pursuing merger talks
that would create -- as the
Washington Post's Frank
Ahrens reports -- "a media
giant that would combine the top-rated NBC television network,
Universal Pictures movie studio and several prominent cable
channels."
The Wall
Street Journal's coverage
includes a chart, labeled "Fast Forward," that gives a good breakdown
of who owns what, as well as what the combined company, NBC
Universal, would look like.
My favorite, though, is a quickie
update posted
yesterday at the Motley Fool,
the damn-the-bubble-full-speed-ahead website that hasn't been heard
from much in the '00s. "Everybody has a chance to win here," enthuses
the Fool. Well, everyone except those of us who are concerned about
the effects of media concentration in a democratic
society.
The most demented aspect of this
merger-in-the-making is that, from NBC's and Vivendi's point of view,
it's probably absolutely necessary, given the lead that behemoths
such as AOL Time Warner and Disney/ABC have.
And so the demise of independent
media continues. Someday, we'll all be working for Rupert
Murdoch.
Public way, private gain.
The Herald's Scott Van Voorhis reports today that
the
sweet deal granted to the Red Sox
last year -- being allowed to shut down Yawkey Way, a public street,
before and during home games -- is even sweeter than one might have
imagined.
His lead: "The Red Sox pay only
about $2,000 a game to use the city's Yawkey Way for concessions, yet
game-day sales on the street generate an estimated $20,000 to $40,000
for the team and its concessions partner, Aramark Corp."
Little effect. I love
Bob
Ryan's column in today's
Globe on Grady Little's decision to bench wayward slugger
Manny Ramirez.
Ryan's money graf:
So now we know exactly
what the Red Sox bought for their $160 million. Manny Ramirez is a
gifted hitter of baseballs, of whom it can be said that he simply
does not get "it," whatever that elusive "it" is. He has no
business playing in Boston, New York, Chicago, or any locale in
which the fans invest their time, money, and passion in the local
baseball team. He is a frustrating and maddening figure, because,
despite his recent actions (or nonactions), we all know deep in
our heart of hearts that if there is one person in the employ of
the Boston Red Sox who is capable of hitting a two-out, two-strike
winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 of
the World Series, it is Manny Ramirez, to whom, it is distinctly
possible, said wallop would mean no more than if he hit a solo,
seventh-inning home run against the Twins at City of Palms Park on
March 15.
No doubt Theo Epstein and Larry
Lucchino would get rid of Ramirez tomorrow if they could find a team
dumb enough to accept his salary.
Unfortunately, that's not going to
happen.
posted at 8:58 AM |
|
link
MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
