Ted Turner criticizes the Disney Company, among others, in the current Washington Monthly magazine. He writes about the disturbing issue of consolidation and corporate control of the media, citing three main points as “the loss of quality, localism, and democratic debates,” giving big media companies “new power over what is said not just on the air, but off it as well.” Turner cited such examples as, “[Eisner], after buying ABC in 1995, was quoted in LA Weekly as saying, “I would prefer ABC not cover Disney.” A few days later, ABC killed a 20/20 story critical of the parent company. And Disney recently provoked an uproar when it prevented its subsidiary Miramax from distributing Michael Moore’s film Fahrenheit 9/11.

As a senior Disney executive told The New York Times: ‘It’s not in the interest of any major corporation to be dragged into a highly charged partisan political battle.’ Follow the logic, and you can see what lies ahead: If the only media companies are major corporations, controversial and dissenting views may not be aired at all. Naturally, corporations say they would never suppress speech. But it’s not their intentions that matter; it’s their capabilities. Consolidation gives them more power to tilt the news and cut important ideas out of the public debate. And it’s precisely that power that the rules should prevent.

“At this late stage, media companies have grown so large and powerful, and their dominance has become so detrimental to the survival of small, emerging companies, that there remains only one alternative: bust up the big conglomerates. Breaking up the reconstituted media conglomerates may seem like an impossible task when their grip on the policy-making process in Washington seems so sure. But the public’s broad and bipartisan rebellion against the FCC’s pro-consolidation decisions suggests something different. Politically, big media may again be on the wrong side of history–and up against a country unwilling to lose its independents.”