November 28th: Who Owns the Media?

Before this week's reading, I had no idea that General Electric played such a huge ownership from the media. Once I found out, however, it made so much sense. I remember one 30 Rock episode I saw once where Alec Baldwin's character was advocating for General Electric product integration in their shows. I find it most interesting that while they have the biggest profit out of "The Big Six," most of their shares are small. Clearly they have someone on the inside who knows and is working all of the loopholes. If they had larger shares, so many anti trust issues would be raised. Currently, AT&T is wanting to buy out T-Mobile, but when it was first suggested, the plan of the buy out was denied because it would greatly lessen competition. Now AT&T is trying to divest some of its shares, so that it would be able to buy out T-Mobile. If they divest their shares, they could possibly become the GE of the cellular world.

This brings out the morale of the situation. Should this loophole be allowed? More importantly, there is no reason why General Electric shouldn't be paying taxes. How many other corporations are getting away with this? To top it all off, GE is an advisor to the president? I am so completely skeptical of this entire situation. It is no wonder why so many people are losing faith in modern politics.