OPINION | It’s Not Only Media You Should Object to Being Corporate-owned
A small group of billionaires control much more of your life than that
In recent days, more and more Americans are objecting to getting their news and social media from sources owned by billionaire oligarchs and mega corporations.
There’s been a mass exodus from Elon Musk’s social media site once known as Twitter, as a flood of users have begun moving to alternatives like BlueSky.
And just in the last 24 hours, there has been a huge outcry to boycott MSNBC’s popular Morning Joe program since the co-hosts revealed that they met Friday with Donald Trump — after the pair spent the last year or more rightly sounding the alarm every day about just what a threat Trump poses to American democracy, women's healthcare and more.
Folks advocating for these boycotts and consumer migrations often say things like, “Don’t rely on the corporate media for your news!”
And they are absolutely right.
We shouldn’t.
But here’s the thing: It’s not only our media — news, social or otherwise — where we shouldn’t be dependent on billionaires and corporations.
We should be saying the same thing — and making similar choices — about every other facet of our lives.
Healthcare, groceries — even housing — are increasingly dominated by big corporations and the mega-rich.
Our government is no longer of, for, and by the people. It, too, has become dominated by billionaires and corporate interests thanks to the rise of “dark money.”
This has become our lives in what’s frequently referred to as “late-stage capitalism,” in which literally everything becomes a commodity.
Corporations and many politicians like to blame inflation for steeply higher prices. But that’s not really always true at all.
None of this benefits is as consumers, or Americans.
Actions taken by the Biden administration, such as capping insulin prices and getting the federal government to negotiate drug prices are welcome, but they’ve been baby steps compared to what’s needed.
And the incoming Trump administration certainly won’t be even that helpful.
The truth is that none of this is going to change unless and until we collectively decide to do something about it.
That means that this emerging rebellion against corporate media has to be widened and worked into a larger context in which Americans use whatever tools at our disposal to make the change.
All of us who are jumping off X, boycotting MSNBC and the like have to start seeing and reacting to a much bigger picture.
We have to go from “Don’t rely on the corporate media for your news,” to “Don’t rely on corporations, period.”
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