Tuesday, April 22, 2008

AG speaks out about news media

Attorney General Jim Hood spoke at the Stennis-Capitol Press Luncheon yesterday, and he had some interesting thoughts to share with the group of lobbyists and reporters. This morning, the only article I found highlighting his comments on corporate-owned media were from an AP story.

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said at a press luncheon Monday that he's not happy about corporate ownership of news organizations.

"Something what worries me more so than the war and Iraq and money in politics is freedom of the press," Hood said. "Is our press free anymore? The corporate ownership of the press nationally is a concern to me."

Several Mississippi newspapers, TV stations and radio stations are owned by out-of-state corporations.

"In the old days, you had the wire, so there was some centralization involved," Hood said. "But you had mom-and-pop printing presses out there and they printed what they wanted to and they had their own thought processes."

Hood said he wonders what will happen to the American media if news organizations become explicitly partisan.

He said he worries that newspapers' editorials are dictated by out-of-state corporate offices.

And he said he is bothered by blogs and their anonymous comments.

He praised public broadcasting, saying it provides an independent voice.

4 comments:

  1. Also, AG Hood clarified the toy bill a little further. He was pushing to move the lawsuits filed on behalf of children injured or killed by poisonous toys to the comsumer protection act (from the products liability act). Barbour said this would negatively impact tort reform that has alraedy passed.

    Hood clarified that this would not affect tort reform because under the consumer protection act, sellers of the products who do not knowingly or willfully sell the products will not be brought into suits- only the manufacturers.

    I didn't know if this was discussed earlier on the blog, but I just wanted to point that out.

    He also mentioned that China is counterfeiting other products such as contact lenses and prescription drugs, so the problem will only get worse from here.

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  2. This is weak. If Hood is so concerned about the decline of the marketplace of ideas, then he should be all for anonymous speech, which the Supreme Court has held enjoys First Amendment protection precisely because it encourages broader discussion and free thought.

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  3. Totally agree, Will. To me, the more important thing is that someone is pointing out the relationship between corporations and the media.

    He didn't go into to much detail about the blogging portion, but I get the sense it was more about the random, gossipy postings on these newspaper websites, and not the more fruitful discussions seen on other blogs. There is a big difference between this and the postings online after articles on the Clarion Ledger. But, maybe he was talking about us.

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  4. People online find their news from the 3 sources aktualiTY. Their reliance upon internet-based sources only has elevated during the last decade.

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