FCC deregulates media ownership as Library of Congress issues ISSN for The Dagley Dagley Daily

It figures: on the very day that the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to deregulate media ownership, we finally received our official International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) for The Dagley Dagley Daily.

The ISSN from the Library of Congress will make it easier for librarians, researchers, graduate students and others to find The Dagley Dagley Daily and cite it in scholarly or even non-scholarly papers. The FCC's decision means that one company can own as many newspapers, television stations, radio stations, or other media outlets as it can afford. If that leaves a city, state, or region with only one company controllingall its airwaves and newspapers, every media outlet, well, that's market capitalism.

Although the FCC's move was opposed by an interesting assortment of activists, including not only consumer groups and most everybody on the Left, but William Safire (a conservative who writes, most likely with the assistance of interns, freelancers, and other noncredited workers, for The New York Times, who once was a speechwriter for President Richard M. Nixon, and who usually stands somewhere to the right of the Right).

Safire wasn't on the scene for the FCC vote, or if he was, he did not join in as protesters reacted to the vote by bursting into song. "Mass deregulation of our mass communication is the end of democracy," the protesters sang as they were led out of the room by police. The Senate Commerce Committee will begin hearings on the controversial FCC decision June 4, so it's not too late to write, call, or fax your elected representative.