With so many mergers, buy-outs, and bankruptcy’s which have occurred in the past decade or two, it has made keeping up with who is who, what is what, and who owns what very difficult.  And, honestly, I simply just have not paid attention, nor have I really cared.  I mean, it is not like I could or would have done anything, right?  Like so many, we have just learned to shrug our shoulders and mumble under our breath, “So what’s new….”

Then several months ago, someone sent me the bank merger infographic below.  This woke me up.  Having been a mortgage broker, eventually evolving into a mortgage banker, from 1996 until 2003, I immediately understood the implications of this chart.  Our private banking system is well on it’s way to becoming a monopoly… and we do not want this to happen.

What I had not realized, until I saw the media infographic below, is that our media is also following this same path.  With the explosion of trash reality TV, I have pretty much left the world of prime time TV a few years back.  Other than the local news, I never turn on CBS, NBC, ABC, or any of the like.  I do watch a lot of news – which I typically take with a grain of salt knowing that our main stream media filters what they want us to know, literally molding us into media Olivers… “Please, sir.  May I have more gruel?”  If you don’t believe me, just take a look at my recent post which compares the covers of the US version of Time magazine to the European, Asian, and South Pacific covers of the same edition.  After checking this out, please… go to a mirror and look at the nose on your face, because this is right in front of you.

I have often joked with my friends that I am looking for a remote cave in the Northern Territories with high speed internet in which to move into.  I may now start searching a bit more seriously….  But pretty soon, my fellow virtual readers, bloggers and friends, we will start seeing a new age of internet censorship.  Many of the companies listed below are supporting and lobbying for a bill, the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), which is a way of censoring our internet.  These companies in support claim that they are losing money by the internet pirates who are illegally uploading their copyrighted and owned material – which is true.  BUT… there are those of us, which do include bloggers and YouTubers, which operate under the Fair Use Notice, states:

“…the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.”

So, beware… as these media giants merge and become more and more powerful, they will gain a terrifying amount of control over what we watch, what we read, and what we are able to do on the internet.  After all, in this country, those with the most money do rule our government.

Well… now I care.

Big Bank Mergers

Media infographic created and brought to you by FrugalDad.com site.

Published by Michelle

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