Democracy-fail is a new micro-movement aimed at persuading Vince Cable not to allow Rupert Murdoch to buy up all of BskyB and thus own a very large slice of print and broadcast media in this country (rather like he does already in the US - and if you aren’t very, very scared of Fox News, that’s because you haven’t seen it in action).
If none of this makes sense to you, read this article by Will Hutton in last week’s Observer
If you’d like to know more, particularly if you’d like to join, this is the blog site.
and this is the excerpt.
About
Ordinary members of the public are increasingly alarmed by the growth of powerful media empires and their erosion of our democracy. These corporations are not elected, representing only their shareholders, but have the ability to make or break governments, organisations and individuals. They can influence policy and opinion at a stroke, support and oppose wars, and have a profound impact on our lives.
Their grip is getting tighter and tighter and we, the people, need to act. Politicians are mostly a lost cause because so many are afraid to stand up to the media giants. Similarly, there is little protest from opinion leaders and celebrities. It takes courage to bite the hand of one’s employer or potential employer, or the newspaper with a columnist ready to rubbish you.
Hence, for decades, there has been little more than a rumbling of high profile protest, leaving it mostly to the brave voices of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and a range of dedicated trade unionists, organisations and activisits who have largely had to fight the battle on their own.
This is why in September 2010 we launched a grassroots awareness campaign on Twitter called DemocracyFail. Our goal is to reach out to the wider community and bring people together to protest against the concentration of media ownership and to call for the appointment of a royal commission on ownership, competition and regulation.
We’re starting to get noticed and the reaction has at times been overwhelming. People seem pleased to be able to do something tangible instead of tearing their hair out. We hope that, by growing in numbers and spreading information, the idea of a media commission will become an increasingly high profile topic and that Westminster will not be able to ignore our request. We shan’t rest until it’s appointed.
