Media monopoly exposed. If you type “Chicago” in the Center for Public Integrity’s Web site (www.openairwaves.org) you’ll see a pie chart of who owns the 109 radio stations within 40 miles of the city. Two entities control 35 stations apiece: “educational” and “other/independent.” No media giant owns more than seven, and the total number of stations owned by Viacom, Clear Channel, NextMedia, Univision, Disney, and Bonneville combined is 31.
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Remember Vietnam? Oops, sorry, not convenient. Eager to score points on conservatives, Joel Bleifuss (In These Times, September 19) describes a recent Psychological Bulletin study finding them to be dogmatic and intolerant of ambiguity, then writes that “such thinking could explain why the Bush administration officials ignored those intelligence reports that failed to support going to war with Iraq.” Maybe so, but it won’t explain why liberals like Robert McNamara and Lyndon Johnson, with their supposed openness to change and evidence, dragged a previous generation into a quagmire.
Ever drink the water off the roof? According to a research article in the journal Chemosphere, summarized in the August issue of “Contaminated Sediments News,” “rooftop washoff” contributed 55 percent of the zinc pollution found in an urban stream.
