This coming Monday, a decision will be made by the U.S. government which will decide how the property of the American people will be parceled out to large corporations, a decision that will greatly affect the interests of the American people, and how we receive information that enormously influences the public’s stance on all social and political issues. And if you are a member of the American public and want to have a part in this decision: too bad. The doors are closed, and you’re not allowed in.

It’s payoff time.

Remember how the large media organizations tore into Clinton whenever there was even a whiff of scandal? How they went endlessly on about relatively unimportant issues such as how he “didn’t inhale” and had affairs and then lied about them. That demonstrates how willingly, even enthusiastically presidents were hounded by the press in light of a potential scandal.

Remember in the 2000 campaign, whenever Gore, a man with strong character, was caught in the smallest of prevarications, he was widely labeled a liar and a spinner of tall tales in the media, but when Bush was found to have been a drunk driver, cocaine user, National-Guard deserting, SEC reg violator who lied under oath as governor of Texas and showed the worst of character–that the media essentially shrugged its collective shoulders and said, “so what?”

During that election, Gore was often put down by the media and Bush was given every benefit (save for the funny stuff about his speaking skills). And in the crucial days of December in Florida, the media clearly favored Bush–for example, it made big news about the “people of Florida” protesting and disrupting the recount, but went silent when it was revealed they were really Washington D.C. Republican staffers.

It was quite clear to anyone who looked at the overall picture: the media corporations liked Bush and did not like Gore. But why? A conservative media? Not really, it has more to do with a relatively little-known corner of FCC regulations. Currently, there are limits to how many TV and radio stations one person or corporation can own. The reason: so that the media cannot be controlled by one person or a small group of people who could then control what people see and hear. Remember the Frank Capra movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” where the political machine run by the kingmaker Taylor owned all the media in Smith’s hometown, and silenced any opposing views about him? That caricature is what the current FCC rules are designed to prevent.

Not for long, though.

All the media bias over the past several years is about to pay off. Gore was staunchly opposed to changing these FCC regs, but Bush was clearly in favor of letting the big boys have even bigger slices of the pie. And the large media conglomerates have known that if they want the FCC to allow them to own as much of the media pie as they want, they had better show that it will benefit the president–after all, would Bush want to allow the media giants to own it all if they worked against his interests? The media conglomerates also made sure that the issue did not get much play–only now, at the very last minute,are a few news outlets picking up the story, far too little, far too late, perhaps so they can claim that they “covered the story” before the decision was made. It would not have served their interests to alert the public beforehand.

See these stories by FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) and Truthout.org.

Ironically, activists on both the right and the left are against the new FCC regs to be swept in under the cloak of the gag on Monday. Liberals and conservatives both reel at the thought of the media conglomerates, which could potentially swing to the left or the right depending on the issue or the CEO, dominating the airwaves and sending only a single voice out to the people. Even the NRA is getting into the picture, getting their faithful to send out 300,000 messages to the FCC, fearful of what they see as a press consolidated against free gun rights.

But the political activists and the people are in the back seat on this one–the media lobbyists, with the full weight of media power endorsing the current office holder, have control of the wheel, and it looks like they are going to get their way.

Look for the current 6 television and 2 radio media giants to merge soon under the blessings of the current administration, and expect voices of opposition to be broadcast less and less. So goes the state of Bush’s America.