Cells meaning cell phones, and the potentially harmful effects from the radiation they emit while we have them strapped to our bodies and glued to our ears much of the day.
San Francisco just became the first city in the country to pass legislation making cellphone retailers display radiation levels, and the Mayor of San Francisco talks about how much flack he received about it from telecommunications lobbyists as well as conference organizers and businesses. To quote one passage:
``The Wireless Association, which is scheduled to hold a major convention here in October 2010, has already contacted us about canceling their event if the legislation moves forward. They also have told us that they are in contact with Apple, Cisco, Oracle and others who are heavily involved in the industry, as you know, about not holding future events in your city for the same reason.''
To which the writer responds:
``They should be sending Mayor Newsom a bottle of good California wine for caring about whether kids’ brains get fried, not leaving him worried about whether they’ll avenge themselves in his campaign for lieutenant governor.''
I found this exchange (and article) interesting because of the conflict of interest it demonstrates between citizen interests (safety in this case) and profit motives of big business. Clearly they aren't always in-line. Something both of our assigned readings discussed was the danger of media conglomeration on the independent press, which needs to stay independent in order to monitor power of not only government, but powerful corporations. This article I think is a good example of why this is the case.
I remember hearing this past December that Comcast plans to purchase a 51% stake of NBC Universal, which is already just a unit of General Electric. This is about as far from press independence as you can get. Is anyone else here concerned about this trend? It seems to only be increasing.
I am distubed for sure. Our reading made it quite clear that entertainment sells better than news these days so commercial and entertainments conglomerates are swallowing up news stations. Disney owns ABC, for example, where a friend of mine works, and they all fear for their jobs and know they're at the bottom of the barrel there, because the news programs bring in 1% of the profits. A disturbing trend for sure...we're a culture that prefers reality tv to the news. A desire to escape from the grim facts of our world into the absurd, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteJason, is there a link to the article? I'm wondering if an information source is included that backs up the statement that cell phones are dangerous?
ReplyDeleteyes, the link is included at the very top of my post.
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