Johnnie puts his foot down

General Johnnie is on the case when it comes to cracking down on those anti-trust behemoths who would crowd out competition and leave the poor unsuspecting public with no choices and no hope. He is the consumers best friend and don’t you forget it. Just read this by John Powers in The LA Weekly if you don’t believe me.

Who Do You Antitrust?

Ashcroft’s Department of Justice is investigating possible antitrust violations on the part of two alternative news companies, New Times Media and Village Voice Media (of which the L.A. Weekly is part). While I’ll leave it to the lawyers to limn the merits of the case, I must say it’s striking that two comparatively small chains should face the scrutiny of the same DOJ that notoriously gave Microsoft a cushy deal in its antitrust settlement, takes no steps against America’s broadband monopolies, and does nothing to limit huge “synergistic” empires like Fox, AOL Time Warner and Disney. If I were of a politically suspicious nature, I would wonder whether the DOJ is targeting alternative papers like this one because we are an alternative to the corporate media — opposing the Iraq war, chronicling Ashcroft’s efforts to dismantle the Constitution and challenging our government’s near-religious faith in the market. In fact, there’s something worthy of Joseph Heller, if not Kafka, in the idea that, at this point in history, the secrecy-obsessed Bush administration is going after free weekly papers — in the name of defending free expression.

So, the all powerful alternative media are flexing their muscles in the marketplace of ideas. Have they no shame?

You go General Johnnie. Shut these corporate tyrants down!