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By Hazel Henderson

The days in the past century whenrebels captured the main radio station totake over whole countries are long gone. Todays political takeovers are now by corporate mergers, online giants, big data, computers, artificial intelligence and AIalgorithms. All these new forces are winning over traditionalpolitics, democracies and grassroots citizen organizing. Mediocracy is now the dominant form of governance in many countries.

In this context, we see todays power grab by Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of 170 TV stationscovering38 percent of the current 39 percent limitover U.S. audiences and markets, as in rulings of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Sinclair is now lobbying the FCC and politicians toexpand its power over U.S. audiences by buying Chicago-based Tribune Medias 42 stations which would extend its reach to cover 72 percent of U.S. viewing households and markets. As with somany government agencies, the FCC has been under the influence of the media corporationsit is supposed tooversee.

This kind of regulatory capture of somany government agencies is documented by manyeconomists. The Trump administrations new appointee Ajit Pai, as chairman of the FCC, is corporate-friendly, evidenced already by his position in the net neutrality battle. Pai is now expected togrant Trump-supporting Sinclair with a loophole for its expansion of control over U.S. markets and audiences. This means the the trusted local TV stationwill now be under new corporate control.

The founders of the United States feared concentration of power in government. They installed separation of powers in the U.S. Constitution buttressed by freedom of the press. The very first Amendmentreinforced this free media which became known as the Fourth Branch of U.S. democracy.

Today, twonew threats have emerged:

Crusading media experts reports, such asJacques Elluls classic Propaganda (1968), Marshall McLuhans The Medium is the Message (1964) on the power of advertising and television and Ben BagdikiansThe Media Monopoly (1983) all warned us of the accelerating merger and consolidation of control of U.S. and global media. Todaythe 50owners of 90 percent of U.S. media described by Bagdikian is down to six! The takeover of media ownership now controls most of the news and information the public sees, hears, reads and accesses online. [Ed. note: making independent publications like TriplePundit all the more important!]

These giants ofour mediocracies are steered by big finance, such as hedge fund kingmaker Robert Mercer, funder of the Trump campaign, Breitbart, Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway. Funders include the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson and others on the right wing described by Jane Mayer in Dark Money (2016), and smaller players on the left, such as George Soros.

In Mediocracies and Their Attention Economies(2017) I described this new form of government overlooked by most political and social scientistswhich I first documented in Building A Win Win World (1996). Media control as a favorite government strategy for power is well-known and common from Putins RussiatoMugabes Zimbabwe.

Yet the world is less awareofpower grabsby the newer forms: corporate media and control by finance and technological superiority. Today, control of media content and access, and intimidation of journalists exist in many countries. Meanwhile commercial advertisingdominates consumer education worldwide withits globalmarket of $570billion tightly-held by giant corporate conglomerates.

The battle in todays mediocracies is about trust and truth, access todata, facts and scientific evidence. Trustin the past was based in family, community, tribeand face-to-face knowledge. Trust and confidence are the basis of all markets, banking and finance. Trust does not scale easily, the basic dilemma ofall large complex societies, as they search for new forms on blockchains and in cryptocurrencies. Trust and truth are alsothebasis of free media and journalistic excellence. Will new grabs by corporate power succeedoverfreedom of the press and the publics right-to-know, access tounbiased information and truthful advertising? Truth versus propaganda? Stay tuned!

Hazel Henderson,D.Sc.Hon., FRSA, CEO, of Ethical Markets Media, also founded the EthicMark Awards for Advertising That Uplifts The Human Spirit In Society.

Image credit: Pixabay / PublicDomainPictures

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Commercial Influence at FCC: A Challenge to Free Speech - Triple Pundit (registration) (blog)

The Bishops of Venezuela Appeal to Our Lady for Deliverance from Maduro From Francis, Only Silence by Christopher A. Ferrara August 11, 2017

Will Venezuela be Franciss downfall? That provocative question is posed by Monica Showalter in an important article at the American Thinker blog. There is no arguing with her opening line: The worlds first Latin American pope isn't exactly covering himself with glory as the hellfire of Venezuela immolates that God-forsaken nation. There has been nothing but silence from Francis as the socialist tyrant Nicols Maduro oppresses the Venezuelan people and destroys the nations once vibrant economy, reducing many to rummaging through garbage cans for food.

The Fatima Center rejoices at Cardinal Raymond Burke's call for the proper consecration of Russia by the Pope and all the Catholic bishops of the world in accord with Her [Our Lady's] explicit instruction, asking the faithful the world over to work for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Our Ladys Apostolate is engaged in an all-out campaign in Rome to make the urgency of obeying Our Lady of Fatima known! We are using every form of media at our disposal. Billboards throughout the city urge the Pope and the bishops to act now to avert the terrible suffering Our Lady prophesied. We are also using trotters, which are mobile billboards (trucks which drive around the city) to make people in every neighborhood aware that we have reached a critical point in the history of the Fatima prophecies: we must either obey or face the prospect of the annihilation of nations Our Lady foretold!

Dear Friend of Our Lady,

Most important in the First Saturday devotions is the fervor with which we perform them, specifically as acts of reparation for sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Father Gruner, 2014.

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Welcome to the Fatima Network

Western powers like the United States that would like to fight the extremists in Idlib are leery of endangering civilians and have invested heavily in local groups that oppose the jihadists.

The Syrian government and its allies, however, say Idlib is little more than a terrorist haven, where jihadists have imposed their control a view some American officials share.

Idlib Province is the largest Al Qaeda safe haven since 9/11, Brett H. McGurk, the United States envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, said last month. Idlib now is a huge problem.

Aid workers and residents say the situation there is more complicated, with a patchwork of groups struggling to provide necessary services to the civilians from all over Syria who have been bused to Idlib to live out the war. Though the extremist groups are militarily strong and the civilians have protested their presence, the militants have not systematically interfered with aid at least not yet.

Most people are thinking about the future, and theyre afraid of it, said Nour Awwad, a media coordinator for Violet Organization, which works in Idlib. But even if theyre afraid, where can they go?

Much of Idilb, a poor, mostly rural province along the border with Turkey, joined the uprising against Mr. Assad in 2011, and armed rebel groups and Islamist militias soon formed.

For years, the United States and its allies sent covert aid to rebels, including many in the north, to fight Syrian government forces a program that President Trump recently ended. Critics have charged that though the aid went to so-called moderate rebels, jihadists also benefited because they fought alongside the rebels and sometimes bought their weapons.

Elsewhere in Syria, the government was besieging opposition communities until they submitted, with the last rebels and civilians often bused to Idlib. This month, a few thousands refugees were sent from Lebanon to Idlib in a deal between Hezbollah, the Shiite militia that supports the Assad government, and the Levant Liberation Committee, the Al Qaeda affiliate formerly known as the Nusra Front.

The provinces population has swelled to two million, with nearly half those people displaced from elsewhere, the United Nations said.

That many needy people in one place has led to a large aid operation, with scores of groups sending food and other supplies across the border from Turkey, and establishing medical facilities and other projects in Idlib.

The future of those projects was thrown into doubt last month when clashes between the areas armed groups left the Levant Liberation Committee as the dominant force. Though the group changed its name last year and said it had broken its ties with Al Qaeda, American officials dismissed the claim as propaganda.

They still consider the group to be a dangerous terrorist organization, as does Turkey, which has restricted the passage of commercial goods across its border, fearing that they would benefit the jihadists.

The border crossing where most of the provinces aid and commercial goods pass has long been a moneymaker for whoever controls it, and it appears that the jihadists are in a position to do so now.

Aid groups say they have not been forced to pay, presumably because the jihadists know that such demands would halt aid that people need. The jihadists have said they will create a civilian body to govern the province, but it remains unclear when that could occur or what such a body would look like.

Violence inside the province continues. On Saturday, seven members of the Syrian Civil Defense, a group also known as the White Helmets who dig people out of rubble after airstrikes, were shot dead in their office in Idlib by unknown attackers, the group said on Twitter.

The recent infighting between armed groups in Idlib has threatened the provinces economy, which residents said had been improving. Though no official cease-fire covers the area, it has been spared from Syrian and Russian airstrikes in recent months.

During the relative respite, business has taken off, with locals constructing new buildings and opening car dealerships and small factories. A Turkish aid group even opened a mall, where needy families shop with vouchers.

Some residents see Idlib as the last stand of the anti-Assad uprising and the start of a new Syrian society. Thousands of people in one town, Saraqib, participated in local elections last month, and the president of Idlib University was voted out of office recently something the faculty noted had never happened to Syrias president.

It is like a phobia, said Wissam Zarqa, an English teacher. We dont want anyone to stay as president for a long time.

But as the rebels foreign backers, including the United States, have cut their support, the Assad government, backed by Russia and Iran, is expanding its control. At some point, most expect, the fight will come to Idlib.

We are just going from one tragedy to a bigger tragedy, said Muhammad Jaffa, an engineer who helps resettle displaced people. They are sending everyone here and we dont know what will happen to them in the end.

Should new violence erupt, civilians have few options. Many fear arrest or conscription if they return to government areas, and Turkey has closed its border, where guards shoot and sometimes kill people sneaking across.

Ali al-Juma, a doctor who fled to Idlib from his home farther south, said he again feels trapped.

It is now living in a minefield on the edge of another minefield, he said.

Hwaida Saad and Nada Homsi contributed reporting from Beirut, and Karam Shoumali from Istanbul.

A version of this article appears in print on August 14, 2017, on Page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Qaeda-Linked Militants Are Finding Elbow Room Among Syrias Displaced.

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In a Syria Refuge, Extremists Exert Greater Control - New York Times

China is investigating its top social media sites, including WeChat and Weibo, for failing to comply with cyber laws, the latest step in the country's push to secure the internet and maintain strict Communist Party control over content.

President Xi Jinping has made China's "cyber sovereignty" a top priority and has also reasserted the ruling party's role in limiting and guiding online discussion. Surveillance is being further tightened ahead of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party later this year, when global attention will be on news coming from the world's No.2 economy.

Apart from Tencent Holdings Group WeChat and Weibo, China's Cyberspace Administration said it was also investigating Baidu forum site Tieba over failing to comply with strict new laws that ban content which is obscene, violent and deemed offensive by the Communist Party.

"Users are spreading violence, terror, false rumours, pornography and other hazards to national security, public safety, social order," the regulator said on its website.

Baidu said it felt "deep regret" over the content and will "actively cooperate with government departments to rectify the issue and increase the intensity of auditing".

Tencent and Weibo did not respond to requests for comment.

Shares of the Hong Kong-listed firm were in the red after the news, down almost 5 per cent. Investors will now be waiting to see how shares of the US listed firms react.

Just last month, all three were asked to carry out immediate "cleaning and rectification" at a meeting with authorities who cited examples of illicit content, including rumours about party officials and misrepresenting Chinese military history.

Prior to the meeting, Weibo was asked to partly close its video site over violations, wiping out a total $1.3 billion worth of stock between Weibo and parent firm Sina.

In recent months, regulators have taken severe and unprecedented moves to shutter content and media across a variety of platforms. In May, it released regulations for online news sites and network portals that expanded curbs on content and required all services to be overseen by party-sanctioned editorial staff.

It has taken down popular celebrity gossip social media accounts and there has also been a sweeping campaign to remove virtual private network apps that allow users to circumvent China's so-called 'Great Firewall' and access foreign websites.

Western social media websites like Facebook and Twitter are banned by the country's censors, which in turn has helped drive up the popularity of home-grown messaging app WeChat and microblogging service Weibo.

WeChat and Weibo have about 940 million and 350 million monthly active users, respectively.

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Now, China to control local social media content - WION

The Syrian government has increased the size of the territory under its control by 2 ? times in just two months, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Sunday, as Syrian forces backed by regional allies and the Russian air force seized thousands of square miles (kilometers) from the Islamic State group in the center of the country.

Syrian government forces supported by Iranian-organized militias and the Russian air force have recaptured much of the country's central Homs province from the Islamic State group in 2017. Most of the province is desert. It contains several energy fields as well as phosphate minerals.

They are driving toward the city of Deir el-Zour, kept under siege by IS militants since 2015.

Shoigu, in an interview on Russian state-owned Rossiya 24 TV, said recapturing Deir el-Zour "will say a lot, if not everything, about the end of the battle with" the Islamic State group.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported Sunday that government forces killed at least 25 IS militants in a commando operation in the desert region. It said the soldiers rappelled down from helicopters to ambush the militants, under the cover of Russian air strikes.

Russia has provided air support for Syrian forces combating rebels and the Islamic State group since 2015.

Elsewhere, a rebel faction said it killed 20 army soldiers outside the Syrian capital in a tunnel blast as the battle for Damascus's northeastern suburbs showed no signs of letting up.

Wael Olwan, spokesman for the Failaq al-Rahman faction, said the operation took place before dawn Sunday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said 16 soldiers were reported missing because of the blast.

A Russian mediated cease-fire announced last month has failed to quell the fighting between the government and rebels on the northeastern edges of Damascus. The Failaq al-Rahman opposition faction says it is not party to the agreement, and the government says it is fighting terrorists.

The government has leaned on its air force and its ground-to-ground missile systems to push rebels out and away from the capital. Several neighborhoods and towns have been destroyed. The opposition does not have an air force.

Also Sunday, the al-Qaida-linked Hay'at Tahrir al Sham Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee, and also known as HTS said through its Ibaa' news agency that it had secured the release of 104 prisoners, among them 24 women, from government jails. It said the release was negotiated as part of an agreement for the HTS to give up its positions in the Qalamoun Mountains, near Damascus, next month. The Observatory said HTS released several of its own prisoners in exchange. They included soldiers and pro-government fighters.

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Russia says Syrian government doubled territory it controls - ABC News