"Ladies and Gentlemen: We are being held here momentarily due to an incident at 59th Street requiring police action. We will be moving again as soon as the train at 59th Street has left the station."

Commuting again. The people have had enough, and this announcement is answered with a chorus of tooth-sucking and cursing. The thinking is that it's some sort of terrorist activity holding us all back, crammed ass to briefcase on the A train. Or could it be that someone was stupid enough to dress as Osama bin Laden for Hallowe'en?

The Culprit, this time, is an Anarchist from the Felt Pen who has done his worst on one of those foul Britney Spears concert posters:

"DISNEY
 VIACOM
 PEPSI

 AMERICA'S WHORE"

And scrawled across the pop trollop's trachea: "It's over."

And after reporting $80-million in losses between them, you might think it would be over for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. But $80-million is just a drop in the bucket for these scum. They have done a top-notch job of rallying the hearts and minds of America behind this new war, and Washington has rewarded them justly. On September 13, only two days after the spectre of terrorism enveloped this country for real, the Federal Communications Committee moved to dismantle the last piece of legislation designed to keep media concentration from becoming an overbearing reality.

The law in question prevents ownership of different media within the same city or region - in effect ensuring that the newspaper, radio and television voices remain independent of each other. The alternative is a droning chorus of one corporate or political agenda, something that is all too real to begin with.

Those people whose votes really count believe that regulation is oppressive and that it strains their ability to truly thrive in this land of freedom. Oh yeah? Tell that to the old man I see every day on the subway asking for spare change: if he's caught in the act, it's a nasty fine for someone who is broke, bankrupt and homeless - and hungry. Lucky for him, the transit cops have graffiti artists to chase down.

Flash back to London, early 1980s - Baroness Thatcher has a late-night encounter with Rupert Murdoch and rises the next morning with a new purpose: to destroy labor unionism and make it easier for business to breathe in the stuffy Me Decade. I guess he took the ol' battle axe all the way. With Britain atop his list of conquests, the Australian media man lit a fag and headed for America.

What is in question now is the law prohibiting a media company from owning a TV station and newspaper in the same geographic area - something that Rupe's News Corp. has already accomplished in New York. Owner of a Fox TV station and the tabloid New York Post, News Corp. recently acquired a New York TV station operator Chris-Craft, furthering their influence on the city.

Funny thing about media concentration, the more it occurs, the less you notice it. It runs under the current, way under, and the sameness of news coverage and opinion lulls everybody to sleep. So let's be thankful for the Felt Pen Army, who sacrifice themselves with the goal of outing America's true whore - a media that's in bed with the government.