In 1983, 50 corporations controlled a majority of American media. Now that number is six. And Big Media may get even bigger, thanks to the FCC’s consideration of ending a rule preventing companies from owning a newspaper and radio and TV stations in the same big city. Such a move — which they’ve tried in 2003 and 2007 as well –would give these massive media companies free rein to devour more of the competition, control the public message, and also limit diversity across the media landscape. On this week’s Moyers & Company (check local listings), Senator Bernie Sanders, one of several Senators who have written FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski asking him to suspend the plan, joins Bill to discuss why Big Media is a threat to democracy and what citizens can do to fight back.

Sanders also expresses his dismay that such a move would come from an Obama appointee. “Why the Obama Administration is doing something that the Bush Administration failed to do is beyond my understanding,” Sanders tells Bill. “And we’re gonna do everything we can to prevent it from happening.”

Sanders explains why even "ordinary people" should be concerned the media and increased concentration of ownership in the media: "Bill, many of the viewers there are concerned about the growing gap, unequal distribution of wealth and income. They're concerned about health care, concerned about global warming, concerned about women's rights, health, and many, many other issues."

"If you are concerned about those issues, you must be concerned about media and the increased concentration of ownership in the media. Because unless we get ordinary people involved in that discussion. Unless we make media relevant to the lives of ordinary people and not use it as a distraction, we are not going to resolve many of these serious crisis, global warming being one. There are scientists who will come on your show and say, "Hey, forget everything else. If we don't get a handle on global warming, there's not going to be much left of this planet in a hundred years." Do you see that often being portrayed in the corporate media? I fear not."

Full transcript after the jump.

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Bill Moyers welcomes to his studio Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who’s been an independent in Congress for 21 years — longer than anyone in American history. Sanders talks about jobs, the state of our economy, health care, and the unprecedented impact of big money on the major political parties.

“What you are looking at is a nation with a grotesquely unequal distribution of wealth and income, tremendous economic power on Wall Street, and now added to all of that is big money interests, the billionaires and corporations now buying elections,” Sanders tells Bill. “I fear very much that if we don’t turn this around, we’re heading toward an oligarchic form of society.”

Full transcript from the show follows below the fold.

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What would a world look like that had a culture and an economic system that placed human need above corporate greed, and how do we bring that world into being?

Dennis Trainor, Jr., the writer and director of "American Autumn: an occudoc," does not care what we call this new world. “Call it Socialism, if you are not afraid of buzzwords, call it Real Democracy Now, call it Chunky-Monkey-Cherry Garcia for all I care. All I know is the world needs to change radically, it needs to change dramatically, and it needs to change fast. This documentary is an invitation for the viewer to participate in that positive change.”

Shot on the front lines and meeting spaces of the Occupy Movement in NYC, Boston, and Washington, D.C. from the earliest days through the end of January 2012 and written, directed and produced by activist, writer and filmmaker Dennis Trainor, Jr. "American Autumn: an Occudoc" is an inside-looking-out view of the Occupy Movement.

I see some friendly familiar faces in this clip, Michael Moore, Bernie Sanders, and Lee Camp. Enjoy the trailer, the film is scheduled for release in June.