Complaints about the traditional mainstream media are a constant. However, complaints simply aren't enough. Many believe that competition forces good behavior. The problem is that a semblance of competition is all that there is in the mainstream media. As it turns out, six corporations control 90 percent of our media

On September 21, a story broke exposing the fact that Martin Shkreli, the immature 32-year-old CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price of the drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750.00 per pill—overnight. It amounted to a price hike of over 5555 percent. Under our current system, it is completely legal to do this (even if it's clearly immoral). It's also the definition of unfettered and unregulated capitalism. It is the practice of maximizing profits, even if such maximization causes death by neglect or inability to pay. Of course this is not a practice that is good for America.

While this story hit the airwaves with a vengeance, this happened only after it got traction in the alternative media. What is the alternative media, exactly? The alternative media is you. The alternative media is comprised of YouTube channels, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and every form of communication that has eyeballs on it. The alternative media is made up of bloggers, sites like Daily Kos, and substantive email blasts. Most importantly, the alternative media includes community radio stations not funded by corporations but by those that comprise the body politic—the community, el pueblo, nuestra comunidad.

Big drug manufacturers and financial sharks have been buying up generic drug companies and/or the rights to drugs that are way past their patent life for some time now. This was never done in secret. Secrecy, however, was implicitly provided by much of the traditional mainstream media. Yes, one could find much of this information inside the bowels of many publications. It may even have been touched on here and there on radio or television. But the gravity of this practice and the harm that it causes were never given the importance they deserved. Keep reading for more.