Cracking the Media Monopoly and regaining Integrity...

[Solon]

in Journalism is an upward battle. Unlike many countries in the world, we have never had the great problems with state controlled media, at least in history. However, our "Independent Media" is not so independent from the government either, it is more complicated than that. Rather than the problems associated with State controlled or censored media, we have problems that entail both to varying degrees. Let me show you this one quote on the media that sums up what type of media we have:

“There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.

“There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job.

“If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.

“The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell the country for his daily bread.

“You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press.

“We are the tools and vassals of the rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men.

“We are intellectual prostitutes.”

— John Swinton
New York Times editor
in a speech before the New York Press Club
1953

As John Swinton says, most of the Media Whores are Intellectual Prostitutes. Nofacts is but one example of this, but the fact of the matter is that what John said above is only half of it, to put it simply, the Media's job is to keep the status quo. The reason for this is simple, the people who own these corporations make money off of the gullibility of the people and off of the illusion of stability that is perpuated by their own fronts.

The odd thing is that the government, regardless of who is actually in charge, only plays an incidential role in media monopolies. Editors are the censors of our nation, many journalists of integrity have been driven out of their jobs due to the pressures excerted on them from editors to distort the truth. This isn't some grand conspiracy, but simply business as usual for the companies that own the media. Even worst is that, even if we had the Fairness Doctrine and Broke up the monopolies, it would not improve things that much. The biggest difference would be in editorial content, at best. Even when the doctrine was in place, Reagan was treated with kid gloves, and when scandals broke, the were pushed under the rug as quickly as possible.

What I said earlier about government's role in the media, this excludes the CIA. To be honest, my personal view is that the CIA does not and isn't representative of the government at large. The reason is obvious, they have little to no oversight of the CIA in Congress. The CIA owns or has controlling interests in over 100 media outlets both foriegn, like the Infamous "Radio Free" stations around the world, and domestic.

Perhaps the best event of the past century that actually is cracking this monopoly is the Internet. Neither the government nor corporations, have total control of the Internet at large, and they cannot hide any attempts to control it or censor it. Anyone with 400 bucks and willing to pay 10 bucks a month can become a world-wide publisher. Even nations that due censor the internet cannot control it entirely, their are always workarounds, a hacker's paradise ;). Best of all, they cannot keep such attempts secret anymore, the age of secret governments is waning. We need to encourage people to actively seek out information removed from the mainstream press to eventually make in unprofitable for them to enforce the status quo.

[shraby]

1. Shhhhhh.

I don't think they realize it yet. :evilgrin: