THE MEDIA ISSUE: VOLUME 7, ISSUE 13
THE MEDIA INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
by Malik Isasis
President Dwight Eisenhower upon his last address to the country in 1961, coined the term, Military Industrial Complex, referring to the industries that begun dedicating themselves to full-time armament production. President Eisenhower, a military general, feared that those companies would create a perpetual need for their products by influencing the political process. Listen to Eisenhower’s speech:
If there is such a thing, Eisenhower was more than correct. The influence of the Military Industrial Complex has compromised our democracy, and its spiritual soul. Citizens can march in the hundreds of millions across the country and the world with no effect in influencing politicians on war policy. Politicians do as they will, with Military Industrialists acting as Iago in Othello’s ear. Surely, they whisper that using small conflicts is a way to test the latest and greatest weaponry.
Since the rise of the Military Industrial Complex at the end of World War II, the United States has been in a state of perpetual war--starting with Korea 1950-53, Indonesia, 1950-53, Guatemala 1950-53, Congo 1964, Cuba 1959-61 Vietnam 1961-73, Peru 1965, Laos 1964-73, Cambodia 1969-70, Lebanon 1982-83, Grenada 1983, El Salvador 1980, Libya 1986, Nicaragua, Bosnia, Iraq 1990-current. That’s 58 years and counting of non-stop warring.
The Rise of Industrial Complexes as Shadow Governments
Just as the rise of the Military Industrial Complex gave rise to Militarists, the Prison Industrial Complex gave rise to Mandatory Sentencing Laws, which for ambitious prosecutors would be a spring board into politics, e.g. Rudy Giuliani. Mandatory Sentencing Laws caused the population of people in prison for non-violent offenses to increase significantly. It became okay to treat children under 18 years of age as adults. In an Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch 157-page report, they found that 2,225 children, 16% of whom, were between the ages of 13 and 15 years old, serving life without parole.
The Mandatory Sentencing Laws effects African and Latino Americans disproportionately, and according to Human Rights Watch of the total population of 1,976,019 incarcerated in adult facilities, 1,239,946 or 63 percent are black or Latino, though these two groups constitute only 25 percent of the national population.
The Prison Industrial Complex is a mixture of government and corporate interests working in tandem, the more people that are incarcerated, the need for facilities to contain them, increases.
What is the most profitable industry in America? Weapons, oil and computer technology all offer high rates of return, but there is probably no sector of the economy so abloom with money as the privately run prison industry.
Consider the growth of the Corrections Corporation of America, the industry leader whose stock price has climbed from $8 a share in 1992 to about $30 today and whose revenue rose by 81 per cent in 1995 alone. Investors in Wackenhut Corrections Corp. have enjoyed an average return of 18 per cent during the past five years and the company is rated by Forbes as one of the top 200 small businesses in the country. At Esmor, another big private prison contractor, revenues have soared from $4.6 million in 1990 to more than $25 million in 1995.
Ten years ago there were just five privately-run prisons in the country, housing a population of 2,000. Today nearly a score of private firms run more than 100 prisons with about 62,000 beds. That's still less than five per cent of the total market but the industry is expanding fast, with the number of private prison beds expected to grow to 360,000 during the next decade.
Big Pharma
The Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex, more commonly known as ‘Big Pharma’ refer to companies with revenue in excess of $3 billion, and/or R&D expenditure in excess of $500 million, and represents the first 30 or so companies in this list. There are 50 such companies.
In 2006 reporter Barbara Dreyfuss wrote an article in The American Prospect titled, INSIDE JOB. In the article she discussed the Medicare Drug Benefit Program, Bush’s ode to Big Pharma. The Medicare Drug Benefit Program basically guaranteed that the federal government wouldn’t use its leverage to negotiate lower drug prices with drug companies. Not surprisingly, the Republican congress rammed through the legislation., which Bush happily signed. Here are excerpts from her article:
Humana's profits jumped 10 percent, much better than Wall Street had anticipated, helped by a surge in seniors enrolling in Humana's Medicare drug and HMO plans. Membership in their drug program now stands at 3.46 million, up a million and a half in the last three months. This increase in enrollment brought Humana $801 million in new revenue…Simply put, the Medicare drug program has been good news for Humana. But for seniors who had hoped that the Medicare drug plan, which began in January, would relieve them of worries about drug costs, things are not so rosy. About one-fifth of seniors in the Medicare program, concentrated especially among the poor who had been on Medicaid, report that they now pay more for their medicines than they had before. Since insurers can decide which drugs they cover and which they won't, many seniors are finding that new medicines they need are not paid for by their plan. And millions of enrollees are now approaching the level of total drug expenses that will provoke a cutoff from any further Medicare help with costs -- the now-infamous "donut hole."
Since the bill's passage, insurers have benefited further from how the Bush administration has implemented the program. For example, while the government is supposed to reclaim excess profits from companies, the administration has built in a profit margin for plans before they have to pay the government anything. Medicare also allows insurers to determine what drugs they cover (within categories) and to drop a drug from coverage virtually at will.
The Axes of Oil
In January 2001 Vice President Dick Cheney formed the Energy Task Force, which according to SourceWatch: included Eli Bebout (Cheney’s compatriot who owns an oil and drilling company), Red Cavaney (President of the American Petroleum Institute), Jack N. Gerard(former National Mining Association), Wayne Gibbens and Alby Modiano (U.S. Oil and Gas Association), Alan Huffman (former Conoco manager), the late Kenneth L. Lay (then head of Enron), Bob Malone (British Petroleum regional president, and Peter Davies, chief economist, and "company employees" Graham Barr and Deb Beaubien), Steven Miller (Shell Oil chairmanand two others), Sir Mark Moody-Stuart (Royal Dutch/Shell Group's chairman), James J. Rouse (former Exxon vice president), J. Robinson West (chairman of the Washington-based consulting firm PFC Energy), and last but not least, Daniel Yergin (chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates and author of The Prize, a history of the oil industry").
Cheney said of the distinguished Task Force: "We have developed a national energy policy designed to help bring together business, government, local communities and citizens to promote dependable, affordable and environmentally sound energy for the future."
Cheney must have seen the future. The price of petro has risen to $4 dollars a gallon, causing a ripple effect in food and transportation costs. Simultaneously, we are seeing oil companies make profits never seen before in human history. Exxon’s gross revenue was $404 billion dollars, that is B as in billion. Exxon’s net income was $40.6 billion dollars; again, that is a B as in billion. Other contenders like Chevron net profit was $18.7 billion, and Shell’s was $31 billion, according to the New York Times.
Senator Schumer said it best, “Congratulations to Exxon Mobil and Chevron — for reminding Americans why they cringe every time they pull into a gas station.”
Even as Big Oil execs wipe their asses with obscene amounts of cash, the Bush administration has provided subsidies for the oil companies by way of an energy bill. New York Times reported in 2006, that the Bush administration was going to waive $7 billion in royalties over five years. Bush in fact signed an energy bill in 2.6 billion in tax breaks and a ten-year royalty relief program.
As the four industrial complexes: military, pharmaceutical, prison, and oil have shown us, they find a way to create a need for their products. In all four instances, we have seen a rise in the manufacturing of circumstances to which these industrialists will bilk the federal government of money and subsidies. They are the hammers, for which every problem has become the nail. They have become the shadow government, completely infecting and twisting government policy to benefit the good of the industry, rather than the health of the democracy. Bush has gone so far as to infect the United States Supreme Court with two corporatists Judges John Roberts and Samuel Alito, to further solidify the gains made by neocons and the corporate pirates.
The Media Industrial Complex
Twenty five years ago, just a generation ago, there were 50 corporations that owned media in the United States. By 1992, that 50 had dwindled down to twelve. By 2000, only six corporations owned most of the media in the United States--but wait, there's more. By 2004, there were only five corporations owning most of the media in the United States - Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) -- now control most of the media industry in the U.S. General Electric's NBC is a close sixth. Media consolidation has created a unique situation, where about five people filter through everything we hear, see and read. Count'em, five CEOs socializing us to become thinkless, consumers. Imagine, that.
Americans praise themselves as informed, virtuous and thoughtful. The idea that the United States government in the 21st century could oppress, deprive US citizens and foreign countries of their autonomy, detain foreign nationals indefinitely, advocate torture and where perpetual war, is peace, is unthinkable. Aldous Huxley, author of the "Brave New World" satirized that "people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think."
Media critic Ben Bagdikian stated in his 1998 book The Media Monopoly, "At issue is the possession of power to surround almost every man, woman and child in the country with controlled images and words, to socialize each new generation of Americans, to alter the political agenda of the country" (Bagdikian, IX). Under this new imperial paradigm, corporate expansionism, and acquisition and ownership of mass media by industrial corporations such as newspapers, book publishing, magazines, broadcast and cable news has allowed these corporations to exercise unprecedented influence over national legislation and government agencies.
Media Consolidation began in earnest under President Reagan, extended under Bush I, accelerated under Clinton, and under Bush II, as they say here in Brooklyn, fagetaboutit.
Fox News
It was the Telecommunication Act of 1996, under Bill Clinton that invited one Rupert Murdoch, a reincarnated Herman Goering into the sandbox of media conglomeration. Murdoch's financial reach and his ability to change reality through his mechanized propaganda news machine reminds me very much of what Goering once said while standing trail in Nuremberg after World War II.
He stated, Naturally, the common people don’t want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”
According to Businessweek, "his[Murdoch’s] satellites deliver TV programs in five continents, all but dominating Britain, Italy, and wide swaths of Asia and the Middle East. He publishes 175 newspapers, including the New York Post and The Times of London. In the U.S., he owns the Twentieth Century Fox Studio, Fox Network, and 35 TV stations that reach more than 40% of the country...His cable channels include fast-growing Fox News, and 19 regional sports channels. In all, as many as one in five American homes at any given time will be tuned into a show News Corp. either produced or delivered."
Murdoch is a neoconservative and once said of Tony Blair’s support of Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, "I think Tony [Blair] is being extraordinarily courageous and strong on what his stance is in the Middle East. It's not easy to do that living in a party which is largely composed of people that have a knee-jerk anti-Americanism and are sort of pacifist…” and of Bush, he said, "We can't back down now. I think Bush is acting very morally, very correctly, and I think he is going to go on with it."
Rachel Maddow of Air America succinctly, and eloquently stated that Fox News in part was created to destroy the Democratic Party. Murdoch has partly succeeded in his bid to destroy the Democratic Party; they often use Republican talking points in order to gain credibility on their own issues. See below:
Fox News has created a parallel universe for the Republican Party to which they can do no wrong. Also, in this universe, neoconservatism is the new centrist; anything outside of this purview is far-left. Fox News has managed to start whisper campaigns against Democratic candidates, which have become full-blown stories in the mainstream corporate media.
When Howard Dean ran for president in 2004, he was the front-runner, much like Obama is today. And in December of 2003 Howard Dean appeared on Chris Matthew’s Hardball. It went something like this:
"Eleven companies in this country control 90 percent of what ordinary people are able to read and watch on their television," Dean said. "That's wrong. We need to have a wide variety of opinions in every community."
Host Chris Matthews asked whether Dean would "break up these conglomerations of power" -- specifically "large media enterprises." The candidate replied: "The answer to that is yes. I would say that there is too much penetration by single corporations in media markets all over this country."
Dean added a comment that could be echoed in communities across the nation: "We need locally-owned radio stations. There are only two or three radio stations left in the state of Vermont where you can get local news anymore. The rest of it is read and ripped from the AP."
Pressing for more clarity about Dean's presidential agenda, Matthews asked: "Are you going to break up the giant media enterprises in this country?"
"Yes, we're going to break up giant media enterprises," Dean responded. Moments later he went on: "What we're going to do is say that media enterprises can't be as big as they are today. I don't think we actually have to break them up, which Teddy Roosevelt had to do with the leftovers from the McKinley administration. ... If the state has an interest -- which it does -- in preserving democracy, then there has to be a limitation on how deeply the media companies can penetrate every single community. To the extent of even having two or three or four outlets in a single community, that kind of information control is not compatible with democracy."
It was after saying this that the Media Industrial Complex would sink Dean’s candidacy with this:
The corporate media continues to marginalize Dean to this day.
Fox News with the help of the mainstream corporate press have marginalized and distracted Democratic candidates with bullshit like moral values, weakness, and lack of patriotism. Fox and others have an ongoing campaign against, Democratic presidential candidates. Fox News leads with the smearing, and the mainstream corporate press picks it up and normalizes the lies.
Here is Fox’s taking on John Edwards:
Here is Fox attacking Obama:
Corporate Media
The purpose of media has moved from advocacy to propagandizing and moving product. As I said before it doesn’t matter if it is soap or a war, the pitch is the same. Keep repeating what you say, and people will start to believe you and buy what you’re selling.
The Media Industrial Complex is not a conspiracy theory, it is, what it is. It’s main objective is to conform the American citizen into a consumer. It pretends to offer choices, but those choices are consumer ones.
Americans have lost their political choices because of the influence of oil, pharmaceutical, military, prison and media conglomerates that work our politicians like meat puppets. This is why Fox News, MSNBC,, CNN, and others can operate with contempt as they do. An obtuse public have been convinced that they have political choices when in reality, there is very little. Candidates such as Denis Kucinich, Ron Paul, Howard Dean, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, John McCain version 1.0 and others are discredited early and treated as jokes.
Today’s corporate candidates are being sponsored like NASCAR, if there were a law that required politicians to wear patches of the companies that have financially contributed to their campaigns, we would be able to see the extent of the sickness.
Yeah we have a choice between 26 brands of cereal, but why do we have no choice in our politicians? If anything, the industrial complex has shown us that they will use their power to get their way to the detriment of the country, and humanity.
THE MEDIA INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
by Malik Isasis
President Dwight Eisenhower upon his last address to the country in 1961, coined the term, Military Industrial Complex, referring to the industries that begun dedicating themselves to full-time armament production. President Eisenhower, a military general, feared that those companies would create a perpetual need for their products by influencing the political process. Listen to Eisenhower’s speech:
If there is such a thing, Eisenhower was more than correct. The influence of the Military Industrial Complex has compromised our democracy, and its spiritual soul. Citizens can march in the hundreds of millions across the country and the world with no effect in influencing politicians on war policy. Politicians do as they will, with Military Industrialists acting as Iago in Othello’s ear. Surely, they whisper that using small conflicts is a way to test the latest and greatest weaponry.
Since the rise of the Military Industrial Complex at the end of World War II, the United States has been in a state of perpetual war--starting with Korea 1950-53, Indonesia, 1950-53, Guatemala 1950-53, Congo 1964, Cuba 1959-61 Vietnam 1961-73, Peru 1965, Laos 1964-73, Cambodia 1969-70, Lebanon 1982-83, Grenada 1983, El Salvador 1980, Libya 1986, Nicaragua, Bosnia, Iraq 1990-current. That’s 58 years and counting of non-stop warring.
The Rise of Industrial Complexes as Shadow Governments
Just as the rise of the Military Industrial Complex gave rise to Militarists, the Prison Industrial Complex gave rise to Mandatory Sentencing Laws, which for ambitious prosecutors would be a spring board into politics, e.g. Rudy Giuliani. Mandatory Sentencing Laws caused the population of people in prison for non-violent offenses to increase significantly. It became okay to treat children under 18 years of age as adults. In an Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch 157-page report, they found that 2,225 children, 16% of whom, were between the ages of 13 and 15 years old, serving life without parole.
The Mandatory Sentencing Laws effects African and Latino Americans disproportionately, and according to Human Rights Watch of the total population of 1,976,019 incarcerated in adult facilities, 1,239,946 or 63 percent are black or Latino, though these two groups constitute only 25 percent of the national population.
The Prison Industrial Complex is a mixture of government and corporate interests working in tandem, the more people that are incarcerated, the need for facilities to contain them, increases.
What is the most profitable industry in America? Weapons, oil and computer technology all offer high rates of return, but there is probably no sector of the economy so abloom with money as the privately run prison industry.
Consider the growth of the Corrections Corporation of America, the industry leader whose stock price has climbed from $8 a share in 1992 to about $30 today and whose revenue rose by 81 per cent in 1995 alone. Investors in Wackenhut Corrections Corp. have enjoyed an average return of 18 per cent during the past five years and the company is rated by Forbes as one of the top 200 small businesses in the country. At Esmor, another big private prison contractor, revenues have soared from $4.6 million in 1990 to more than $25 million in 1995.
Ten years ago there were just five privately-run prisons in the country, housing a population of 2,000. Today nearly a score of private firms run more than 100 prisons with about 62,000 beds. That's still less than five per cent of the total market but the industry is expanding fast, with the number of private prison beds expected to grow to 360,000 during the next decade.
Big Pharma
The Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex, more commonly known as ‘Big Pharma’ refer to companies with revenue in excess of $3 billion, and/or R&D expenditure in excess of $500 million, and represents the first 30 or so companies in this list. There are 50 such companies.
In 2006 reporter Barbara Dreyfuss wrote an article in The American Prospect titled, INSIDE JOB. In the article she discussed the Medicare Drug Benefit Program, Bush’s ode to Big Pharma. The Medicare Drug Benefit Program basically guaranteed that the federal government wouldn’t use its leverage to negotiate lower drug prices with drug companies. Not surprisingly, the Republican congress rammed through the legislation., which Bush happily signed. Here are excerpts from her article:
Humana's profits jumped 10 percent, much better than Wall Street had anticipated, helped by a surge in seniors enrolling in Humana's Medicare drug and HMO plans. Membership in their drug program now stands at 3.46 million, up a million and a half in the last three months. This increase in enrollment brought Humana $801 million in new revenue…Simply put, the Medicare drug program has been good news for Humana. But for seniors who had hoped that the Medicare drug plan, which began in January, would relieve them of worries about drug costs, things are not so rosy. About one-fifth of seniors in the Medicare program, concentrated especially among the poor who had been on Medicaid, report that they now pay more for their medicines than they had before. Since insurers can decide which drugs they cover and which they won't, many seniors are finding that new medicines they need are not paid for by their plan. And millions of enrollees are now approaching the level of total drug expenses that will provoke a cutoff from any further Medicare help with costs -- the now-infamous "donut hole."
Since the bill's passage, insurers have benefited further from how the Bush administration has implemented the program. For example, while the government is supposed to reclaim excess profits from companies, the administration has built in a profit margin for plans before they have to pay the government anything. Medicare also allows insurers to determine what drugs they cover (within categories) and to drop a drug from coverage virtually at will.
The Axes of Oil
In January 2001 Vice President Dick Cheney formed the Energy Task Force, which according to SourceWatch: included Eli Bebout (Cheney’s compatriot who owns an oil and drilling company), Red Cavaney (President of the American Petroleum Institute), Jack N. Gerard(former National Mining Association), Wayne Gibbens and Alby Modiano (U.S. Oil and Gas Association), Alan Huffman (former Conoco manager), the late Kenneth L. Lay (then head of Enron), Bob Malone (British Petroleum regional president, and Peter Davies, chief economist, and "company employees" Graham Barr and Deb Beaubien), Steven Miller (Shell Oil chairmanand two others), Sir Mark Moody-Stuart (Royal Dutch/Shell Group's chairman), James J. Rouse (former Exxon vice president), J. Robinson West (chairman of the Washington-based consulting firm PFC Energy), and last but not least, Daniel Yergin (chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates and author of The Prize, a history of the oil industry").
Cheney said of the distinguished Task Force: "We have developed a national energy policy designed to help bring together business, government, local communities and citizens to promote dependable, affordable and environmentally sound energy for the future."
Cheney must have seen the future. The price of petro has risen to $4 dollars a gallon, causing a ripple effect in food and transportation costs. Simultaneously, we are seeing oil companies make profits never seen before in human history. Exxon’s gross revenue was $404 billion dollars, that is B as in billion. Exxon’s net income was $40.6 billion dollars; again, that is a B as in billion. Other contenders like Chevron net profit was $18.7 billion, and Shell’s was $31 billion, according to the New York Times.
Senator Schumer said it best, “Congratulations to Exxon Mobil and Chevron — for reminding Americans why they cringe every time they pull into a gas station.”
Even as Big Oil execs wipe their asses with obscene amounts of cash, the Bush administration has provided subsidies for the oil companies by way of an energy bill. New York Times reported in 2006, that the Bush administration was going to waive $7 billion in royalties over five years. Bush in fact signed an energy bill in 2.6 billion in tax breaks and a ten-year royalty relief program.
As the four industrial complexes: military, pharmaceutical, prison, and oil have shown us, they find a way to create a need for their products. In all four instances, we have seen a rise in the manufacturing of circumstances to which these industrialists will bilk the federal government of money and subsidies. They are the hammers, for which every problem has become the nail. They have become the shadow government, completely infecting and twisting government policy to benefit the good of the industry, rather than the health of the democracy. Bush has gone so far as to infect the United States Supreme Court with two corporatists Judges John Roberts and Samuel Alito, to further solidify the gains made by neocons and the corporate pirates.
The Media Industrial Complex
Twenty five years ago, just a generation ago, there were 50 corporations that owned media in the United States. By 1992, that 50 had dwindled down to twelve. By 2000, only six corporations owned most of the media in the United States--but wait, there's more. By 2004, there were only five corporations owning most of the media in the United States - Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) -- now control most of the media industry in the U.S. General Electric's NBC is a close sixth. Media consolidation has created a unique situation, where about five people filter through everything we hear, see and read. Count'em, five CEOs socializing us to become thinkless, consumers. Imagine, that.
Americans praise themselves as informed, virtuous and thoughtful. The idea that the United States government in the 21st century could oppress, deprive US citizens and foreign countries of their autonomy, detain foreign nationals indefinitely, advocate torture and where perpetual war, is peace, is unthinkable. Aldous Huxley, author of the "Brave New World" satirized that "people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think."
Media critic Ben Bagdikian stated in his 1998 book The Media Monopoly, "At issue is the possession of power to surround almost every man, woman and child in the country with controlled images and words, to socialize each new generation of Americans, to alter the political agenda of the country" (Bagdikian, IX). Under this new imperial paradigm, corporate expansionism, and acquisition and ownership of mass media by industrial corporations such as newspapers, book publishing, magazines, broadcast and cable news has allowed these corporations to exercise unprecedented influence over national legislation and government agencies.
Media Consolidation began in earnest under President Reagan, extended under Bush I, accelerated under Clinton, and under Bush II, as they say here in Brooklyn, fagetaboutit.
Fox News
It was the Telecommunication Act of 1996, under Bill Clinton that invited one Rupert Murdoch, a reincarnated Herman Goering into the sandbox of media conglomeration. Murdoch's financial reach and his ability to change reality through his mechanized propaganda news machine reminds me very much of what Goering once said while standing trail in Nuremberg after World War II.
He stated, Naturally, the common people don’t want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”
According to Businessweek, "his[Murdoch’s] satellites deliver TV programs in five continents, all but dominating Britain, Italy, and wide swaths of Asia and the Middle East. He publishes 175 newspapers, including the New York Post and The Times of London. In the U.S., he owns the Twentieth Century Fox Studio, Fox Network, and 35 TV stations that reach more than 40% of the country...His cable channels include fast-growing Fox News, and 19 regional sports channels. In all, as many as one in five American homes at any given time will be tuned into a show News Corp. either produced or delivered."
Murdoch is a neoconservative and once said of Tony Blair’s support of Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, "I think Tony [Blair] is being extraordinarily courageous and strong on what his stance is in the Middle East. It's not easy to do that living in a party which is largely composed of people that have a knee-jerk anti-Americanism and are sort of pacifist…” and of Bush, he said, "We can't back down now. I think Bush is acting very morally, very correctly, and I think he is going to go on with it."
Rachel Maddow of Air America succinctly, and eloquently stated that Fox News in part was created to destroy the Democratic Party. Murdoch has partly succeeded in his bid to destroy the Democratic Party; they often use Republican talking points in order to gain credibility on their own issues. See below:
Fox News has created a parallel universe for the Republican Party to which they can do no wrong. Also, in this universe, neoconservatism is the new centrist; anything outside of this purview is far-left. Fox News has managed to start whisper campaigns against Democratic candidates, which have become full-blown stories in the mainstream corporate media.
When Howard Dean ran for president in 2004, he was the front-runner, much like Obama is today. And in December of 2003 Howard Dean appeared on Chris Matthew’s Hardball. It went something like this:
"Eleven companies in this country control 90 percent of what ordinary people are able to read and watch on their television," Dean said. "That's wrong. We need to have a wide variety of opinions in every community."
Host Chris Matthews asked whether Dean would "break up these conglomerations of power" -- specifically "large media enterprises." The candidate replied: "The answer to that is yes. I would say that there is too much penetration by single corporations in media markets all over this country."
Dean added a comment that could be echoed in communities across the nation: "We need locally-owned radio stations. There are only two or three radio stations left in the state of Vermont where you can get local news anymore. The rest of it is read and ripped from the AP."
Pressing for more clarity about Dean's presidential agenda, Matthews asked: "Are you going to break up the giant media enterprises in this country?"
"Yes, we're going to break up giant media enterprises," Dean responded. Moments later he went on: "What we're going to do is say that media enterprises can't be as big as they are today. I don't think we actually have to break them up, which Teddy Roosevelt had to do with the leftovers from the McKinley administration. ... If the state has an interest -- which it does -- in preserving democracy, then there has to be a limitation on how deeply the media companies can penetrate every single community. To the extent of even having two or three or four outlets in a single community, that kind of information control is not compatible with democracy."
It was after saying this that the Media Industrial Complex would sink Dean’s candidacy with this:
The corporate media continues to marginalize Dean to this day.
Fox News with the help of the mainstream corporate press have marginalized and distracted Democratic candidates with bullshit like moral values, weakness, and lack of patriotism. Fox and others have an ongoing campaign against, Democratic presidential candidates. Fox News leads with the smearing, and the mainstream corporate press picks it up and normalizes the lies.
Here is Fox’s taking on John Edwards:
Here is Fox attacking Obama:
Corporate Media
The purpose of media has moved from advocacy to propagandizing and moving product. As I said before it doesn’t matter if it is soap or a war, the pitch is the same. Keep repeating what you say, and people will start to believe you and buy what you’re selling.
The Media Industrial Complex is not a conspiracy theory, it is, what it is. It’s main objective is to conform the American citizen into a consumer. It pretends to offer choices, but those choices are consumer ones.
Americans have lost their political choices because of the influence of oil, pharmaceutical, military, prison and media conglomerates that work our politicians like meat puppets. This is why Fox News, MSNBC,, CNN, and others can operate with contempt as they do. An obtuse public have been convinced that they have political choices when in reality, there is very little. Candidates such as Denis Kucinich, Ron Paul, Howard Dean, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, John McCain version 1.0 and others are discredited early and treated as jokes.
Today’s corporate candidates are being sponsored like NASCAR, if there were a law that required politicians to wear patches of the companies that have financially contributed to their campaigns, we would be able to see the extent of the sickness.
Yeah we have a choice between 26 brands of cereal, but why do we have no choice in our politicians? If anything, the industrial complex has shown us that they will use their power to get their way to the detriment of the country, and humanity.
posted by Malik Isasis at
8:28 PM
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