Corporate Media's Threat to Democracy
"Whoever controls the
media, controls the peoples' minds."
"There is no such thing
in America as an independent press, unless it is in the country
towns.
You know it and I know it.
There is not one of you who dares to writes (sic) his honest opinions,
and if you did you know beforehand that it would never appear
in print.
I am paid one hundred and fifty
dollars a week 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
his honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another
job.
The business of the New York
journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert,
to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his race
and his country for his daily bread.
You know this and I know it,
and what folly is this to be toasting an "Independent Press."
We are the tools and vassals
of 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, editor of the New
York Tribune, in the 1880s, at a banquet of his fellow editors
"The conscious and intelligent
manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses
is an important element in democratic society. "
Edward Bernays, "father"
of modern public relations (PR), on government propaganda
"One of the intentions
of corporate-controlled media is to instill in people a sense
of disempowerment, of immobilization and paralysis. Its outcome
is to turn you into good consumers. It is to keep people isolated,
to feel that there is no possibility for social change."
David Barsamian, journalist and
publisher
" The U.S. public is depoliticized,
poorly informed on foreign affairs ... and strongly patriotic
in the face of a struggle with "another Hitler". Even
though the public is normally averse to war, even with modest
propaganda efforts ... the public can be quickly transformed into
enthusiastic supporters of war."
Edward S. Herman, political economist
and author
" To keep information
from the public is the function of the corporate media."
Gore Vidal, Perpetual War for
Perpetual Peace
"The media serve the interests
of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing
their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established
privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly."
Noam Chomsky, American linguist
and US media and foreign policy critic
"In a dictatorship, censorship
in used; in a democracy, manipulation."
Ryszard Kapuscinski, journalist
" They just don't come
in contact with people not in their [income] bracket. They've
lost touch with their community."
Stan Opotowsky of ABC News, about
the journalistic elite - On Bended Knee
"The modern susceptibility
to conformity and obedience to authority indicates that the truth
endorsed by authority is likely to be accepted as such by a majority
of people, who are innately obedient to authority. This obedience-truth
will then become a consensus-truth accepted by many individuals
unable to stand alone against the majority. In this way, the truth
promulgated by the propaganda system - however irrational - stands
a good chance of becoming the consensus, and may come to seem
self-evident common sense."
David Edwards, author of Burning
All Illusions
"In the United States,
both the Republican and Democratic Parties, with only a few prominent
exceptions, have been and are in the pay of the corporate media
and communication giants."
John Nichols and Robert McChesney
"One of the intentions
of corporate-controlled media is to instill in people a sense
of disempowerment, of immobilization and paralysis. Its outcome
is to turn you into good consumers. It is to keep people isolated,
to feel that there is no possibility for social change."
David Barsamian, journalist
" The range of debate
between the dominant U.S. [political] parties tends to closely
resemble the range of debate within the business class. "
Robert McChesney, author and media
critic
"It's like Pravda... It's
a capitalist consolidation of the press - with consequences the
same as Pravda: Horrifying distortion and sabotage!"
Toni Morrison, author - decryng
the corporate media's silence about the disenfrancisement of thousands
of black voters in Florida during the 2000 presidential election
" The purpose of commercial
[media] is to induce mass sales. For mass sales there must be
a mass norm ... By suppressing the individual, the unique, the
industry ... assures itself a standard product for mass consumption."
John Whiting, writer, commenting
on the homogenization of corporate media program content
" I am astonished each
time I come to the U.S. by the ignorance of a high percentage
of the population, which knows almost nothing about Latin America
or about the world. It's quite blind and deaf to anything that
may happen outside the frontiers of the U.S..
Eduardo Galeano, Latin American
writer and historian
"In the media, the world
is turned upside down. The contras and the KLA are "democratizers";
the lethal sanctions against Iraq exist to deliver its people
from their dictator; the destruction of Yugoslavia through aerial
bombardment of civilians and their infrastructure is a "humanitarian
intervention."
Michelle Stoddard, CovertAction
Quarterly magazine
" Anyone who challenges
the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising
effectiveness. "
George Orwell, author of the book
"1984"
" I know of no country
in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom
of discussion as in America. "
Alexis de Tocqueville, 1805 -
1859, French political thinker and author of Democracy in America
" ... the airwaves belong
to the people. "
from the 1934 Communications Act
" The propaganda system
allows the U.S. Ieadership to commit crimes without limit and
with no suggestion of misbehavior or criminality; in fact, major
war criminals like Henry Kissinger appear regularly on TV to comment
on the crimes of the derivative butchers. "
Edward S. Herman, political economist
and author
"The range of debate between
the dominant U.S. [political] parties tends to closely resemble
the range of debate within the business class. "
Robert McChesney, author and media
critic
"If you want to know about
the world and understand and educate yourself, you have to dig;
dig up books and articles, read and find out for yourself."
John Stockwell, former CIA official
and author
" To accept opinions is
to gain the good solid feeling of being correct without having
to think. "
C. Wright Mills - from the book
The Power Elite
"The U.S. government officials
lie when they talk about human rights. They're a bunch of hypocrites
and liars.
You can't take it seriously."
Eqbal Ahmad, writer and activist
" When everyone is thinking
the same, no one is thinking."
John Wooden
"The media serve the interests
of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing
their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established
privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly."
Noam Chomsky, American linguist
and US media and foreign policy critic
" We are willing to accept
lies if they make our lives easier. "
Producer from the TV series "People's
Century", opining on why Americans tolerate unjust and inhumane
U.S. government policies, at home and abroad
"The loud little handful
will shout for war. The pulpit will warily and cautiously protest
at first.... The great mass of the nation will rub its sleepy
eyes, and will try to make out why there should be a war, and
they will say earnestly and indignantly: "It is unjust and
dishonorable and there is no need for war."
Then the few will shout even
louder.... Before long you will see a curious thing: anti-war
speakers will be stoned from the platform, and free speech will
be strangled by hordes of furious men who still agree with the
speakers but dare not admit it...
Next, the statesmen will invent
cheap lies...and each man will be glad of these lies and will
study them because they soothe his conscience; and thus he will
bye and bye convince himself that the war is just and he will
thank God for a better sleep he enjoys by his self-deception."
Mark Twain -- observing how wars
that are at first seen as unnecessary by the mass of the people
become converted into "just" wars
"The press ... traditionally
sides with authority and the establishment."
Sam Donaldson, ABC correspondent
- On Bended Knee
"The major media are large
corporations, owned by and interlinked with even larger conglomerates.
Like other corporations, they sell a product to a market. The
market is advertisers - that is, other businesses. The product
is audiences, [and] for the elite media, [they're] relatively
privileged audiences. So we have major corporations selling fairly
wealthy and privileged audiences to other businesses. Not surprisingly,
the picture of the world presented reflects the narrow and biased
interests and values of the sellers, the buyers and the product."
Noam Chomsky (from Take the Rich
Off Welfare - Odonian Press, p133)
" Like blackbirds in flight,
packs of reporters darken the sky, moving in swarms at the same
speed and in predictable trajectory. When one lands, they all
land. When one leaves, they all leave.
The programmers and channel
controllers from all the stations are part of the same well-paid
elite, steeped in the same values, committed to the mission of
maximizing audience share and profits. They are chosen for their
ability to play the game and not challenge the audience with too
many controversial ideas or critical perspectives. It's no surprise
that they circulate easily within the commanding heights of media
power, moving from company to company and job to job.
A kind of group think corporate
consensus, steeped in market logic and deeply inbred by an un-brave
news culture, breeds conscience-free conformity and self-censorship.
This makes frightening sense
in a globalized economy where consumerism is more desired than
active citizenship, where power is increasingly concentrated and
the public is increasingly unwelcome in a public discourse defined
by the powerful. If your goal is to numb people and drive them
away from active participation, then TV as "weapon of mass
distraction" and wall to wall entertainment makes sense.
Shut up and shop is the now the message, one that makes sense
to advertiser dominated media outlets... "
Danny Schechter, Dung on all their
Houses, Toward Freedom magazine, December / January 2000
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