There's Nothing Mainstream About the Corporate Media

As we stumble toward another presidential election, it's never been more clear that our political process is being warped by a corporate stranglehold on the free flow of information. Amidst a virtual blackout of coverage of a horrific war, a global ecological crisis and an advancing economic collapse, what passes for the mass media is itself in collapse. What's left of our democracy teeters on the brink.

The culprit, in the parlance of the day, has been the "Mainstream Media," or MSM.

But that's wrong name for it. Today's mass media is Corporate, not Mainstream, and the distinction is critical.

Calling the Corporate Media (CM) "mainstream" implies that it speaks for mid-road opinion, and it absolutely does not.

There is, in fact, a discernable, tangible mainstream of opinion in this country. As brilliant analysts such as Jeff Cohen, Norman Solomon and the Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) organization have shown, the "MSM" is very far to the right of it.

The mainstream of American opinion wants this country out of Iraq. The Corporate Media does not. It refuses to give serious coverage to the devastating human, spiritual and economic costs of the war, and it marginalizes those demanding it end.

The mainstream of American opinion wants national health care. The CM does not.

The mainstream of American opinion is deeply distrustful and in many ways hostile to the power of large corporations. Obviously, the CM is not.

The mainstream of American opinion strongly questions whether our elections are being manipulated and stolen. The CM treats with contempt those who dare report on the issue.

The Corporate Media takes partisan stands (often in favor of the Republican Party, but always in defense of corporate interests) by sabotaging political candidacies, especially those of candidates who challenge corporate power. This year it blacklisted the populist candidacy of John Edwards, suffocating his ability to compete for the Democratic nomination.

Mainstream American opinion is no fan of George W. Bush and does not take him seriously as a credible leader. A very substantial percentage has long wanted him and Dick Cheney impeached and removed from office. The CM does not tolerate such a discussion, and utterly marginalizes Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the veteran Congressman who has dared to seriously raise the possibility.

Mainstream American opinion is committed to protecting what's left of the natural environment. The Corporate Media makes an occasional show of sharing that concern, but stops where Corporate interests might be impinged. On the other hand, it promotes failed technologies, such as nuke power, where centralized, corporate profits are huge.

Never in our history has the control of the nation's sources of information been more centralized, or more at odds with what the country as a whole believes.

This divergence is not limited to the attack pack fringe of far-right bloviators who dominate the Corporate opinion print columns and talk shows. Virtually all "personal" opinion expressed on the corporate airwaves and in the syndicated big newspaper columns is significantly to the pro-corporate right of moderate American opinion.

The "news" pushed by the major radio/TV networks and newspapers slants unerringly toward the interests of the five major corporations that own the bulk of them. They bury stories of vital importance while spewing endless hours and column inches at the mind-deadening likes of Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears.

Their excuse is that they "give the public what it wants" and are "in business to make a profit."

But the real profit centers of the corporations that own the CM are not in providing news and information. General Electric, Westinghouse, Disney and the other media-financial-industrial behemoths have too much to lose from an accurate reporting of the true news of the world. To protect their core interests, they are bread-and-circus PR/diversion machines, not real news organizations. They resemble the old Soviet official mouthpieces Izvestia and Pravda far more than the news providers envisioned in the First Amendment, by Founders who saw balanced, aggressive reporting as the lifeblood of democracy.

Nor does the corporate right never hesitate to attack. Since Vice President Spiro Agnew assaulted those who dared report the truth about the Vietnam War, the absurd myth of a "Liberal Media" has been used to intimidate and silence mainstream opinion.

In fact, the term is used to apply to any outlet that harbors even the slightest expression of dissent. Even conservative newspapers or broadcasts that may be overwhelmingly pro-corporate, but which occasionally tolerate a whiff of dissent, are branded as subversive, ungodly and "out of the mainstream."

There are indeed liberal publications and radio shows in this country. But it's no accident that they struggle financially, and for access to the airwaves.

Thankfully, just as the CM solidifies its power over our mass media outlets, the internet has burst forth as an open, wildly diverse medium for mainstream opinion and actual truth. Its preservation will require what Thomas Jefferson called "eternal vigilance."

That includes restoring the Fairness Doctrine, enacted by a Republican Congress in the 1920s to guarantee balanced opinion on the emerging electronic medium of radio. It means a ban on unified corporate ownership of large fleets of radio, TV and print outlets. It means busting up the monopolies that warp public access to information and opinion.

The word "mainstream" has nothing to do with the massively monopolized machine that has a chokehold on our democracy. It's the "Corporate Media," and there's nothing mainstream about it.

Comments

[Alvin4NY]

Very well stated. When will America figure it out?

[bmora]

You know your coutry is in trouble when you hear rightwing bias on NPR.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

The foundations for our democracy began to crumble at the time when a group of governmental officials decided to finance Operation Mockingbird against us.

[CRUSADER]

Excellent post Harvey. Absolutely a must read to be sent out to all our friends and families. Americans need to reign-in the CM and the FCC.

[mellene]

You're absolutely right about it being corporate media. It will bring down most of the information that real Americans need to make an informed decision.

[freespeach]

Wow, what a great post Harvey!

Breaking free of this Orwellian nightmare requires people to see the truth first. The corrupt media deny that to 90% of the population who believe them.

The rest of us 10% er's do our homework on line, sifting through the bullshit, driving ourselves crazy as we see the truth revealed.

I fear that by the time things are bad enough for the masses to realize that we are being screwed over by fascist corporate America....it may be too late for a peaceful revolt.

While our nation obsesses on celebrity crap and "reality" TV, new laws are being passed and our corporate masters are preparing for the day when they will need to use force.....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-giraldi/the-violent-radicalizatio_b_74091.html

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/FBI_program_alleged_to_prepare_businesses_0208.html

[InofTouch]

great...fighting over Semantics

[SamThornton]

Great points, Harvey. "Corporate Media" is much more accurate than "MSM." Media consolidation not only reduces choice, it provides an open invitation for the sort of homogenized infotainment competition we see daily.

Some day, in the far, distant future, someone, somewhere is going to have an "aha!" moment and realize that the competitive, capitalist business model is a cookie cutter not necessarily the most appropriate to each and every human endeavor for all time.

[Durango]

Excellent post. This is the single most critical issue if we have any hope of redeeming our democracy.

Which is why I think Media Matters is one of the most important institutions in America.

Another example (as if that is needed.)

Remember EVERYONE in the CM saying the Iraqi war was NOT about oil?

Any examination of America and it's Foreign Policy since World War II will lead to the inevitable conclusion that America is pursuing Neo_Imperialism. That our actions in the Middle East are simply a continuation of what we have been doing to Latin America for decades. (torture, disappearing people, overthrowing governments we don't like etc etc)

Yet anyone who reaches the obvious conclusion America is driven by Neo-Imperialism (actually Iraq is the old fashioned kind.) is immediately barred from the Corporate Media.

You never ever hear a discussion of what is patently obvious.

[OSUMercutio]

[The Corporate Media takes partisan stands (often in favor of the Republican Party, but always in defense of corporate interests) by sabotaging political candidacies, especially those of candidates who challenge corporate power. This year it blacklisted the populist candidacy of John Edwards, suffocating his ability to compete for the Democratic nomination]

Same thing happened to Huckabee

[tinkaboutit]

The great election theft of 2008 began months ago as the "unelectable" candidates were identified, branded, demonized, ridiculed and eventually weeded out one by one. It ended on January 30 when John Edwards, resurgent neo-populist and the last remaining bane of status quo oligarchs, dropped out of the Democratic presidential race.

Only six states had a chance to make their selections known before Edwards ended his campaign; residents in the other 44 have no progressive alternative on the ballot. With "super Tuesday" coming up, millions of voters will be asked to choose among candidates from the moderate right, the corporate right, the religiously insane right or the Curtis LeMay right.

So, through deft manipulation of voter attitudes by mass media, status quo corporatists and oligarchs can't really lose. This outcome may not meet the standard for election theft, but the results speak for themselves. Our ruling aristocracy has hijacked another critical election cycle, and they didn't even need electronic vote switching, voter caging, voter roll purging, deceptive mailers, stolen or destroyed ballots, access to proprietary source code, hacking for the GOP or simple understaffing in progressive precincts. At least not yet.

Nope. This variation on election theft just required that people turn their televisions to any of the conventional mass media news outlets -- notably Fox, CNN or MSNBC -- find a political talk show or panel discussion or rant fest, and internalize the labels attached to some of this year's presidential candidates: "controversial," "unelectable," "unconventional," "goofy," "loser," "weird," "outside the American mainstream," "radical." The candidates not so labeled are, by definition, the serious contenders and therefore the only ones we need to watch.

[luziannagirl]

Rupert Murdoch, Tim Russert, John Stossel, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity, those are OUR airwaves you're using to make obscene profits at our expense, and WE want them back!

Perhaps a massive rolling consumer boycott of all airwave advertised products, starting with...how about...MSNBC, the network which DARED to use the term "pimped out" regarding the honorable and legal behavior of a former First Daughter?

I mean, since money is really the only language the Party of Greed speaks, why not send the only message they can understand?

[luziannagirl]

"MSM" is really not skewed to the political Red, the Blue, and certainly not the Green.

MSM is skewed to the Greed.

Many on the political right have long been appalled at gratuitious violence, sex, and sadism on TV, and incorrectly attributed its prevalence to the "godless liberals" in Hollywood. Liberals now are pointing their accusing fingers at MSM, attributing all the horrors of the "vast wasteland" to takeover by right-wing conservatives.

It's really neither.

We should make another political genere in addition to the traditional "Right" and "Left", and it should be "Greed".

What color should "Greed" be? Black?

[protagonia]

luziannagirl,

Greed is green.

So budget conscious, it only replaced one letter.

[RabidRightRebel]

Rupert Murdoch the majority owner of FOX Corporation personally got over 3 billion in tax breaks and unrestricted opportunities to expand FOX's operation from the Bush Administration. With that kind o bribe why would he ever allow anything but positive spin on the Bush Administration. Although I don't know the details of the other major media outlets I am sure GE and Company got similiar treatment.

[tompoe]

Aaahh, one of those "the emporer has no clothes" moments. Can it be that simple? Just stop the MSM acronym, silence the "mainstream media" phrase, and call a spade a spade? Bush is a war criminal. Mainstream media is corporate media. Hmmmm. Seems easy enough. Wireless network, Wifi, disappears. Broadband infrastructure appears. Community broadband infrastructure replaces municipal wifi. Well, sign me up. Is it a boycott thingy, or just a mindset readjustment? Will it hurt? You know, apply common sense where drinking the Kool-Aid used to be? :)