The "liberal" media and the truth--Great article!

> Subject: The "liberal" media and the truth--Great
> article!
>
> 'Liberating the 'liberal media''
> May 08
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
> By Jason Miller
>
> "The Times" are changing for the better! As the
> universe has been since
> the advent of the Big Bang, The Fourth Estate is in
> a tumultuous state
> of evolution. Public trust in the integrity of the
> mainstream media has
> been significantly weakened, and justifiably so.
> Dave Helling,
> a television journalist in Kansas City, recently
> suggested that America
> is undergoing a significant paradigm shift in the
> way consumers get
> their news. Alternative media sources on the
> Internet, and the
> phenomenon of blogging, pose a significant threat to
> the long-standing
> reign of traditional forms of news delivery.
>
> Recent Nielsen ratings show that 75% of American
> homes now have an
> Internet connection. According to the Pew Research
> Firm, network news
> audiences halved from 1993 to 2000. In 2004, about
> 32% of Americans got
> their news consistently from network news. 42% of
> Americans read daily
> newspapers, down from 58% in 1994. Meanwhile, one
> in three Americans
> got most of their news from the Internet in 2004,
> and 22 million
> Americans were reading blogs regularly. The nascent
> Internet media is
> challenging mainstream media, and in turn freeing
> the Fourth Estate from
> its servitude to corporate and government interests.
>
> Why would the Internet pose a threat to the
> mainstream news
> entities, often referred to as the "liberal media"?
> To answer this, one
> needs to realize that there is very little that is
> liberal about the
> mainstream media. Power moguls created the myth of
> the "liberal
> media" as a red herring to distract the American
> public from the true
> nature of the mainstream media.
>
> Just 29 companies comprise the ownership of media
> entities that provide
> nearly all mainstream media broadcasts and over half
> of mainstream
> newspaper publication. To appreciate the absurdity
> of calling the
> mainstream media "liberal", simply consider the fact
> that some of the
> world's most powerful corporations control the
> delivery of the news to a
> vast majority of Americans who rely on the
> mainstream media as their
> source. What are the motives of the corporate
> masters of our "liberal
> media"?
>
> Money, money, and more money...
>
> One corporate objective is profit, and to achieve
> this profit, they need
> to maximize the size of their audience to satisfy
> their advertisers.
> Sensational stories draw viewers. News becomes more
> of a of an
> entertainment venue than a source of valid
> information. The moral,
> spiritual, or historical impact of an event holds
> little meaning to the
> "masters of the information portals" in the
> mainstream media. The keys
> to "good news coverage" are shock value and the
> perpetuation of the
> media-inspired, narcissistic worldview that America
> is the center of the
> world. If on the same day, an industrial plant
> explosion killed 350
> children in India, and a jury found Michael Jackson
> guilty, the
> mainstreamers would feed Americans the Jackson story
> until they vomited,
> while the story of the Indian tragedy would appear
> as a mere footnote.
> More eyeballs mean more money from advertisers. News
> editors act as
> censors by determining what stories "make the cut".
> To please their
> corporate masters and grease the wheels of
> capitalism, America's
> censors prioritize our news to generate ratings and
> draw readers. The
> journalistic ideal of seeking truth for the public
> interest is all but
> dead in their world.
>
> Manipulation is power....
>
> More important than profit is the mainstream media
> ownership's interest
> in preserving the dominance of the corporation over
> the individual.
> Starting in the 1950's, post World War II America
> entered into a period
> of mass consumption and consumerism. Over the last
> half century, we have
> moved into a dark period of unparalleled avarice
> driven by obsession
> with materialism. The corporate owners of mass media
> utilize both
> mainstream news, and its accompanying advertising,
> to entice Americans
> to buy things they do not need and to create an
> image of what a
> "successful" person should be (i.e. thin, straight,
> tough, beautiful,
> young, wealthy). Through the medium of television,
> corporations have a
> captive audience to psychologically manipulate the
> American public into
> buying what they do not need. Think Saturday morning
> cartoons and toy
> commercials! Reaching millions of receptive minds at
> once, the corporate
> puppeteers also perpetuate the dominant paradigm of
> white
> male patriarchy and blind patriotism. Television,
> print and
> advertising empower the elite to perpetually employ
> their propaganda
> tactics to persuade the masses to allow them to
> maintain their tenacious
> grip on wealth and power. Meanwhile, the power of
> labor unions continues
> to wane, real wages decline, the wealth gap widens,
> the national debt
> skyrockets, social welfare programs are cut, taxes
> on the wealthy
> decline, and the military industrial complex reaps
> obscene profits
> as people bleed red to keep corporations out of the
> red.
>
> Despite the First Amendment, America's federal
> government manages
> to exploit the mainstream media as a tool to further
> its agenda. The
> most flagrant example in recent history has been the
> Bush
> administration's practice of hiring journalists to
> present its
> propaganda as "news". The US government spends a
> great deal of money to
> accommodate journalists by providing them with
> meeting facilities,
> carefully orchestrated press conferences,
> and propaganda. Government-funded think tanks
> generate reports that
> provide foundations for stories. Experts quoted and
> interviewed in
> mainstream reporting are often on the government
> payroll in some sense,
> even if only through grants. Providing journalists
> with such convenient
> sources of information gives the government a
> powerful means of
> exploiting the mainstream media to manipulate the
> public. Government and
> corporate elites share an inextricably linked
> interest
> in perpetuating America's belief in the power of
> patriarchy, unflinching
> loyalty to America, the virtue of consumption, and
> the dominance of the
> white male. Together, they cleverly employ the
> mainstream media to
> inculcate these dogmas into the collective psyche of
> America.
>
> While the mainstream media is corrupted by the
> influence of government
> and corporate interests, there are examples of
> journalistic integrity
> and journalists who challenge the system. To make a
> sweeping dismissal
> of every mainstream journalist would be unrealistic
> and unfair. The
> numerous muck-raking stories aired on "60 Minutes"
> exposing government
> and corporate corruption are examples of
> truth-seeking in the public's
> interest, but even Mike Wallace and "60 Minutes" are
> subject to
> corporate domination, as evidenced by the Jeffrey
> Wigand
> story. Journalists with high ideals still exist in
> mainstream media, but
> as Dave Helling indicated, they are a dying breed,
> and are often
> hand-cuffed by young editors who are servile to
> corporate interests.
>
> Freedom is a click or two away....
>
> The Internet is the hammer and anvil America needs
> to shatter the
> shackles of psychological tyranny perpetrated by the
> likes of Fox, the
> Washington Times, and columnists like Jonah
> Goldberg. Media mavens such
> as Michelle Malkin pollute our minds with ideas that
> are
> emotionally-driven, devoid of logic, and packed with
> endorsements of
> American hubris. Critical thinkers with a social
> conscience reel with
> nausea after a small dose of her rants. However, it
> is not difficult to
> visualize those who still believe that the
> mainstream media "preaches
> the gospel of truth" nodding their heads in silent
> assent as they
> internalize the abhorrent words of the likes of Anne
> Coulter. Mesmerized
> by the "power" of Anne's message, their thoughts
> might run like this:
>
> "Yes, yes, Anne, the liberals are the scourge of the
> Earth, the cause of
> the numerous ills in our society, and above all,
> they control the media,
> and are out to control our minds. Thank God we have
> courageous
> conservatives like you to save us from moral decay
> stemming from
> atheism, socialism, and homosexuality."
>
> The corporate ruling class does not tolerate
> assaults against the truths
> that "good Americans" hold to be self evident. They
> hire the Anne
> Coulters to preach the gospel that the Christian,
> white, straight male
> is the ruler of our land.
>
> "Where the true "liberal media" resides
>
> If there is a true "liberal media", it lies within
> the Internet.
> Americans now have unprecedented access to a
> smorgasbord of information.
> We are no longer limited to the steady,
> pre-determined diet of brain
> candy and propaganda served up by the mainstream
> media. The Internet is
> comprised of over two billion websites, providing a
> wealth of
> information drawn from virtually limitless resources
> spanning the globe.
> Brain candy and propaganda are readily available,
> but the Internet also
> opens paths for the mind to a rich plethora of solid
> nourishment. If
> knowledge is power, one can increase one's power
> exponentially
> through navigation on the Internet. Search engines
> like Google and
> Dogpile are the sextant (or in today's world, GPS
> devices) to guide us
> through the oceans of information available on the
> Internet. With only a
> few keystrokes, one can access information on topics
> that span the
> spectrum of the human capacity to think and imagine.
> While responsible
> analysis of the source and content is a necessity
> when sifting through
> some of the flotsam and jetsam of this ocean, if one
> is willing to do
> the work, the Internet offers treasures of knowledge
> that the mainstream
> media cannot begin to rival. If I watch ABC nightly
> news, I get one five
> minute synopsis of the events that unfolded in Iraq
> that day. If I go on
> the Internet, I can find hundreds of accountings and
> analyses produced
> by varying perspectives, cultures, news entities,
> nations, and
> individuals. As a consumer of news, I want to choose
> my sources, and my
> topics. With the Internet, I can select both.
> Mainstream media offers no
> such choice.
>
> Can quality alternative news sources on the Internet
> thrive without
> falling prey to the same ills as their corrupt
> mainstream counter-parts?
> Many Internet publications rely on hard-working
> editors and free lance
> writers, like me, to contribute their efforts for no
> pay. Today I had
> lunch with Stewart Nusbaumer, founder and editor of
> Intervention
> Magazine, a progressive online magazine. He is a
> living example of a
> full-time editor who receives no salary, and has
> been doing so for
> years. Through the efforts of people like Stewart, a
> true "liberal
> media", which is relatively free of government or
> corporate
> manipulation, does exist. Hopefully, there are
> enough socially
> conscientious individuals to perpetuate the
> integrity, individuality,
> depth, and variety that one can find through the
> Internet media. The
> ruling class already has enough weapons in at its
> disposal to
> maintain psychological domination over the masses.
>
> Jason Miller is a 38 year old activist writer who
> also works as an
> account representative for a finance company. He is
> married and has
> three sons under the age of 14. He is a member of
> the ACLU and Americans
> United for Separation of Church and State. He
> welcomes responses to his
> article at willpowerful@hotmail.com
> <mailto:willpowerful@hotmail.com>.
>

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