The American Propaganda Machine

by

       M. Richard Maxson

      It is getting more difficult for me to watch the mainstream media news coverage without screaming"liar" into my television set every few minutes. There is so little of the whole truth being broadcast to our citizens it is frightening. There was a time when it wasn't so but that was when there was plenty of competition and control over the media was not so tight. Twenty years ago, thirty corporations controlled 90 percent of US media. Today, it is a grand total of six mega-corporations or four according to Dan Rather who claims that "big business is in bed with big government." This is how our country has morphed into the Capitalistic Socialistic form of government that we have today.

      Mr Rather, in an interview with Tom Green, was asked if he thought the American people are aware of

the collusion between the government and the networks?  He replied, "No, they don't realize that four to six big conglomerates own ALL the networks and control 80% or more of ALL news in the United States." He went on, "Big corporations give a lot of money to legislators to influence votes. They work together." The FCC changed the rules in the 1980's with deregulation and according to Rather. "Before that the networks had to meet certain requirements and broadcast what was in the public's interest. You had to give both sides a fair chance to speak but today the peoples airwaves are gone."

      You don't hear much international news any more from the major US outlets unless it is cold war rhetoric or other news that will sway the gullible citizens opinion to match that of their corporate masters. "The amount on international news the public sees is far less than in the past 50 to 75 years and the quality is the lowest of all," Rather stated. "It is much more difficult to get to the truth due to the volume of false information out there."

       "International and investigative news requires deep digging and it is the most expensive to fund that is one reason it is easier to show celebrity news than to go after a real story and report the true facts." So long as the information and opinions that reach the public are selected by mainstream media people, whom polls show to be overwhelmingly on the left, the left's view of the world prevails. "If you want the truth," Rather stated," you need to read more than one newspaper, watch more than one network, and read international news on another country's website. Only then can you have enough information to make a rational decision on what the reality of the situation is."  What happened to the watchdog media?  Will we ever get our nations media back to fair and balanced reporting on important issues? As Dan said, "You have a better chance of the Queen of Sheba riding through here on a hippo before we ever see that again."