M. Richard Maxson
A free press is essential to keeping the citiznry informed and the power of the government in check but what if the press is not actually free? What if the press has been consolidated into a small number of entities that publishes only the views of their elitist owners? What if other points of view are ignored or vilified? This is the state of the western media in 2018. As well renown journalist Dan Rather stated, “Real Journalism died in the 1990's,” but how did this happen?
The
rise of the internet has played a part but it was in that decade that
real journalism was dealt a final death blow with the passage of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 that began deregulation and
convergence which led to the emergence of multinational media
conglomerates and as these multinational media conglomerates grew
larger and more powerful it has become increasingly difficult for
small, local media outlets to survive. The mergers eliminated scores
of independent news organizations resulting in a
concentration of media ownership. Today, six corporate conglomerates
(Disney, CBS Corporation, 21st Century Fox, Viacom, Time Warner, and
Comcast) own the majority of mass media outlets in the United States.
Consolidation of the western press has created what is known as
“media imperialism” which is a critical theory regarding the
perceived effects of globalization on the world's media which is
often seen as dominated by American media and culture. This new type
of corporate imperialism has made almost all the western nations
subsidiary to the media products of some of the most powerful
countries or companies
The
Telecommunications Act enabled this handful of corporations to expand
their power, and with little competition they eliminated their news
bureaus from around the world. There was no longer a need to check
the facts of a story as they all were carrying, basically, the same
story. According to American historian, Howard Zinn, such mergers
"enabled tighter control of information." American
journalist, Chris Hedges argues that corporate media control "of
nearly everything we read, watch or hear" is an aspect of what
political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls inverted totalitarianism
Since
the media is owned by the wealthy and by groups of people with a
strong influence, these owners use the media as a safety tool to
protect and project their own views and agendas. This is clarified
using the “propaganda model.” It is a conceptual model in
political economy that seeks to explain how populations are
manipulated and how consent for economic, social, and political
policies are "manufactured" in the public mind due to this
propaganda. Part of the propaganda model is self-censorship through
the corporate system also known as corporate censorship - that
reporters and especially editors share or acquire values that agree
with corporate elites in order to further their careers. Those who do
not are marginalized or fired.
Many
critics of the media say liberal or elitist left wing bias exists
within a wide variety of media channels, especially within the
mainstream media, including network news shows of CBS, ABC, and NBC,
cable channels CNN, MSNBC and the former Current TV, as well as major
newspapers, news-wires, and radio outlets, especially CBS News,
Newsweek,
and The New York Times. These arguments intensified
when it was revealed that the Democratic Party received a total
donation of $1,020,816, given by 1,160 employees of the three major
broadcast television networks (NBC, CBS, ABC), while the Republican
Party received only $142,863 via 193 donations from employees of
these same organizations
Media
bias in the United States occurs when the US media systematically
skews reporting in a way that crosses standards of professional
journalism.
Journalists
were surveyed at national media outlets such as The
New York Times, The Washington Post, and
the broadcast networks. The survey found that the large majority of
journalists were Democratic voters whose attitudes were well to the
left of the general public on a variety of topics, including issues
such as abortion, affirmative action, social services, and gay
rights. The survey concluded firstly that journalists coverage of
controversial issues reflected their own attitudes and secondly that
the predominance of political liberals in newsrooms pushed news
coverage in a liberal direction. This suggested this tilt as a mostly
unconscious process of like-minded individuals projecting their
shared assumptions onto their interpretations of reality, a variation
of confirmation bias or mob mentality. The continued denials of bias
by these individuals are because they actually don't realize that
they are biased.
Retaining
only like-minded individuals suggests that media perform as a sentry
not for the community as a whole, but for groups having sufficient
power and influence to create, control, and project their own
personal beliefs as truths. Many news outlets make no pretense of
being unbiased, and give their readers or listeners the news they
want, leading to what has been called post truth politics.
As of 2018 political commentators have identified post-truth politics as ascendant in many nations, notably the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe among others. U.S. and western commercial media encourage controversy only within a narrow range of opinion, in order to give the impression of open debate, and do not report on news that falls outside that range. In a study of 116 mainstream U.S. papers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle, study author Jim A. Kuypers stated that the mainstream press in America tends to favor liberal viewpoints. Reporters who they thought were expressing moderate or conservative points of view were most often were labeled as holding a minority point of view regardless of the truth.
A
study by political scientists Tim Groseclose of UCLA and Jeff Milyo
of the University of Missouri at Columbia attempted to quantify bias
among news outlets using statistical models, and found a liberal
bias. The authors wrote that "all of the news outlets we
examine[d], except Fox News's
Special Report and the Washington Times, received scores to the left.
Across
the United States over 100 editorials are defending themselves and
attacking President Trump for his statement that the press is “the
enemy of the people” He is also constantly complaining about “fake
news,” and the media doesn't like that label either. He is not a politician and does not speak like one. His
words may be confusing but the idea is correct. “Fake News”* is
propaganda however subtle. The press is not “the enemy of the
people” unless the press is, consciously or unconsciously, pushing
a one-sided agenda as Pravda did in the old Soviet Union. While this
has been described as a contemporary problem, some observers have
described it as a long-standing part of political life that was less
noticeable than before. It
is a fact that six corporations control roughly 90% of the media and
they and they alone tell the world what is true and what is not. This
IS NOT a free press. This situation is a disaster for the Republic.
*Fake
news is news reported with opinions and speculation. It is when a
journalist selectively chooses and ignores facts, and interprets or
paraphrases those facts to reach an unwarranted conclusion that
conveniently validates his own views.
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