Guest guest Posted August 8, 1999 Report Share Posted August 8, 1999 >amritasyaputra >Vedic108 >Freedom in Kali-Yuga >Sun, 08 Aug 1999 14:48:08 PDT > >Dear friends, > >In the context of the article published in Vediculture about PR and the War >on Truth, this is also an interesting report on the Press Independence and >Freedom in the West. (Taken from Humanscape on-line magazine). > >All the best, > >Sasha > >*********************************** >Freedom Of Press Or Media Manipulation? >*********************************** >Does the United States of America manipulate the global communication >technique for its narrow sectarian interests? > >By - Batuk Vora > >Sometimes I wonder: are we really living in an age of enlightenment that >rejected dictators and feudal lords? Are we in the midst of a universal >information revolution born out of the dark ages? How do the information >gate-keepers of the South, especially the United States of America, treat >this revolution? How does this superpower manage to master the newly >acquired global communication technique for its narrow interests? > >An in-depth look into this aspect of life in America, reveals that there is >much manipulation under the flag of freedom of the press. Some studies >reveal, for instance that America's military-industrial complex has taken >over the media as a newly developed `essential commodity'- a fast growing >business. >Since the First World War when Edward L Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, >tried to popularise the war through thousands of press releases, counter- >propaganda, hiring of the so-called `four minute men', 75,000 of them who >delivered `patriotic speeches' in public places and even in movie theaters >and carried on the business of `crystallising public opinion', the public >relation profession has grown now into a vast and monstrous global machine. > >Prof. Ben Bagdikian of the University of California at Berkeley (The Media >Monopoly) found an impressive array of mass communications in the United >States, more than in any democratic country- some 1,700 daily newspapers, >11,000 magazines, 9,000 radio and 1,000 television stations, 2,500 book >publishers and seven movie studios. > >If there were different independent owners for each of them, there would >have been 25,000 individual voices that could perhaps guarantee the freedom >of the full spectrum of political and social ideas sold to the public at >large. These individual firms would also be smaller, enabling others also >to >open their vehicle of new ideas. This would have been a real information >revolution. But this is not the picture. Bagdikian says there are only "29 >men and women who head the same number of corporations, and they could all >be accommodated in a single room, who control all these media mouthpieces. >They constitute a new private ministry of information and culture." > >These 29 corporations set the national agenda. Under the freedom of thought >and action, it is not possible to tell the public what to think, but they >do >tell the people what to read and see and worry about. Their basic technique >is to black out certain vital information that may not be lost forever to >the public, but may be lost at a time most needed. News and public >information have been integrated formally into the highest levels of >financial and non-journalistic financial control: conflict of interests >between the public's need for correct information and corporate desires for >`positive information' have vastly increased beyond any outsider's >imagination. >Given the complexities of American social and economic trends, some >corporate leaders predict that it will be possible very soon in the 1990s >itself, that half a dozen large corporations will own all the most powerful >media outlets. > >At the end of the second World War, more than 80 per cent of the dailies >were independently owned, but by 1986, this proportion was reversed: 76 per >cent were owned by corporations and 15 of them had almost three per cent of >the business. In 1981, 20 corporations controlled most business of the >country's 11,000 magazines and only five years later, that number shrunk to >SIX corporations! > >Prof Noam Chomsky, one of the foremost dissenters from the American world >of >academia, researched the real ownership and concluded that quite a few >dominant ones were indirectly controlled by the Pentagon (US military) and >the CIA. > >It has been further revealed that the chief executives of these 29 >corporations are, almost without exception, Republican conservatives, who >believe in using most sophisticated and lethal weapons against their own >people, if the need arises, in protecting their `national interests.' > >They are invisible and hardly seen in any newsroom or television studio. >They control immense powers to hire and fire. Quite a few thinkers have >challenged one undying belief in America that "we live in an open society, >made more open by the proliferation of mass communications." Just make a >body count of certain sophisticated weapons of control and manipulation: >misinformation; inundation (called the info-glut) of certain aspects of >information; image-building politics; using the public polls in their >favour; the role of the media as `conduits' for governmental or corporate >public relations; occasionally creating an artificial drought of >information; a deluge of data, facts, messages, `news'- which altogether >helps to maintain the grand illusion of `openness' and `great democracy' >while obscuring the manipulation behind closed doors in corridors of power. > >`Being ahead of news'- as some public relation specialist would say, is, of >course, a euphemism for creating news through a hat, which has become, >lately, a major area of public relations endeavour ever since Ivy Lee >recognised back in 1906 that there was a percentage to be made from >disaster. Lee invented the `press release'. Hired by a railway company, he >advised them how to improve business through the press release- releasing >the `news' before any reporter did. This worked like magic when that >railway >met with an accident and wanted to justify its own version. > >Similar technique was used when President George Bush invaded Panama. >Stories about Noriega's drug business appeared for days in every US >newspaper and TV news bulletin. Not a word was mentioned about Noriega's >CIA >connection. He was brought from Panama to Florida against international law >and prosecuted. And then there is Saddam Hussain, North Korea, Iran, China >Gadaffi, etc. > >As the writer Susan George documents in How the Other Half Dies, the main >beneficiaries of the Green Revolution hype in India among others, turning >over millions of acres to the new variety of seeds and how the US interests >pushed the green revolution "as an alternative to land reforms and to the >social change reform required." This is just one example of international >PR >work. > >(Batuk Vora is freelance journalist based in Ahmedabad.) > > _____________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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