What the media’s not telling you can hurt you.
I’m deeply concerned about the merger mania that has swept our industry, diluting standards, dumbing down the news, and making the bottom line sometimes seem like the only line. It isn’t and it shouldn’t be.
The message of the media is the commercial.
If you’ve paid much attention to the news recently, you’ve probably discovered a lot of stories about loss of life, natural disasters, sexual peccadilloes, and celebrity lifestyles. Reports that might really inform us on the critical issues of the day are infrequent if not missing altogether. Thus Robert Blake’s arrest on murder charges gets more coverage than single moms struggling to care for their children. Another exposé of pedophile priests wins out over a real debate about the reasons for the proposed war with Iraq.
Why? The bottom line. First of all, covering fires, auto wrecks, and trials is cheap and easy. It doesn’t take a first-rate journalist to videotape a burning building and interview the distraught owner. More significantly in this era of media mega-mergers, the corporations that own the news outlets don’t want coverage that might interfere with the hawking of their wares or those of their advertisers.
So in 1997 when two reporters at the Tampa, Florida Fox Television affiliate prepared to air their investigative report on the potential dangers of bGH (bovine growth hormone), an artificial hormone that had found its way into the milk supply, the story was scotched. Monsanto, the manufacturer of BGH, blocked the report from the airways by protesting to Fox’s network news division. “We paid three billion dollars for these stations. We’ll decide what the news is,” declared one Fox executive.
Could it be that those who own most of the wealth in this nation (and a large share of the media) don’t want an informed, proactive citizenry making choices in their own best interest? In light of the money spent with public relations firms to create a more receptive audience of complacent, disengaged consumers, it would certainly seem so. Folks who believe that real democracy is out of their reach, that the best they might hope for is a steady job and plenty of credit, provide a ready market for the next new thing.
The PR folks and their corporate sponsors are also behind another big lie: Democracy functions best when the public gets out of the way and all business regulations are removed, allowing the market to work unfettered. But, as the movement to eliminate the last regulations from the media gains support, Bill Moyers’ Public Broadcasting Service news show “NOW” reports that six companies currently own a controlling interest in all of the daily newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations, and book publishers in North America. Rather than bringing about greater competition, recent loosening of regulations has already helped to create a monopoly with serious implications for the diversity of thought and opinion necessary for a true democracy to exist.
Some might say that we now have unprecedented choice in what we read, watch, or listen to. But the choices open to us exist on a very limited range of the spectrum, and many have to do with buying something. Do you watch the latest Britney Spears music video or the amusing sitcom chock full of product placements? Do you listen to the incessant blather of the CNN talking heads or the drivel from the folks on Fox News Network? Now there are some choices!
So the question comes down to this: Are the media giving us what we want, what we need to function as informed, engaged citizens? If your answer is “yes,” no problem; just go back to what you were doing. If, however, you want greater public service from the media, if you want solid information that will sustain you in your role as citizen, if you want a participatory democracy, then I urge you to seek out alternatives. Support locally-owned media in better serving your community, including public-access TV, low-power FM radio stations, and alternative newspapers. Seek out independent news sources, such as Alternet.org, Cursor.org, CommonDreams.org, Utne Magazine, and YES! Magazine. Become involved with organizations such as Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR).
What you don’t know can hurt you. And if you’re relying on Westinghouse-CBS, GE-NBC, Disney-ABC, News Corp.-Fox, AOL-TimeWarner, and Gannett, there’s a hell of a lot you don’t know.
Saturday, May 11th, 2002No Comments »
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