Progressive Ponderings: Media Is Power

By Joe Mayer

This title comes from an article in the October 2009 The Progressive magazine. From an interview with Gary Farmer, a Canadian Iroquois, actor, musician, publisher, public radio pioneer and activist, comes the essence of this Pondering: “Media is power. It should be owned by the people, not some private guy who is publishing the Mail and Globe in Toronto while mining gold in the north. The interests are askew.”

Askew is too mild a word. Democracy depends on the voting public being informed enough to make intelligent choices. If this information is distorted and biased, election results cannot reflect the true will of the governed. “Media is power.”

Our founding fathers, believing in the necessity of an informed citizenry, placed freedom of the press first among the precepts in the Bill of Rights: “Congress shall make no law…abridging freedom of speech, or of the press…” Various administrations in our history have tried to overcome this obstacle to propaganda but usually the press has fought back and our Constitutional right has mostly prevailed. A huge exception happened during the last years of the George W. Bush administration when retired military officers, hired by the Pentagon, penned pro-war and pro-military articles to distribute to the media as unbiased expert information. “Media is power.”

We Americans quickly point out the flaws in authoritarian governments that propagandize their people through control of the media. Since “Media is power,” any time media is controlled (monopolized) by one or a few, the people would be subject to similar propagandizing influences.

A quick snapshot of major media in the United States:

• General Electric – owns NBC, NBC News Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo, A & E, History Channel

• Westinghouse – CBS, CBS Network News, Country Music TV, Nashville Network, two regional sports networks; Group W Satellite Communications

• Viacom International – Paramount TV, VHI, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central; 20 major market stations; print media

• Disney – ABC (includes 10 stations), ABC News Network, Prime Time Live, Good Morning America, ESPN, Lifetime TV, Disney Channel/Disney TV, Touchstone TV; print media

• Time-Warner TBS AOL – CNN, HBO, Cinemax, TBS Superstation, Turner Network TV, TNT; largest owner of cable systems in US; print media

• News Corp. Ltd/Fox Networks – Fox TV (includes 22 stations), Fox International, (network news in multiple foreign countries), the Gold Channel; 132 newspapers (including the Wall Street Journal), 25 magazines

Ownership in talk radio has similar concentrations with overlap into other media areas.

This is a recent moment; corporations of this size are in constant flux so today may be slightly different, but the power effect is similar.

At one point in our history, journalism was proud of its ability and reputation in bringing fact-based investigative news to Americans. Once major corporations began acquiring our various media, the profit-only objective of all major corporations also became media’s objective. The major income source for all major media is advertising. As a consequence, the largest advertisers – corporate America – greatly influence the news and propaganda that Americans are fed. A vast majority of major corporations sponsor conservative politicians and their lobbyists, and drive the media’s news and opinion segments with their viewpoints. “Media is power.”

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