"Why Big Media Needs Propaganda to Survive"
"by Megan Tady
The mainstream media are as likely to report on Pentagon propaganda — and thus, themselves — as President Bush is likely to cede that “mission accomplished” was poor phrasing. That is, it ain’t ever gonna happen.
The mainstream media have instituted a news blackout on the New York Times exposé, casting a dark cloak over the story with the wave of a magician’s wand. Perhaps with this media sleight-of-hand, we’ll soon forget that that this story ever existed.
To avoid being duped, we need to understand not just why the mainstream media are mum on this scandal, but how they created the scandal in the first place. Just how does propaganda creep unnoticed into everyday reporting?
If you haven’t heard already, just six corporations control most of what we read, watch and listen to every day. These corporate giants are motivated entirely by profit, not public service. So as Big Media get bigger, gobbling up more newspapers, radio stations and TV networks through consolidation, our media system actually gets smaller. Corporate execs have gutted newsrooms, shuttered foreign bureaus and slashed spending on investigative reporting.
Staff-strapped media outlets rely increasingly on packaged punditry to fill the void left by investigative reporting and informed debate about the nation’s most important issues.
The “C” in consolidation also stands for “cookie-cutter” journalism, with most reporters falling in line to deliver the official view of the news. Getting a diversity of voices in our news is hardly even a putative goal these days. C also stands for “cheap”: Real reporting is expensive compared to staged shouting matches.
Corporate owners have a vested interest in keeping courageous and intelligent reporting a journalism-school dream, especially when it comes to the Iraq war. After all, General Electric doesn’t want its reporters at MSNBC to question the war while it’s busy churning out Apache helicopters. It turns out that everyone — from the military analysts espousing Pentagon rhetoric to the corporate news owners to the government itself — have shared interests in leading the American people to war.
To consolidate their control, Big Media owners like Rupert Murdoch have cozied up to Washington, deploying legions of lobbyists and lawyers to craft U.S. communications policy, while doling out millions of dollars in campaign contributions to squelch any challenge from elected officials.
Hence, propaganda, misinformation and government spin become the daily news norm — so normal, in fact, that many in the news punditocracy are having trouble understanding what all the hoopla over propaganda is about. Isn’t this the way news is “made”?
