This is preciously my point Howard. You state that you don't appreciate being generalized with "these others" as you describe them. My contention is that people across the world are being grossly generalized by the homogenious motivations of the corporate media. What representation do they have access to, for us to judge them without bias? What if you were a non-violent Palistinian and wished the world would stop seeing you as a rabid terrorist? What freedom of speech do they have to proclaim their innocent? Freedom of speech in the current world is really the freedom to buy speech at a cost. The amount of freedom you have is determined by your budget and it's the global corporations that have the most 'freedom of speech'.
Just today for example I witnessed what I find to be a very good example of another method of subtle media manipulations. Fox News had a segment with a guest who wrote a book concerning the obsurd (my inflection) "liberal bias" of the mainstream media. A book whose contention was to convince the reader that the mainstream media was in effect "left leaning" and liberal in orientation. This comes from a cable news network that is most definately not liberal but seeks exclusively in these times to gater more support/viewship by discrediting its competition (CBS in the case)... This kind of information selection is very powerful as the net effect is not to declare oneself politically as either/or but to accuse other stations of being one or the other (although I doubt you would ever find a station accusing another of being right wing! After all, that would almost be a compliment in these times) By way of simply selecting certain guest/stories etc the all powerful corporate media chiefs contruct the picture and 'educate' the population on adgendas that are inline with those who run the network and who run the country. In fact, this logic could be extended. The networks power is exercised not by what they choose to air, but what they choose not to air. Furthermore, these adjenda's are also inline with those who are in power as the primary focus in US politics is big business. It doesn't take too much time research to a) find out who owns the major media outlets and b) establish their motives. Here are some examples: NBC: Owned by General Electric Co. MSMBC: Joint partnership between Microsoft and MBC ABC: Walt Disney Company CBS: Westinghouse Electric Company FOX: News Corp Ltd CNN: AOL Time Warner Now having mentioned those companies (all multi-billion dollar operations), it's not difficult in understand that they have far reaching global economic interests that well and truely intersect with federal politics. ( Side note: Did you know that of the top 100 economies of the world 51 of these are corporations and not countries). So it then follows that they are going to cooperate with govenment actions and in doing so promote the causes of the federal govenment which inturn promotes the causes of these massive global companies (especially in times of war). You could call it a mutually symbiotic relationship. Take the current so called 'stimulus' package which contains contriversal tax breaks and concession for big business. The govenment and media will tell you that this is to promote the economy and stimulate grow and economic recovery for the little man when in reality, it's big business that most benefit. In many cases however, large companies now 'in trouble' are not in trouble because of 9/11 but because the have spent the last decade outspending their competition in an attempt to put their competition out of business for market share. Lobbists on behalf of these companies seeks this lucrative tax cuts to profit from the current circumstance (however immoral that may be if you consider the laid off workers and the stratespheric salaries of the corporate executives). What does the media tell us? What does GWB tell us? That the govenment is trying to help though poor workers who lose their jobs and that this is what the package is designed to do. Simply, yet effective propaganda organised, designed and delivered by media outlets with vested interest in these policies as they stand to benefit. After all, if a corporately owned media outlet is too critical of it's govement what happens when the corporations lobbists walk into Washington... it's like shooting yourself in the foot. Here is another example of insider dealing. Colin Powell's son is chairman of the govenment body that approves corporate mergers and aquisitions. He was in part responsible for allowing the Time/AOL merger. His father made something like 8 millions dollars from this merger. Whose interests do the media really represent? My point this that corporate owned mainstream media deliver shrink wrapped 'news' to a public always in need of consumerable information (and our palate is beginning more any more limited just as our diet becomes more and more dependant of processed foods). Demand for this information is not inate, it's manufactored (as early as the fifties I believe corporations where endaged in the practice of 'consumer engineering'). And just as demand is manufactored, so to are the stories, for it's through the stories that the networks 'captivate' their audiences in order to sell more advertising. As Will pointed out, western govenments (and I'll extend this to western media) have had no interest in Taliban's human rights offences. Only when it becomes useful to prop up the western powers moral standing (and provide the basis of a good multi-part series of news stories) does it every become an issue in the west. Forming oppinions of the Taliban based on this information is no different from having an oppinion of the entertainment value of Harry Potter. And of no more significance. This may be a long post Howard, but I resist your desire to boil down my position. Point simply, my understanding of the world is more complex then the 2 or 3 lines you chizelled out of my post. I'm not in any hurry, I don't have a commerical break to cut to, so I my statements don't need to fit into a 30 second time slot. My attention span is greater than that. I could go on for days explaining the even more intricate motivations behind these companies and those people in washington and you wont... no let me rephrase that... you will NEVER get this kind of information from corporate owned networks. I like to resist the forces that would attempt to own my mind. This is what the media does best. Benjamin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-community@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
