Corporate Media: Beware The Propaganda

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG BY MARK KARLINeware The PropagandaA Corporate Media Owned by Wealthy Interests is Going to Disseminate Propaganda Aimed at Perpetuating Wealth for the Wealthy.

Why is this so hard to understand? If the airwaves were truly public, we would see diversity in news and the return of hundreds of billions of dollars in broadcast profits to the public treasury.

But in the spirit of corporate welfare, private corporations have been given or sold for nominal amounts the right to further enrich the wealthy and global businesses using airwaves that belong to the American citizens.  That's not free enterprise; that's socialism for the super rich and stockholders at the expense of the working stiff.

And what do we get from this socialized corporate bonanza?

We get entertainment and news that is just filler in between segments of advertising that make the owners of Big Media very wealthy indeed.  In fact, at a time when we most need a broadcast media with a sense of civic responsibility to sort out public policy issues, we get celebrity entertainment.

Politics has become just another reality TV show, a soap opera of the never-ending saga of Sara Palin.  Or there is the daily overload of the "Tea Party," which was literally created in part by FOX Fraudcasting and its allies in the right wing. Television media -- and radio to a great extent -- aren't neutral providers of information; they have taken sides in the great political class conflict of our time, and they side with the numbing message that the status quo of trickle down corporate welfare is good for America, when, in reality, it's good for the owners of television outlets but not for the average American.

Politics has been reduced to a trivialized game of "American Idol on Capitol Hill."  Public policy becomes more an issue of covering spectacle and personality trivia and speculation than significant issues that confront the nation.

Distraction of the masses is good for the corporate media barons, as they consolidate ownership of Big Media, because a poorly or misinformed public is easier to feed lies to.

When Sarah Palin and the Tea Party become real soap operas, who is able to tell the difference from the soaps that are generated out of a script room so that the stations can sell soap and feminine hygiene products?

For some reason, wealthy Democrats have shown little interest in buying media, maybe because they feel good talking about economic justice but less motivated to see the Reagan tax cuts rolled back, so they are content with the merger of GOP talking points, celebrity news, personality politics and entertainment that dominate what used to be called "news."

It's not news.

It's the rich broadcast media corporations that thrive on increased ratings when all news becomes titillation and sensationalism.

You can make a killing that way, and make the very rich even richer, because it's much easier, to paraphrase Marie Antoinette, to "Let them watch Sarah!" than to actually engage in reporting on the great issues of the day.

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG BY MARK KARLIN

Let The Sun Shine In......