Excoriating corporate media in America

MEMPHIS, Tenn.--Celebrities and media critics savaged corporate media here recently for polluting American democracy.
Bill Moyers, keynote speaker for at the third annual Media Reform Conference, set the theme: “a fight for a free and independent media in America.”
He spoke of media monopoly that is choking the channels of communication, deceiving the people with lies and distortions, manipulating opinion, regurgitating government propaganda, laying off staff and cutting costs to serve Holy Wall Street.
Moyers wrought tears of truth from this bitter cynic. Yet his effort to “awaken America’s conscience” will fail. Nothing can be done to change “this sorry scheme of things entire,” as FitzGerald put in the Rubáiyát.
The Media Barons will always rule. Digital media, websites, text messaging, podcasts, YouTube and blogs are unlikely ever to have the impact of Establishment media.
Nevertheless, the 3,500 delegates here were hardly discouraged. They applauded wildly over the thrusts at corporate media, shouting out their approval with the fervor of revivalist meetings. One speaker after another ripped corporate media.
Helen Thomas, the 86-year-old White House reporter, has the fire of youth in her belly. She told attendees: “There’s no reason the media played along with the administration’s shifting rationales, all untrue, in the runup to the catastrophic war in Iraq.”
Jesse Jackson bounded on stage, raising a clenched fist before delivering a fire and brimstone speech. He rightly deplored President Bush for escalation of the war in Iraq and his horribly reactionary adminstration. Jackson noted how media challengers are marginalized by being called leftists as it was once common to call any progressive measure communistic.
He concluded by urging his audience to “light a match and let it glow.” It reminded this listener of presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson saying of Eleanor Roosevelt: “She would rather light candles than curse the darkness.”
But to this pessimist, the darkness of corporate media will not be dispelled with millions of candles.
Phil Donahue, discussing the iron grip of corporate media bosses, told how he had been fired from his MSNBC talk show because he told the truth about the Iraq War. His antiwar stance was not good for business. Besides, his bosses feared being called anti-American. Donahue noted how MSNBC required him to have two conservatives for every liberal on his show.
Media critic Jeff Cohen, also fired by MSNBC, remarked that in corporate media “the least principled rise to the top,” giving charlatans lofty perches. The spectrum of opinion on corporate media runs from “GE to GM.”
Moyers’ recommendation to read Cohen’s book, “Cable News Confidential,” proved nearly as potent as a recommendation by Oprah. The Cohen book immediately became a best seller at the conference.
Cohen points out in his book that the three biggest distortionists and cheerleaders for Bush in cable media are CNN, Fox and MSNBC. They focus on the bottom line. The politicians “have allowed a handful of moneyed elites to privatize our media and control America’s televised dialogue.”
They have the power “to keep important news and viewpoints off the air”…“Cable’s ‘newscasters’ rarely reflected the vibrant debate going on in our country over the war--or the extent of active and organized dissents.”
More Cohen: cable news has gone from “politics to tabloid to fluff.” It is in “the business of entertainment, using traditional Hollywood genres to attract viewers: lurid crime dramas (O.J., JonBenet, Laci Peterson), sex farce (Clinton/Lewinsky), suspense thrillers (Beltway sniper) and war (with special theme music and graphics).”
Cohen, founder of the watchdog group, Fairness and Accuracy in Media, continued: corporate news is nutritionless, “a processed product brought to market by distant and soulless corporations.” Local TV news programs across the nation are no better, filled with undernourshing soundbites.
Cohen quotes the CEO of radio colossus, Clear Channel, as saying that he cares about ad sales, not program quality. “We’re simply in the business of selling our customers products.”
The greedheads rule. The Gannett newspaper chain has a 26 percent profit, the Hearst empire 24 percent.
One panelist indicated that the media were just as responsible as Bush for starting the war in Iraq. Or, as Jane Fonda said: “A truly powerful media is one that can stop a war--not only start one.”
Amy Goodman, dynamic conference speaker, wrote in “Static,” a book written with her brother, David: “The American media (are) little more than a megaphone for those in power.”
So much of what is wrong with America is the fault of the media.