Certain things in life you learn about are hard to believe. When the information reaches your brain, you may have a strong resistance to accepting it as truth or “fact”. Learning that the mainstream media (nationally televised news, radio, and newspapers) do not care about full coverage and accurate reporting as much as they do about profit, has caused some unsettling feelings among viewers and journalists. As a result of these feelings with such media, a large backlash occurs as independent media has started to take form across the globe. The goal of independent media is to report, without being restricted by corporate pressure, corporate advertising, or governmental editing or limiting of material.
The typical television viewer trusts Dan Rather, they’d have Peter Jennings over for dinner, Tom Brokaw could be their quirky neighbor, and Ted Kopel would be a Godfather to their children! How could one say these talking heads don’t provide truth to the viewing audience? How could you claim the stations they work for misinform the public for their own gain? If this is true, why don’t we know about any of this? Why are they still reporting every night and why are they the sources of most information concerning daily news?
To answer these questions, we cannot ask Peter Jennings and Ted Kopel for the answers, because they are just employees. The real men in charge are Michael Eisner and Robert A. Iger, who are both the heads of Disney, the parent company of ABC which broadcasts both World News Tonight and Nightline. Disney’s empire includes three publishing companies, five magazine subsidiaries, sixty-six radio stations, twelve cable stations, nine motion picture distribution groups, multiple international ventures, music companies and two sport franchises. CBS, which is owned by Viacom, is headed by CEO Sumner M. Redstone and President & COO Mel Karmazin. General Electric, who owns NBC, is headed by Jefferey R. Immelt. These are the real men behind the news we watch, read, or hear every day of our lives. Currently there are six major corporations which control and own the major media sources in America. These men and hundreds of others are the shareholders of the transnational-corporations which provide us with our daily news.
Now just because our televised, and printed media news sources are owned by multibillion dollar corporations, does that mean their programs practice bad journalism? No, they very well could be some of the best journalists we have, as many are award-winning reporters. They just are severely limited in their reporting. For instance, GE (General Electric) in 1989, made $2 billion dollars in military contracts involved in the first Gulf War. This amount of money will keep the voice of dissent towards any military action out of the news broadcasts. What often ends up happening is the news becomes a commercial for war toys and technology. In 1991, Tom Brokaw discussed the GE partially-produced Patriot Missile, calling it “the missile that put the Iraq scud in its place” (INFACT, 1991. link).
The conflict between the corporations and the reporting of the news programs from which they own them can occur on many levels. OPEC reported that in the 1980’s, the government of Kuwait owned 2.1 percent of GE’s stock. The first Gulf War directly involved Kuwait and led to “hundreds of millions of dollars” in contracts for GE to rebuild the country (FAIR, 1991. link). This has led to networks influencing a program’s reporting in order to keep the shareholders happy. It is done by not showing the effects of the war, or by not covering those voices which oppose the war.
Where does all of this lead to? What happens when a half-dozen mega-corporations own both the airwaves, and the newspapers from which we get all our information? The outcome is independent media, created, edited, and run by the individuals who want true coverage, not embedded journalism and military perspectives only. Those who crave uncensored information in order to educate themselves about national and global affairs. The growth of independent media has been overwhelming since the invention and proliferation of the Internet. Although there has been a recent surge in independent media sources, the origins of public-supported media that provides voices of resistance started much earlier.
Lew Hill was a broadcaster and peace activist who, in 1949, began the Pacifica Radio Broadcast on KPFA in Berkley, CA. This was twenty five years prior to the birth of NPR, what we now refer to as “public radio.” Hill was a conscientious objector to the Second World War, and he wanted to create a place where pacifists could voice their opposition to such actions and bring together people with similar interests. The mission statement of The Pacifica Radio Foundation includes two sections which would be difficult to find in corporate run radio or televised reporting:
(a) To establish a Foundation organized and operated exclusively for educational purposes no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any member of the Foundation.
(e) [...] to promote the full distribution of public information; to obtain access to sources of news not commonly brought together in the same medium; and to employ such varied sources in the public presentation of accurate, objective, comprehensive news on all matters vitally affecting the community. (Mission Statement)
By creating this voice, Hill opened the airwaves for a variety of voices which would never be considered appropriate or “newsworthy” for mainstream journalism. Democracy Now! hosted by Amy Goodman is the most successful example of this type of broadcasting. Goodman worked for Pacifica Radio for 11 years, reporting from places like media-barren East Timor. East Timor was without a global voice for over 15 years due to Indonesian oppression. Goodman, with her colleague Allan Nairn, helped get the voices of the near-genocidal conditions out with their documentary, "Massacre: The Story of East Timor," an award-winning piece which subsequently led to the two journalists being banned from the country. Even years after their original reports, Goodman and Nairn were able to go back to a newly Democratic Republic of East Timor, freed from oppressive rule. Stories like this are not reported on nationally televised news. Although for years both Goodman and Noam Chomsky spent much of their time reporting of the travesties, little coverage was given outside of their own works.
The power of context has a lot to do with the recent upsurge in internet homegrown media. The “Battle in Seattle”, the 1999 protest against the World Trade Organization, caused the tipping point leading to the creation of Independent Media Center, a.k.a. Indymedia. The center was used as a distribution point of information for journalists, and provided up-to-the-minute reports, photos, audio and video footage through its website. This kept the world up-to-date on the occurrences on the streets, and allowed people to see what was really happening in real time. While the corporate media reported it as an event of chaotic anarchists looking to destroy the city, focusing mostly on a few acts of vandalism, people down on the streets gave their accounts of police brutality, restrictions of the right to free speech, and the organized efforts to voice protest. For once, the people had the power to get their own side of the story out. Indymedia has thus grown into a global epidemic, with a network which now spans the planet. Users simply go to the website to read or post either personal accounts and opinions, or published articles found elsewhere on the web. This collective action leads to a more informed public, with coverage of a much more diverse range of topics than you will see on the 10 o’clock news. The mission statement of The Independent Media Center summarizes this; “[A] network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth. We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to cover the efforts to free humanity”
As long as big money regulates the information that reporters give through mainstream journalism, independent media sources will thrive. A growing resistance against the FCC and their corporate and military influence has lead to the recalling of the airwaves for public use. Michael Powell, Chairman of the FCC and son of Secretary of State Colin Powell, said, reflecting on his job becoming official, “The night after I was sworn in, I waited for a visit from the angel of the public interest. I waited all night, but she did not come.” Talk like that has led to a public outcry for a systematic change of control over the airwaves. A “Two Minute Revolution” is being promoted which simply requests that for every hour of broadcasting, two minutes be set aside for public use. Attempting to create a more democratic media is quite possibly the only way to really address the many other problems that face our society (sexism, racism, consumerism, war propaganda, war profiteering, neocolonialism, and corporate crime to name a few.) Although this resistance is still developing, it is almost certain you won’t hear about it on televised news, not even from Godfather Kopel.
Goodman, Amy & David. 2004 Exception to the Rulers. New York, NY. Hyperion Books
Gladwell, Malcolm. 2000. The Tipping Point. New York, NY. Time Warner Book Group
http://www.indymedia.org/en/static/about.shtml
http://www.warprofiteers.com
http://www.lasarletter.com/lewhill.shtml
http://www.pacifica.org/about/mission.html
http://www.mediacarta.org/