Home > Save Democracy, Shut Off Chris Matthews

Save Democracy, Shut Off Chris Matthews

by Open-Publishing - Sunday 13 March 2005
15 comments

Edito Media-Network Democracy Governments USA

By Elliot D. Cohen, Ph.D

Sound the alarm! America, the land of the free, is now under attack, not by Al Qaeda, not by Iraqi "insurgents," not by an enemy confronted on foreign soil; not even by one that homeland security could ever stop. It is an insidious, invisible assailant, more hidden than a terrorist cell. It is one that invades virtually every American household on a daily basis without leaving a trace of its deceitful, dangerous nature. Its whores, draped in dignified apparel, sit in front of the American flag, speaking with an air of genuineness and concern for public welfare, while all along, their statements are empty rhetoric, politically motivated, aimed at distracting, misinforming, programming, and keeping Americans ignorant, all for the narrowest of self-interest based on pathological obsession with the bottom line.

The dangerous enemy of which I speak is a handful of colossal corporations that control the media — such as General Electric, News Corporation, Viacom, Disney, and Time-Warner. The messengers of these monolithic media conglomerates are their model employees like Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, Lou Dobbs, and Brit Hume, who have sold their journalistic souls to keep themselves on the air. General Electric wants a military contract to sell its jet engines to fight a war in Iraq. And it expects its corporate media division, NBC, and its front men like Chris Matthews, to help.

While the cardinal rule of media ethics has always been to avoid conflict of interest, the corporate media feeds on it. Their bottom line drives their "news." What passes as such is just what the highest bidder decrees, which is often the U.S. government. What Americans see and hear is therefore largely a paid political announcement. Lockstep journalism inside an intricate politico-corporate media web of quid pro quo, favor trading, and conflict of interest has turned our Fourth Estate into a docile lapdog of government.

You don’t have to look at the blatant examples of "fake news" such as Armstrong Williams or Jeff Gannon (AKA Jim Guckert) or the contrived, infrequent press conferences the White House stages to see this. Even the New York Times has become an important trader in this media deception. After keeping up the pretense of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was no longer profitable, the New York Times printed an editorial note confessing its tendency to accept the word of official government sources about WMDs without carefully investigating them. Like a child caught with its hand in the cookie jar, it "came clean" — a cheap, self-serving form of repentance buried in an editor’s note instead of transparently plastered on its own front page. But what it didn’t admit was its own corporate pressures to tread lightly on the government. The Times Corporation was, in fact, a major lobbyist before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), seeking further deregulation of media ownership. Far from being the watchful media eye on government, keeping the public up to speed on corruption in the Bush administration, it was trading favors with it.

And why did so many Americans believe there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden? Association psychology worked like a charm when Bush mentioned these names in the same breath. But the media did nothing to dispel the myth. Worse, it helped to propagate it by repeating official government sources — like Cheney — instead of doing its own investigative reporting. It was more "cost effective" to parrot official sources than to spend money to probe and investigate.

When CNN, "The most trusted name in news" presented the story of the Abu Ghraib prison abuses, it reported that Bush was "concerned" about the abuses, not that he said he was concerned. If the abuses were ordered from the top, he would have surely been concerned, but primarily about protecting his own hide; but the press didn’t look into that.

When Bush’s back bulged with a cylindrical receiver-looking appearance, as caught in a photo taken by a Fox News photographer during the first presidential debate, the NY Times dismissed the story with a simple quotation from a Bush Campaign official denying any credibility. Again there was no follow up. Yet there was a vivid picture displaying the curious bulge along with an extended discussion on Salon.com. And, after the election, when a Berkeley study emerged with credible evidence that the exit polls could not have been so far off, the Times along with the rest of the mainstream media followed suit in dismissing the possibility of election fraud. In contrast, when the Ukraine, came up with such skewed election results, the election was declared invalid and a new one was conducted.

When Haiti’s President Aristide phoned Maxine Waters and others and claimed that he did not resign but was instead kidnapped by the US and French forces, the media played it down. The New York Times buried the story on page 10 only to dismiss the allegations with an official White House rejection of the claim as "complete nonsense." Brit Hume on Fox, in his usual fashion, parroted back Colin Powell’s comments, saying "he wasn’t kidnapped... he went on the plane willingly, and that’s the truth." And the rest is history.

Examples of media soft peddling government can be multiplied ad nauseam. There can be just one conclusion: the corporate media is succeeding in keeping Americans uninformed, and worse, misinformed. Censorship, government propaganda, parroting of official government sources, and media manipulation have replaced careful investigative reporting as the norm.

And things continue to worsen as the government finds ways (some more subtle than others) to relax media ownership rules to let fewer and fewer media giants control more and more markets. This trend toward government deregulation of corporate media ownership violates Constitutional safeguards on diversity, public interest and the capacity to self-govern. The popular rebuttal that we now have more stations so, therefore, more diversity, is a glaring fallacy. When these bountiful stations have but a few owners, a few very wealthy ones, it’s not hard to see what side of the political divide they’ll land on.

There is, of course, the Internet, the last bastion of free speech. When there is chatter on the Net, it’s often hard for the mainstream media to ignore it. But corporate media presence on the Net is expanding and there is now a threat looming to the free access architecture of the Internet itself. Corporate media has increasingly been successful at controlling the cables that carry information. As more and more Americans switch from dial up modems to high-speed cable connections, they will inevitably be restricted to one ISP provider — Comcast, Adelphia, or some other large corporation. The problem is that whoever controls the conduit can control the content. Unless corporate media is stopped, this last bastion of democracy will also topple.

So, the question is how to stop these dangerous, degenerative, media trends.

Currently, there is a burgeoning grass roots movement against media consolidation. Even the NRA has joined forces with NOW to oppose deregulation. Media activist organizations like the Free Press have organized grass roots campaigns resulting in literally millions of letters sent to Congress protesting deregulation, and over 700,000 letters were sent to the FCC.

Michael Powell has now resigned as chair of the FCC. He had been unwilling to listen to this growing public outcry against deregulation of the corporate media. As this movement builds there is a future opportunity for the FCC to heed the word, and stop this degenerative, media metastasis that is devouring free speech in the U.S.

So Americans need to fight back. The air waves are public property, not the private property of these corporate monsters. To slay these mighty dragons we need to stop patronizing them. Like Freddie Kruger, they can only exist as long as we stay tuned. They need us to survive, but we no longer need them.

The Internet is still a place to go to find out things about America and about the world. We can go on line to read the Guardian in London instead of the New York Times, and we can shut off CNN and go to Salon.com or MotherJones.com. We can shut off Chris Matthews and the other media whores and check out Znet or BuzzFlash. or Mediachannel.org. There is a "Media Reform Information Center" you can also visit to get a useful list of enlightened media outlets. BuzzFlash also publishes a list on their website. The corporate media is not transparent, but there are organizations like the Free Press and Common Cause that have taken on the cause of exposing the mainstream corporate media for the charlatans that they really are.

So long as the Internet remains a democratic forum, we need to avail ourselves of these resources. But our time is limited as corporate media in collusion with the most powerful, secretive government in U.S. history increases its control over information. This formidable enemy would like nothing better than to keep Americans ignorant and gullible. It is urgent that we arm ourselves with information. This is the proverbially stake through the heart of totalitarianism. Without a free press, that’s just where we’re heading! Unite, Americans, we have nothing to lose but our (corporate) chains!

http://www.mediachannel.org/views/d...

Forum posts

  • I certainly hope that no one is still counting on NPR for the news..

    "Bob Edwards warned last night that the United States is in a period like the McCarthy era of the 1950s, in which the government is stifling political dissent while the news media and the public fail to speak out in vigorous opposition.

    Speaking at Centre College, Edwards, a host for XM Satellite Radio(former NPR host), said the "Bush administration holds reporters in contempt" and has become the "all-time champion of information control."

    Edwards built a theme based on a quote by Bush’s former press secretary, Ari Fleischer, in the wake of 9/11: "People should watch what they say."

    Edwards also said journalists "have done a terrible job explaining their role to the public."

    He quoted Edward R. Murrow’s famous TV response to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunt: "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty," and "we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."

    http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentuck...

    • What possible reason would the NRA have for opposing deregulation of media, unless they’re worried that government and corporations might like to see less availability of guns to the public should the public start to revolt?

  • Oh, come on take it as what it is "infotainment". Just see it as the coalition of the journalists "America
    does it, we are not fascists". Denfenders are insurrgents. Those who don’t want their land stolen are
    terrorists.
    Now Iran has to stop it’s nuclear research.

    • Israel/U.S.A----OUR NUKES WARS PRE EMPTIVE STRIKES ARE GOOD- FAIR -JUST -GODLY

      anyonelse’s are------- BAD -TERRORIST- EVIL.

      iT IS SO SIMPLE WHEN YOU PRACTICE DOUBLE STANDARDS.

    • While, Dr. Cohen, wanders around a bit and falls into using the current set of adjectives to describe the media — I would not call it "infotainment" as you; but I know what you mean about the shallow nature of the media. The media collectively can be considered as "opinion makers".

      "Entertainment" is a very broad term and the information that is being presented to the public is not meant to entertain.

      The control of social thought is well thought out. Look back at the Hearst papers and the McCormik’s papers dating back to the Spanish/American wars. The media has always been part of the structure that controls the thinking of the American public.

      Americans are broadly and willfully ignorant and coupled with an exterme tribal belief and show lack of self-reflection [on the personal and national scale]. So, a strong case can be made that the media is just telling them what they want to hear in the first place.

      The idea would be not to turn off the Media [with is very hard] but to attempt to balance with other sources. But this takes effort and it is not on most people’s to-do lists.

  • Elliot Cohen is a prime example of an individual spewing propaganda from the left and treating his propoganda as fact. He is simply a bad loser. Bush (whom Cohen considers a knucklehead) won the election fair and square. Cohen cannot stand that because Cohen believes that he and his fellow intellectuals in Europe are smarter than everyone. That is why they objected to the invasion of Iraq. They believe that their analysis was superior. We now find out that Old Europe (France and Germany) were merely protecting their investments and payments under the table (by stealing from the Oil for Food Program). The American people support Bush’s decision to attack Saddam Hussein and Iraq when the mass murderer Hussein refused to meet his burden in providing a transparent protocol to the UN and the world to prove Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction, as required by Iraq’s written agreement in the armistice that stopped Gulf I. Hussein allowed terrorists to live in Iraq and he paid terrorists to kill Jews in Israel, by giving the terrorist families money when they killed Jews. Now the terriorists murder fellow Arabs and Mr. Cohen blames Bush. Mr. Cohen supports the Hussein regime, ex post facto, since it is clear he does not believe that it was a good thing to get rid of a regime that stole the country’s wealth; raped women; jailed and starved its children; tortured men (really tortured them-not take pictures of them in embarrassing positions), women and children; committed mass murder against its own citizens and against Iran. In short, Saddam was a Hitler and Cohen clearly considers Saddam his hero. Otherwise he would not write such nonsense, unsupported by any verifiable facts. He is the Tokyo Rose of the Iraq war. We have been hearing his Marxist doctrine since the early 20th Century. Communism’s Marxist doctrine was a miserable failure everywhere it has been tried; this does not stop Cohen from adopting it in his attacks on Corporate America, whom in Mr. Cohen’s eyes is the true evil. Mr. Cohen needs to grow up. The complaint about Matthews is disengenuous. It is a smoke screen to avoid the real issue: this country is at war against evil terrorists that murder innocent civilians, regardless of race and religion. At least the terrorists are honest about their goals. They want to kill Iraqi intellectuals, among others. That is something Cohen can learn from them, honesty. Mr. Cohen wants to destroy America by rendering her weak. He will not accomplish his goal.

    • Mr. Bush and company may well be democracy’s demise in the US. Why do you follow this tyrant unquestioningly?

      Why do you abhor questions pertaining to his job? Why does he abhor questions pertaining to his job? Doesn’t he realize that the American people are his boss?? Do you realize it?

      Question Authority....especially if neocons are involved.

    • Boy, if you look up "propaganda" in the dictionary, you would find that bloated diatribe from the head of Time-Warner you posted earlier. And please don’t use the words "honesty" and "Bush" in the same post.

    • We DO question authority, we also protest by the thousands, but this same media we discussed does not report on this and does not show this on T.V.
      We do not follow Bush, we did not vote for him, and we do not want him as our president. The system that fraudulently elected him also controls the media and congress.
      Americans are prisoners in their own country. If they speak out they may be locked up, or at the very least demeaned.
      U.S.A. needs outside help out of this dangerous occupation of their country by the Republican insurgents.
      There are Massive Anti War protests all over the U.S. on March 19. Media will not cover these.

    • Keep watching the network news, but don’t believe anythng. Buy from local, non-corporate merchants. Pull money from your investment or IRA accounts (if you have any left) and invest in gld or other currencies. Save, instead of spend. Practice resistance. Reject evrything the government sponsors. Do it quietly to protect yourself, but DO IT. Resist! and encourage others to do the same.

    • Knucklehead is a very quaint phrase.....a pharse that only someone who eats pablum and wears diapers can relate to...do you???

    • Knucklehead is a very quaint phrase that only someone who eats pablum and wears diapers can relate to...do you???

    • What crap...really, what crap.

    • America’s strength has never been derived from ethnocentrism. If you take a look at what you just spouted it is very ethnocentric, and more communist and fascist than I think you would like to admit. Your whole diatribe is based upon the assumption that there can never be anything greater than the US. And from such an assumption, you make an even more infantile one that dictates you have the right, nay the destiny to rule over others because the US is so great. It is manifest density all over again.

      What a bunch of crap. No society on earth has ever existed in isolation. Do you ever question what might happen if all these forgiven countries get tired of the US acting like the king of the mountain? We cannot apply the same level of hubris to the rest of the world that allowed us to commit genocide with the Indians, and get away with it. Accordingly, will the rest of the world call in their dues when they get fed up? We don’t have enough money or enough reserves, gold or otherwise to pay for all of America’s depts. As such, when the point of no return comes, all the rest of the world will have to do is cut us off. Then, all the king’s horses and all the kings men won’t be able to put humpty together again. And your diatribe will certainly not help the millions that are going to die as a result. In fact, all your diatribe does is hasten that eventually.

    • Above post, longwinded, typically and faithfully parroted. Fortunately I was quickly able to determine i the first sentances that the writer was so and spared from reading further. Such a long post with the required effort should have at least engaged the "Libs" being bashed enough to interest one in reading the full post.