/** media.issues: 75.0 **/
** Topic: USA/Media: EMPIRE OF LIES AND DECEPTION **
** Written 2:27 AM Jul 19, 1996 by G.LANGE@LINK-GOE.de in cdp:media.issues **
Not sure of the status of this article sent to Activ-L. It is headed by a citation of a book:INVENTING REALITY: The Politics of Newsmediabut does not appear to be a review.
By Michael Parenti
St.Martin's Press NEW YORK
ISBN: 0-312-02013-9 (paperback)
ISBN: 0-312-08629-6 (clothbound),The Publisher.
Development and manufacture of the world's communications equipment are concentrated in the hands of a few giant transnational conglomerates, the biggest companies of the West's military-industrial complex. They own most of the radio stations, printing factories, and TV systems built in the world, and they produce more than 90 percent of the TV sets and almost 80 percent of all radio sets sold abroad.
In many Third world countries, the US and its closest allies control up to 90 percent of the news flow. As the Indian journalist A. Raghavan said: "The developing countries that have freed themselves from colonnial political dependence are still saddled with information dependence." As electronics and the use of computers develop, this dependence increases.
Assisting in this "information imperialism" are the US State Department, the Pentagon, the CIA, the USIA, and the Voice of America, all of whome deluge the earth with thier own peculiar brand of "information".
(Adapted from E. Baskakov, "Empire of Lies and Deception," Democratic Journalist, Ocotber 1987, pp 25-26.)
Eight corporations control the three major television networks (CBS, NBC, ABC), some 40 subsidiary TV stations, over 200 cable TV systems, over 60 radio stations, 59 magazines including Time and Newsweek, chains of newspapers including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post, 41 book publishers, and various other media enterprises.
Freedom of the press, A.J. Liebling once said, is for those who own the presses. With rare exception, the nation's "free and independent" newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, and TV and radio stations are owned by giant corporations. The media are not merely close to corporate America, they are an integral part of it. As such they manifest all the same symptoms: increasing concentration of ownership, big salaries for top executives, political conservatism, union busting, and a constant push for profits.
Newspapers and TV networks are run like other corporations in the United States, by boards of directors composed mostly of persons drawn from the moneyed stratum of society. Three-quarters of the major stockholders of ABC, CBS, and NBC are banks such as Bank of America, Citibank, Bankers Trust, Chase Manhattan, Morgan Guaranty Trust. Representatives of the more powerful New York banks sit on the boards of the major networks greatly influence network fiduciary functions.
Besides banks, the big media organizations hold interlocking directorates with giant companies that have major investements in airlines, coal and oil, insurance, telephone communications, nuclear power, and nuclear weaponry. Ford Motor Company-- already exercising considerable influence on American society with its own multibillion-dollar business--has had directors on the corporate boards of the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. General Electric, one of the nation's largest and most influential industrial giants, owns NBC.
The pattern of media ownership shows a high degree of concentration. Eight corporations control the three major television networks (CBS, NBC, ABC), some 40 subsidiary TV stations, over 200 cable TV systems, over 60 radio stations, 59 magazines including Time and Newsweek, chains of newspapers including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post, 41 book publishers, and various other media enterprises.
Three major networks garner over 80 percent of all TV advertising intended for a national audience. Of all the existing TV and radio stations, 80 percent are network affiliates. Six corporations earn most of the revenues in the publishing world. Four major studios control most of the box office gross on Hollywood films. Eight studios account for about 90 percent of US film video rentals. Five conglomerates own 95 percent of the music industry. [1]
During the 1980s, the media industry was one of the business world's most active sectors when it came to multimillion- dollar mergers and acquisitions [2]. In that decade the number of corporations dominating all media shrank from forty-six to twenty-six. In 1981 there were twenty dominant firms in the magazine industry; by 1990 a few corporations, Time Warner, News Corporation, Times Mirror, and Hearts, controlled the lion's share of magazine circulation. Giant newspaper chains like Gannett, Knight-Ridder, and Newhouse are gobbling up independent dailies at the rate of fifty or sixty a year and earn about 75 percent of all newspaper revenues in the country. Less than 4 percent of US cities now have competing daily newspapers under separate ownership [3].
Through mergers, packaged news services, union busting, wage freezes, and staff cutting, the large media conglomerates have attained a rate of return on thier investment that is double the industrial average. [4] Consider the Hearst Corporation, whose empire includes scores of nwespapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, syndication production (including King Features and Cowles Syndicate), and interests in cable stations and cable networks, real estate, printing, cattle ranching, and other businesses. In 1987 Hearst showed debt-free assets of $3.44 billion. The Hearts Empire is easily matched by Times Mirror with its 20 newspapers and magazines, 50 cable TV systems, TV stations and publishing houses, and $3.5 billion in revenues and $298 million in profits in1989 [5]. There there is Gannett Company with 84 daily newspapers, 16 radio stations, 10 TV stations, and $3.3 billion in revenues with net profits of $364 million in 1989 [6].
The Rupert Murdoch empire (News Corporation Ltd) owns over 150 newspapers and magazines, 8 book publishing houses, including HarperCollins, a TV network (Fox Broadcasting) satellite cable systems, and a major movie studio (20th Century Fox). Murdoch has substantial media holdings on three continents, including 67 percent of newspaper circulation in Australia.
The buyout of Warner Communications by Time Inc. created Time Warner, the largest of all media conglomerates, with assets estimated somewhere between $25 billion and $30 billion in the magazine , book publishing, and movie industries.
Newspapers and TV networks are run like other corporations in the United States, by boards of directors composed mostly of persons drawn from the moneyed stratum of society. Three-quarters of the major stockholders of ABC, CBS, and NBC are banks such as Bank of America, Citibank, Bankers Trust, Chase Manhattan, Morgan Guaranty Trust. [11] Representatives of the more powerful New York banks sit on the boards of the major networks greatly influence network fiduciary functions.
Besides banks, the big media organizations hold interlocking directorates with giant companies that have major investements in airlines, coal and oil, insurance, telephone communications, nuclear power, and nuclear weaponry. Ford Motor Company-- already exercising considerable influence on American society with its own multibillion-dollar business--has had directors on the corporate boards of the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times [12]. General Electric, one of the nation's largest and most influential industrial giants, owns NBC.
The board of directors that rules CBS contains board members from ITT, IBM, Philip Morris, Dow Corning, J.P.Morgan, Rand, Carnegie Corporation, AT&T, Chase Manhattan, Citibank, Alcoa, Bulova, and Metropolitan Life [13]. Seated on the board of directors of the company that owns Washington Post are representatives from IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Bank of New York, Bankers Trust, Heinz, General Electric, and Coca- Cola [14]. Overall, the directors of media corporations "are linked with powerful business organizations, not with public interest groups; with management, not labor; with well-established think tanks and charities, not thier grassroots counterparts." [15]. They are drawn from a narrow, high-income segment of the population. [16]
Development and manufacture of the world's communications equipment are concentrated in the hands of a few giant transnational conglomerates, the biggest companies of the West's military-industrial complex. They own most of the radio stations, printing factories, and TV systems built in the world, and they produce more than 90 percent of the TV sets and almost 80 percent of all radio sets sold abroad.
This corporate grip on the means of communication is matched by a similar control over information that has flooded the world. The Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI), the two biggest US news agencies, alone transmit more than eight million words a day, while the seven biggest news agencies based in developing countries together produce only a tiny fraction of that amount.
In many Third world countries, the US and its closest allies control up to 90 percent of the news flow. As the Indian journalist A. Raghavan said: "The developing countries that have freed themselves from colonnial political dependence are still saddled with information dependence." As electronics and the use of computers develop, this dependence increases.
Assisting in this "information imperialism" are the US State Department, the Pentagon, the CIA, the USIA, and the Voice of America, all of whome deluge the earth with thier own peculiar brand of "information".
(Adapted from E. Baskakov, "Empire of Lies and Deception," Democratic Journalist, Ocotber 1987, pp 25-26.)
Freedom of the press, A.J. Liebling once said, is for those who own the presses. With rare exception, the nation's "free and independent" newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, and TV and radio stations are owned by giant corporations. The media are not merely close to corporate America, they are an integral part of it. As such they manifest all the same symptoms: increasing concentration of ownership, big salaries for top executives, political conservatism, union busting, and a constant push for profits.
[1] Ben Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly, 3rd ed. (Boston: Beacon press, 1990), pp 21-24; Benjamin Compaine, ed., Who Owns the Media? (New York: Harmony Books, 1979; Michael Parenti, Make-Believe Media: The Politics of Entertainment (New York; St. Martin's Press, 1992), pp 181-184; Alex Jones, "Newspaper Sale; A Trend Continues," New York Times, February 2, 1985.
[2] Washington Post, October 11, 1987.
[3] Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly, Ch.1
[4] Wall Street Journal, January 10, 1985
[5] Wiliam Barrett, "Citizens Rich," Forbes, Dec 14, 1987, pp 141-148
[6] Doug Henwood, "Times Mirror: Up from 'Manliness,'" Extra! Jan/Feb 1991, p 8; New York Times, Jan 10, 1986; USA Today Jan 5 1988.
[7] Alex Jones, "Will Profits Still Grow?" New York Times Aug 8 1988.
[8] Washington Post, Jan 8, 1991; New York Times, Aug 8, 1988.
[9] Martin Lee and Norman Solomon, Unreliable Sources (New York: Lyle Stuart, 1990) p.69; Washington Post, July 15, 1991.
[10] Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly, pp 5 - 8.
[11] Peter Dreier and Steve Weinberg, "Interlocking Directorates." pp 51 - 68
[12] Dreier and Weinberg, "Interlocking Directorates," p.51
[13] Extra! Oct/Nov 1989, p 9
[14] Extra! Jan/Feb 1990, p 11
[15] Dreier and Weinberg, "Interlocking Directorates", p. 51
[16] Hal Himmelstein and Allen Lichtenstein, "Who's Running the Show? Profiles of the Board of directors of Six of America's Most Powerful Electronic Media Conglomerates," unpublished monograph Feb 1986