please note:

this article is an assignment that is due for my poli-sci class on the work of Noam Chomsky [see comment below]. undoubtedly, it is hardly appropriate material for erev pesach [unless you are truly that bored].
kosher in freilichin pesach to all-
have fun pealing-
and please try somehow to find your own personal freedom this yom tov.

reading between the [head]lines: an outrage of corporate conspiracy

Every facet of life possesses inherent political value. Because all knowledge is ultimately socially constructed, ideology is of utmost and central importance. Taking on the role of traditional meaning-making, these theoretical institutions are intrinsicly part of media corporations and remain an essential component in the means of dominant production and shaping the framework of the social world. Ideologies are used to support and justify the foundations of power, injustices caused by representation. This centralization of American 'opinions' and world socio-economic 'views' are then solidified, forming a cohesive media plan to suit a higher corporate agenda. An agenda that is often based on and perpetuates cultural hegemony, a deteministic, technicaized, and hyperrationalized view of life. It rejects complexity and diversity in favor for a dichotomous or binary world perspective. As super genius Noam Chomsky elucidates in his landmark work Manufacturing Consent, "in normal times as well as in periods of Red scares, issues tend to be framed in terms of a dichotomized world of Communist and anti-Communist powers, with gains and losses allocated to contesting sides, and rooting for 'our side' considered an entirely legitimate news practice. It is the mass media that identify, create, and push into the limelight a Joe McCarthy, Arkady Shecchenko, and Claire Sterling and Robert Leiken, or an Annie Kriegel and Pierre Daix. The ideology and religion of anticommunism is a potent filter." And what is defined as communist? Anything and anyone that challenges policies that threaten "property interests or support accommodation with Communists states and radicalsim". This misrepresentation fragments the left and labor movements and is consistenly portrayed as 'anti-American'.

In this informaton thriving universe the media seeks to construct reality, to become reality without claiming to be subjective interperters of the life experience. Chomsky further states "The elite domination fo the media and marginalization of dissidnets that results from the operation of these [media] filters occurs to naturally that media news people, frequently operating with complete integrity and goodwill, are able to convince themselves that they choose and interpret the news "objectively" and on the basis of professional news values." Thus, social constructs being so utterly melded into the 'common experience', create consumer blindness and 'neutrally inclined' consciousness. This immersion is an American phenomenon and reproduces our moral handicap. Because we remain both victim and product of it, the public often fails or even desires to notice its terrifying affects.

There are twenty-four major corporations that deliver the world news. These media companies are large, profit-seeking businesses, owned and controlled by quite wealthy people. Many of the large media companies are fully integrated into the market, and others too, the pressures of stockholders, directors and bankers to focus on the bottom profit line are powerful. Media companies are inspired toward network profits and appealing to a broad range of advertisers. Because attracting consumers is both the main claim and goal of the media, news that discourages buying [such as the conditions of sweat shops in Pakistan etc.] are filtered or subverted to more 'consumer friendly' news. Media corporations seek to create distance between cataclysmic news events, especially those that tend to discourage domestic commerce. Media families like Murdoch, Turner, Newhouse, Bancroft-Cox, McGraw, Chandlers, Annenbergs, McCormick and Hearst are the executors of higher capitalistic ventures. They create and determine "news-worthy news", filtering in a propogandic model what is appropriate and what is not. There is a reason why Bill Clinton and George W. Bush flew to Australia to pay homage to Rupert Murdoch.

The relationship of media companies and the government are also of great significance. The media is dependent on the government for policy friendly regulations. As with all "good businesses" media corporations are interested in taxes, labor policies and interest rates. As Chomsky notes GE and Westinghouse [two of the largest media suppliers] "depend on the government to subsidize their nuclear power and military research and development, and to create a favorable climate for their overseas sales." In addition to this, as with all out-sourcing businesses, the media monster holds a special interest in international affairs, particularly "Third World" nations.

Because news is both imported, exported and manipulated for higher purposes, the media giants, advertising agencies and great multinational corporations hold vested interests in the consumerist [American] worldview [such as the belief that the Muslim world rejects the "American" way of life]. For this reason, media victims are chosen carefully. As in the case of Jerzy Popieluszko vs. the hundreds of murdered priests in Latin America, remarkably the face of Mr. Popieluszko, a murdered priest in then communist Poland appeared on the covers of the New York Times, Time and Newsweek several times, the murders of Archbishop Augusto Ramirex Romero, father superior of the Fraciscan order in Guetemala, and four American nuns did not appear once. America was too 'involved' in Central America [namely supporting the National Guard that perpetrated the crimes] to feign outrage. It is not without reason that only those that to do not interfere with the greater Agenda and deemed worthy of 'coverage', and those that selected recieve extremely structured 'sympathy' and generate carefully monitored public reactions.

News that does not support the corporate agenda is silenced. While listening to a news program it is pivotal to comprehend all that is not being said. Indeed, any nightly news watcher must remember that "political discrimination is structured into advertising allocations by the stress on people with mondy to buy. But many firms will always refuse to patronize ideological enemies and those whom they perceive as damaging their [economic] interests, and cases of overt discrimination add to the force of the voting system weighted by income." A recent example of this phenomenon can be see in Katie Couric's recent uprgrade to nightly news anchor. Ms. Couric, a popular morning show host, adds an entirely new audience-consumer block to the network. It is a corporate move that is highly expected to increase public ratings. Thus, it is absolutely crucial to realize that the ultimate purpose of television news programs, talk show radio shows and newspaper magazines is TO BUY SOMETHING and the listener/reader should not assume that they are obtaining a well-rounded, "objective" world view from multiple perspectives.

Tragically, the reciprocity of media-government- and advertising/business, creates a Bermuda Triangle that encapsulates the American public. Gone are the days of activism and social consciousness, the days of political awareness have been replaced with the rush to pursue a an economic vision of the American Empire. We are an apathetic, desensitized, and morally lethargic nation. And worse, we no longer care that we do not care. We no longer care that the issue of power politics go unchecked and that our modern identity is primarily forged by steel, labor and capital and not the grounds of true humanitarian rights [not the Iraqi claim], liberty and equality. We not longer care that we have no opinions, that we have no voice, that we are "neutral". As stated earlier, there is no such thing as "neutrality", silence merely accords, supports and perpetuates hegemony, it is the mechanism upon which the entire structure rests and relies upon. Today, we are able to efficiently prevent much of world sufferring, feed more hungry children, and help aide in the fight to end world poverty. Today we can infuse our democratic freedoms with a true equality, not masking a global seizure of human rights under the pretense of liberty. And yet, so many of us choose not too. So many of us have fallen prey to the indoctrination of consumerism, we have, unawarely, neglected our consciousness in pursuit of greater materialism. We are unconscious that we continuously make the choice to settle, to be 'neutral', to watch TV, or worse, go shopping.