Recommended Books About Media Ownership and Media Bias.
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The Man Who Owns The News
Inventing Reality
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"Freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one."
A. J. Liebling
Who Really Determines What You Will Or Will Not See On TV Or Read In The Newspaper?
In the early years of our democracy the "free press" was all that stood between greedy corporate interests, government corruption and you and I. While many newspapers were controlled by wealthy individuals such as William Randolph Hearst, who influenced the content of the news in his papers, a kind of journalistic "Hippocratic oath" seemed to prevail across the country as reporters and publishers at small papers usually chose to pursue the truth in reporting.
Local papers, TV stations and radio outlets were owned mostly by local individuals with an interest in their community. That began to change as a powerful institution known as the Council On Foreign Relations gained power and the trend toward total corporate media control rapidly accelerated during the Bush era with media consolidation.
Suddenly the old rule that one corporation could not own all of the town's news outlets was gone. Companies like Clear Channel Communications suddenly began to buy up every radio station, TV outlet and newspaper in major markets, effectively controlling everything that people read, watched and heard. The pattern of media consolidation has increased during the last eight years to the point that now only a few corporations control the news that we watch.
Just like the quote above, he who owns the media, controls the media. With such powerful platforms they are able to drown out independent media and control public opinion and government policy. There can be no freedom without freedom of the press and there can be no freedom of the press if only a few powerful corporations are allowed to own it.
What Liberal or Right Wing Media? It's Just Corporate Media.
Who really controls the media? Is the so called "liberal media" that the right complains about controlled by Hollywood and liberal special interests? Is Fox News controlled by the Republican Party? If you believe any of these generalizations you are dead wrong and the truth will shock you.
Major multinational corporations, Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds and Saudi Princes, all hell bent on protecting their own interests, choose what you will see on the nightly news and trick you into believing it is unbiased reporting. As we see below all the major news outlets, regardless of what they make you believe, contributed heavily to George W. Bush in both 2000 and 2004 so any argument that they are controlled by liberals evaporates. In this case they all supported the candidate that promised to allow consolidation of multiple media companies.
The very news stories that you are fed by the mainstream media are manipulated to mirror the public relations campaigns of companies that operate nuclear plants, sprawling theme parks that gobble up wetlands, defense contractors, oil companies and even Saudi Princes. Remember the old "Outer Limits" TV shows where the announcer says "We control everything you see and hear, the vertical, the horizontal," etc? The corporate controlled news media controls all you see and hear.
Here are the top twenty media corporations in the U.S. according to mediaowners.com All but two of the following, #18 and #19 are not members of the Council On Foreign Relations.
1. Time Warner Inc.
2. Walt Disney Company
3. Viacom Inc.
4. News Corporation
5. CBS Corporation
6. Cox Enterprises
7. NBC Universal
8. Gannett Company, Inc.
9. Clear Channel Communications Inc.
10. Advance Publications, Inc.
11. Tribune Company
12. McGraw-Hill Companies
13. Hearst Corporation
14. Washington Post Company
15. The New York Times Company
16. E.W. Scripps Co.
17. McClatchy Company
18. Thomson Corporation
19. Freedom Communications, Inc.
20. A&E Television Networks
Who Owns The Media? Industry Giants, Saudi Princes and Australian Robber Barons.
Here is a breakdown of the "Liberal" media ownership By Corporations. Next Read Who Owns the "Conservative Media".
"GE, Not Just Light Bulbs Anymore"
GENERAL ELECTRIC - NBC (In
they 2000 donated 1.1 million to George W Bush for his election campaign)
TV Holdings:
* NBC: Owns outright 13 stations and many affiliates, Market penetration: 28% of
US households.
* NBC Network News: Owns The Today Show, Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, Meet the
Press, Dateline.
* CNBC business network, MSNBC 24-hour cable and Internet news service (co-owned
by both NBC and Microsoft); Court TV (co-owned with Time Warner), Bravo
(50%), A&E (25%), History Channel (25%).
The MS in MSNBC stands for Microsoft, Bill Gate's Microsoft donated
2.4 million in 2000 to get George W Bush elected.
Other Holdings:
* GE Consumer Electronics and Household Products and components used in military
electronics..
* GE Power Systems, which makes turbines for nuclear reactors, wind turbines,
"clean" coal technology.
* GE Plastics: produces military hardware for fighter jets, ships and nuclear
power equipment.
* GE Transportation Systems: manufactures engines and diesel and electric
locomotives.
WESTINGHOUSE / CBS INC.
"Not Just Fridges Anymore".
Westinghouse Electric Company, part of of the large Nuclear Utilities Business
Group of British Nuclear Fuels.
Which is Headed By Frank Carlucci of the Carlyle Group. A group with very strong
ties to the Bush Administration.
TV Holdings:
* CBS: Owns outright 14 stations and over 200 affiliates in the US.
* CBS Network News: 60 minutes, 48 hours, CBS Evening News, CBS Morning News.
* Country Music Television, The Nashville Network.
* Group W Satellite Communications.
Other Holdings:
* Westinghouse Electric Company: provides services to the nuclear power industry
including owning 4 nuclear plants, waste disposal and transport.
The Late Disney Founder, Walt Disney. "Oh how far we have come
Walt!"
DISNEY - ABC
(Donated $640,000 to George W Bush's 2000
political campaign)
TV Holdings:
* ABC: includes 10 stations outright, many affiliates, Penetration in the
market: 24% of US households.
* ABC Network News: Prime Time Live, Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America.
* ESPN, Lifetime Television (50%), as well as smaller holdings in A&E, History
Channel and E!
* Disney Channel/Disney Television, Touchtone Television.
Other Major Media Holdings.
* Miramax, Touchtone Pictures.
* Major Magazines: Jane, Los Angeles Magazine, Discover.
* Three recording labels, twelve major local newspapers.
* Hyperion books.
* Infoseek search engine.
Major shareholders include Sid R. Bass, oil and gas baron.
Disney's environmental and social record: Source wikipedia.org
- The company has been accused of human rights violations regarding the working conditions in factories that produce their merchandise. Numerous environmental groups in Florida and California have criticized development procedures used in building theme parks including damage to wetlands.
- An environmental management plan for a zone of Great Guana Cay, in the Abaco Islands, criticized Disney for poor management of a 90-acre (36.4 ha) tract of the island. Disney partially developed but then abandoned the place, which was to have been a cruise ship resort called Treasure Island. The report, by the University of Miami and the College of the Bahamas, blames Disney for leaving hazardous materials, electrical transformers, and fuel tanks, and for introducing invasive alien plants and insects that threaten the natural flora and fauna of the island.
"Time, Not
Just On The Coffee Table Anymore".
TIME-WARNER TBS - AOL (In 2000 they donated 1.6 million to George Bush's political campaign)
America Online (AOL) acquired Time Warner which was the largest merger in
corporate history.
TV Holdings:
* CNN, HBO, Cinemax, TBS Superstation, Turner Network Television, Turner Classic
Movies, Warner Brothers Television, Cartoon Network, Sega Channel, TNT, Comedy
Central.
* Largest cable system owner with an estimated 13 million
households.
Media Holdings:
* HBO Productions, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock, Looney
Tunes, Hanna-Barbera.
* Music: Atlantic, Elektra, Rhino, Sire, Warner Bros. Records, EMI.
* Thirty three major magazines including Time, Sports Illustrated, People
Magazine, In Style, Fortune, The Book of the Month Club, Entertainment Weekly,
Life Magazne, DC Comics, MAD Magazine.
Other major corporation Holdings:
* Sports Teams and Wrestling: The Atlanta Braves, The Atlanta Hawks, World
Championship Wrestling.
Now For The "Conservative News Media"
"The real Darth Vader?"
Why did Australian Rupert Murdoch forsake his native country and become a U.S. citizen? Reportedly it was because he could save on taxes and start over in virgin territory after leaving behind so much scorched earth in the Australian economy as he laid waste to his business opponents and bought up media outlets. Or perhaps it was just so he could get around foreign media ownership laws. (Which no longer exist.)
Does a Saudi billionaire actually have the power to control the news on the Fox network, of which he is a part owner?
NEWS CORPORATION LTD. / FOX NETWORKS
(Rupert Murdoch, numerous donations. On Board of Directors of Phillip Morris, Phillip Morris
Donated 2.9 million to Bush's campaign.
Major Television Holdings:
* Fox Television: includes 22 major and many affiliate stations,
Penetration into more than 60% of US households.
* Fox International: extensive worldwide cable and satellite networks include
British Sky Broadcasting (40%); VOX, Germany (49.9%); Canal Fox, Latin America;
FOXTEL, Australia (50%); STAR TV, Asia, IskyB, India; Bahasa Programming Ltd.,
Indonesia (50%); and News Broadcasting, Japan (80%), major owner of DirecTV.
* The Golf Channel (33%).
Other Major Media Hodings:
* Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Searchlight.
* 132 major newspapers (113 in Australia alone) including the New York Post, the
London Times and The Australian.
* Owns 25 magazines including TV Guide and The Weekly Standard.
* Owns HarperCollins books.
Othe Major Corporation Holdings around the word:
* Sports: LA Dodgers, LA Kings, LA Lakers, National Rugby League.
* Ansett Australia airline, Ansett New Zealand airlines.
* Rupert Murdoch is on the Board of Directors of Philip Morris, a major Bush
donor.
It's no surprise that corporate robber baron
Rupert Murdoch is a major Bush supporter but who else owns Fox News?
Prince al-Walid bin Talal owns 5.5% of Fox
News.
Prince al- Walid bin Talal stated recently that he used his influence to change Fox's headlines. During the recent riots in Muslim neighborhoods in France Fox was using the term "Muslim Riots" to describe rioting by Muslim youths and Prince bin Talal claims that called Fox News had them change the title of the story to "Youth Riots". Source. worldnetdaily.com
In another instance, where supposedly conservative Fox News should have been up in arms, was the deal by a United Arab Emirates holding company to buy U.S. ports. Suddenly Fox went from being against the deal to very supportive of a deal that would have put US container ports in foreign hands. A U.A.E. sovereign wealth fund also owns major shares of Fox.
The "good ole boys" that hang on every word that Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly utters might not be so happy when they hear who is whispering in their idol's ears.
The Council On Foreign Relations and What It Has To Do With
Corporate Control Of The News
CFR Seal
What do Dan Rather, Barbara Walters, Jim Lehrer, Rupert Murdoch, Tom Brokaw and the late William F. Buckley have in common? They are all members of the CFR, The Council On Foreign Relations. The stated goal of the CFR is to manipulate the News to bring about a new world order or corporate control of everything. This is not some weird conspiracy theory, it is stated in their original charter. Who else belongs to the CFR, Disney's Michael Eisner and ABC's Thomas Murphy, Tom Johnson, CEO of CNN, Time Warner's Gerald Levine, and many, many more media CEO's who have merged their empires under the CFR's guidance.
Here is a good video that traces the history of news media manipulation by large corporations in the U.S by buying up newspapers and using institutions such as the Council On Foreign Relations to shape U.S. policy and public opinion.
Freedom of the press is vital to our democracy. We need to prevent things like media consolidation, where one company is allowed to own all the news outlets in any given market. Speak up and stop the corporate robber barons and the CFR from taking that right away from us. Contact your senators at www.senate.gov and let them know you are fed up with large corporations and foreign interests gobbling up our news media.
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