From: nlns@igc.apc.org (New Liberation News Service)
Newsgroups: rec.mag
Subject: The Media Monopoly (part 8)
Date: 5 Oct 1992 01:38:04 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

/* Written  5:37 pm  Sep 29, 1992 by bfrg9732@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu in cdp:alt.activism */
/* ---------- "The Media Monopoly (part 8)" ---------- */

The Media Monopoly

by Ben H. Bagdikian

Part 8 -- One Giant Ad



"What i'd like to know is how you Americans can successfully 
worship God and Mammon at the same time."
	      -- Sir John Reith, director general of the BBC

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In 1835, James Gordon Bennett, founder of the "New York Herald" 
began accepting advertisements from one "'Doctor Brandreth,' a 
quack who sold phony cure-all pills." Along with the profusion of 
Brandreth ads, there began also to appear "...a steady diet of 
'news' stories, presuming to be straight reporting... recounting 
heroic cures effected by none other than Dr. Brandreth's pills."

"Nine months later, when Brandreth canceled his advertising 
contract, Bennett, in print, called the good doctor a 'most 
impudent charlatan' who 'deceived and cheated,' something any 
moderately honest reporter could have written from the start."


"Modern corruption is more subtle. At one time or another, 
advertisers have *successfully* demanded that the following ideas 
appear in programs around their ads":

*** All businessmen are good or, if not, are always condemned by 
    other businessmen.
*** All wars are humane.
*** The status quo is wonderful.
*** Clergy are perfect.
*** All users of cigarettes are gentle, graceful, healthy, 
    youthful people.
*** All financial institutions are always in good shape.
*** The American way of life is beyond criticism.


Major advertisers have successfully insisted, *at one time or 
another*, "...that these specific ideas be expressed not in the 
ads but in the ostensibly 'independent' news reporting, editorial 
content, or entertainment programs [of the various media. The 
public] do not know that these messages are planted by 
advertisers. They are not supposed to know. They are supposed to 
think that these ideas are the independent work of professional 
journalists and playwrights detached from anything commercial."

Especially insisted upon by the corporate sponsors of our mass 
media is that criticism of the idea of free enterprise or of 
other basic business systems is absolutely off-limits. "Some 
reporters often criticize specific corporate acts, to the rage of 
corporate leaders. But the taboo against criticism of the system 
of contemporary enterprise is, in its unspoken way, almost as 
complete within mainstream journalism and broadcast programming 
in the United States as criticism of communism is explicitly 
forbidden in the Soviet Union."


In 1965, the FCC held hearings to find out how much influence 
advertisers had on the noncommercial content of t.v. and radio. 
Albert N. Halverstadt, general advertising manager of Procter & 
Gamble, "testified that the company established directives for 
programs in which [P&G] would advertise." As given by Mr. 
Halverstadt, examples of these directives were as follows:

"    Where it seems fitting, the characters in Procter and      "
"    Gamble dramas should reflect recognition and acceptance    "
"    of the world situation in their thoughts and actions,      "
"    although in dealing with war, our writers should min-      "
"    imize the 'horror' aspects....                             "
"                                                               "
"    There will be no material on any of our programs which     "
"    could in any way further the concept of business as        "
"    cold, ruthless, and lacking all sentiment or spiritual     "
"    motivation.                                                "


"Halverstadt testified that these policies were applied both to 
entertainment programs... and to news and public affairs 
documentaries."

"It is sobering that these demands are made of a medium reaching 
eighty million homes for six and a half hours every day."

Bagdikian maintains that these pressures from the advertisers on 
the content of what is broadcast and read by Americans are 
continuing to this day. He further is of the opinion that the 
consistent superficiality of most television programs can be 
traced to pressure from advertisers. "Corporate demands on 
television programs underlie what many consider the most grievous 
weakness of American television -- superficiality, materialism, 
blandness, and escapism."


In television's "golden age," before the advent of spot 
advertisements, in the days of single-sponsor programs, serious 
shows enjoyed popular success. "Erik Barnouw in his definitive 
history of American broadcasting writes:

"    That this 'marvelous world' fascinated millions is         "
"    abundantly clear from statistics. These plays... held      "
"    consistently high ratings. But one group hated them:       "
"    the advertising profession... Most advertisers were        "
"    selling magic. Their commercials posed the same prob-      "
"    lems that Chayefsky drama dealt with: people who           "
"    feared failure in love and business. But in the            "
"    commercials there was always a solution as clear-cut       "
"    as the snap of a finger: the problem could be solved       "
"    by a new pill, deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo, shaving     "
"    lotion, hair tonic, car, girdle, coffee, muffin recipe,    "
"    or floor wax.                                              "


"Serious programs remind the audience that complex human problems 
are not solved by switching to a new deodorant. Contrary to the 
network characterization of audiences, a more sophisticated 
presentation of human affairs was accepted enthusiastically by 
television audiences during the 1950s... If, in the midst of 
this, a commercial resolved serious human conflicts with a new 
brand of coffee, the commercial appeared for what it was -- 
silly."


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Synopsis/Review by Brian Redman
"Ah yes, Armageddon. I remember it well."
End part 8