From: v081kb76@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Michael F Chicarelli)
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Subject: Re: The Media Monopoly (part 6)
Summary: Corporate control of our information
Keywords: treachery trickery deceit deception
Date: 10 Oct 92 21:40:00 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <Bv9EwE.Hpz@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, bfrg9732@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Brian F. Redman) writes...
> 
>The Media Monopoly
> 
>by Ben H. Bagdikian
> 
>Part 6 -- From Mythology to Theology
> 
> 
> 
>"No Gannett newspaper has any direct competition."
>    -- Allen Neuharth, chairman of Gannett Company
> 
>"Neuharth Says 1-Paper Towns Don't Exist"
>    -- Headline in a trade magazine
> 
>----------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>The massaging of reality into a mythology which benefits the 
>image of a special group is an occurrence as old as history. 
>"Turning life's natural mixture of the noble and ignoble into 
>unrelieved heroism is done by those who, like editors of the 
>'Soviet Encyclopedia,' believe it is their religious duty to 
>mislead the public for its own good."
> 
>However, there is one important difference nowadays in this 
>shaping of reality into self-advantageous mythology. "[The] high 
>priests who communicate mythic dogmas now do so through great 
>centralized machines of communication [i.e. the mass media]... 
>Operators of these systems disseminate their own version of the 
>world."
> 
>The special groups which control the mass media are able to 
>overwhelm their often exhausted and/or passive audience with the 
>constant repetition and reinforcement of certain themes. For 
>example, consider the stereotype of the typical journalist as 
>being radical and antibusiness. "[The] stereotype of the 
>journalist as radical and antibusiness does not match the facts. 
>An authoritative study by Stephen Hess showed that 58 percent of 
>Washington correspondents consider themselves 'middle of the 
>road' or 'conservative' politically."
> 
>Or again, consider the fostering of the mythology of the 
>corporation as all around "hero" and "good citizen." So-called 
>"corporate advertising... constitutes printed and broadcast ads 
>designed not to sell goods and services but to promote the 
>politics and benevolent image of the corporation... [e.g. some of 
>the Dow Chemical ads, Commonwealth Edison ads, etc.] The 
>ideology-image ads as a category of all ads doubled in the 1970s 
>and are now a half-billion-dollar-a-year enterprise."
> 
>The purpose of these ideology-image ads is to present "... the 
>corporation as hero, a responsible citizen, a force for good, 
>presenting information on the work the company is doing in 
>community relations, assisting the less fortunate, minimizing 
>pollution, controlling drugs, ameliorating poverty." In addition, 
>corporate dollars are used for "explanations of the capitalistic 
>system, including massive use of corporate books and teaching 
>materials in the schools, almost all tax deductible."
> 
>During the so-called "energy crisis" of the 1970s, the Mobil Oil 
>Company began running a type of ad known as an "editorial ad." 
>These ads by Mobil Oil came to be known in the newspaper trade as 
>"the Mobil position." These ads had the format and style of an 
>actual editorial but were in fact paid advertisments. One of 
>these ads declared in 1979: "Can oil companies be trusted to put 
>additional revenues into the search for new energy supplies? 
>History says yes."
> 
>"Sadly [according to Bagdikian], history says no." The top twenty 
>oil companies have historically used their profits *not* to 
>search for new energy supplies but rather to purchase firms 
>outside of oil production and distribution. In the 1970s and 
>1980s, Mobil was investing in its so-called "search for new 
>energy supplies" by purchasing "...such assorted non-oil 
>companies as Montgomery Ward, Container Corporation of America, 
>restaurants in Kansas City, [and] condominiums in Hong Kong... 
>Mobil today indulges its profits... by printing 'Playboy' 
>magazine, 'National Geographic,' and Bantam and Random House 
>paperback books."
> 
>[At this point something strange has happened. I am at page 72. 
>The next page says page 105. Pages 73-104 *aren't there*. There 
>has been *no* obvious tearing out of pages and I purchased this 
>book brand new. Draw whatever conclusions from this that you 
>wish. At any rate, I will continue this synopsis in part 7, 
>starting at page 105. B.R.]
> 
> 
>----------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>Synopsis/Review by Brian Redman
>"Ah yes, Armageddon. I remember it well."



>End part 6
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