The American Media 101 (The media as GOP shill)

[ProSense]

Or why the media is so damn complicit in furthering the Republican agenda. (Good time to repost)


The media serves as a shill for the group more likely to protector its corporate interests, Republicans. The fact is the levels of media ownership run so far and deep into the financial community it's hard for the average person to see, and so easy for the media to deny that these connections have any impact on its reporting

Here is and excellent ownership chart:

http://www.projectcensored.org/newsflash/C2006_chap6.pdf (pp 4-9 highlight the connections)

Now an example of how much deeper it goes beyond AOL/Time Warner connection to Citigroup (pg. 9). What this chart doesn’t show is the link to Kingdom Holding Company:

Kingdom Holding Company is a private holding company, incorporated in Saudi Arabia, and is one of the largest Saudi companies. It is owned by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz, and is headquartered in the city of Riyadh.

Snip…

Probably its best know international investments include (or have included):

Amazon
AOL/Time Warner
Apple Computers
Boeing
Canary Wharf
Citigroup
Coca Cola
Compaq
Disneyland Paris
eBay
Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts
Ford
George V Hotel, Paris
Gillette
McDonald's
News Corporation
PepsiCo
Procter & Gamble
Walt Disney

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_Holding

Alsaud, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal , 44 , inherited and growing
Track This Person

Source: Kingdom Holding Co.
Net Worth: $20 bil -
Country: Saudi Arabia
Marital Status: married , 2 children
Menlo College, BA/BS
Syracuse University

The man: High-energy investor who searches out undervalued stocks saw some of them become even less valuable this year. The fortune: Prices plummeted on Internet picks Priceline.com and Amazon.com as well as holdings like Motorola and Compaq. Lucky for him, these are small pieces of a big pie. The biggest slice, his 3.9% of Citigroup, accounts for half his fortune and was up 12% since last year. Passions: Long walks near his weekend desert retreat; watching CNBC.

http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/10/2001/LIR.jhtml?passListId=10&passYear=2001&passListType=Person&uniqueId=0RD0&datatype=Person

Prince Alwaleed, Chairman of the Kingdom Holding Company and a member of the Saudi Royal Family and one of the world's leading philanthropists, supports many educational and humanitarian initiatives. He recently donated $20 million to the Louvre in support of its collection of Islamic art and created the first Centers for American Studies and Research in the Arab World at the American University of Beirut and the American University in Cairo. He has also made donations to President George H.W. Bush Sr., Scholarship fund established by Phillips Academy, the Carter Center for Peace and Health Programs in Africa, and given substantial aid to the Tsunami victims.

Note: Articles listed under "Middle East Studies in the News" provide information on current developments concerning Middle East studies on North American campuses. These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus Watch's critique.

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/2329

The point of all of this is that the media’s objectivityhas to be questioned because of these corporate/financial links. And even if the point is made about how spread out those ownership interests are, look at how much of Citigroup this Saudi company owns: 3.9% (or as stated above, half the Prince’s fortune).


How it works

Scenario 1 and Democrats: When charges, regardless of how false, are leveled at a Democrat, the media launches into a ling of questioning using RW talking points to put Democrats on the defensive to respond and prove the charges false.

Scenario 2 and Democrats: When charges are leveled at a Republican (no matter how factual) the media launches a line of questions using RW talking points to put the Democrats on the defensive to prove they are different from the Republicans, not as guilty or complicit.


In the first scenario, Republicans are asked leading (softball) questions. For example:

Media interviewer: So you’re saying President Clinton did the same thing…
Republican responder: Exactly. (Further elaboration optional)

In the second scenario, Republicans are offered the opportunity to rebut the Democrats charges and/or reiterate the Democrats’ complicity.

Case studies: See recent posts about Wolfie’s interview with Dean, Reid and RW media, numerous articles about Abramoff-related money and articles about Bush distancing himself from DeLay.


The RW further engages in payola because some so-called journalists are only in it for the money and the practice allows the Republican to create the appearance of a solid, consistent and objective (Ha!) block of voices in agreement with their positions.


The wingnuts don’t get it

The RW audience, clueless that the media isn’t objective, complains whenever any charges are leveled against Republicans and picked up by the media because they still have to report most things. The RW audience accuses the media of having a liberal bias. When the media does something that really doesn’t appeal to them, they freep the media with e-mail


Other resources:
http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/
http://www.mediachannel.org/ownership/chart.shtml

[Jon8503]

1. Pro thanks for this, very important points on the media. I bookmarked

this one for more reading of the links. This is something I think is so important for the democrats to really seriously look at and do something about if they get some control where they can.

Especially bust up some of the conglomerates.

Recommend.

[ProSense]

3. You're welcome! n/t

[blm]

5. I agree, Jon, the Dems HAVE to tackle this seriously as an ISSUE. Every

other issue lives or dies by the media perception attached to it.

[ProSense]

2. Devil Is in the Lack of Details: The Defense Department's Media Contracts

Published on Thursday, February 23, 2006 by Center for Media and Democracy

The Devil Is in the Lack of Details: The Defense Department's Media Contracts

by Diane Farsetta

Although they've done their best to keep their spinning from public scrutiny, several major incidents have exposed the Bush administration's manipulation of news media: The "sell job" for the invasion of Iraq. Payola pundits Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus. Stooge "reporter" Jeff Gannon / James Guckert. Video news releases determined to be covert propaganda by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Snip...


The Wages of Spin
During the second Clinton term (calendar years 1997 through the end of 2000), government PR contracts averaged $32 million per year. Over the first Bush term (calendar years 2001 through 2004), PR spending averaged $62.5 million annually. From fiscal year 2003 to mid-fiscal year 2005, an average of $78.8 million went to private PR firms per year -- from just seven federal departments.


Snip...

Major Information Operations
News accounts of the GAO report, as well as a press release put out by the members of Congress who requested the study, mentioned some of the smaller Pentagon contracts. It is easy to understand why an Air Force-sponsored "Stars and Strikes" bowling tournament, Coca-Cola branded "victory T-shirts," NASCAR promotion ads, or embroidered golf towels for youth tournaments might catch a reporter's eye. But among the sea of small and carefully detailed contracts are a few major efforts described just well enough to raise eyebrows.


Snip...

Propaganda, Propaganda Everywhere
The United States is facing not only "growing budget deficits," as the House committee report noted, but also multiple wars overseas, natural disasters at home, a shaky economy, and shrinking resources for such basic infrastructure as education and health care. It is against this background -- and, likely, because of it -- that federal spending on PR firms and other media contractors is increasing.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0223-27.htm

The article is filled with links.

[ProSense]

4. The MSM and the GOP: destroying America together. n/t

[rman]

6. So it *is* the United Saudi States of America after all

Indira Singh is correct.

'When i went to Senator Grassley's office, i said to them, "Am i a citizen of the United States or the United Saudi States of America?"
And i said, "I am from ground zero, and if you don't like the way i'm going to be speaking, you can leave." And two people got up and left.
I said that my trip, my Ptech journey, was a journey from the Whitey Bulger tent in Colorado to the White Tent in DC. Somebody else left."

Sibel Edmonds and other Whistleblowers Group
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=344

[ProSense]

7. Saudi-owned media Play of the Week

CNN's Play of the Week: GOP's 'Declaration of Independence'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2479381&mesg_id=2479381