The "Liberal" Media That Is Funded By Corporate America - How Liberal Can It Be?

[TomCADem]

I was listening to Stephanie Miller yesterday and she read a letter from a listener complaining about how the station was bashing on Democrats and its efforts to promote gold as an investment. It was an interesting episode, because Stephanie Miller and her co-hosts did not really defend themselves from the sentiments, and merely apologized and said that they were sorry to lose the listener. Again, the episode was a day or so ago, and it bothered me, because it has always bothered me how liberal radio shows actively promote gold as an investment, which rests on the premise that due to huge budget deficits, hyper-inflation is around the corner. Thus, on a liberal radio show, you are promoting a product that undercuts the supposed liberal defense of needed spending for education and benefits for the middle class and poor.

Comcast bought NBC and fired Keith Olberman. The Huffington Post was sold AOL, which is publicly traded company. How liberal can the liberal media be if it is funded by corporate America?

My concern is that corporate sponsorship will come with strings attached. While Fox News can freely organize and coordinate with the Republican party, "liberal" pundits will be forced to offer a "fair and balanced" perspective in the name of objectivity. Thus, Keith Olbermann gets suspended because of a relatively small contribution to some Democrats.

On Fox News, you see some pretty obvious examples of sock puppetry where liberals are given a prominent soap box to attack Democrats from the "left." As a result, you had Jane Hamscher standing arm in arm with Grover Norquist to attack President Obama's handling of the TARP program to prevent the collapse of the financial system. Likewise, you have Dennis Kucinich on Fox News to attack President Obama from the left where the questions are designed to avoid having Kucinich criticize Republicans. Do you think a Fox News reporter will ever ask Kucinich what does he think about the Republican budget proposals? No way. Instead, Fox News will happily give Kucinich a platform to attack the no fly zone along with Newt Gingrich (who supported it not too long ago).

So, I am not telling anyone anything they don't know when I say that Fox News has an agenda to undermine Democrats. The question is what about the corporate sponsors of liberal media?

In 2008, social media allowed us to capture Congress and the White House by bypassing the corporate media establishment. However, the corporate media masters have not stood still. They have adapted. The Tea Party itself is one of the most massive astroturfing campaigns in history, and we have Koch industries getting caught hiring a PR firm to actively modify references to Koch on wikipedia and blogs. In 2010, we had Republicans funding a sock puppet Latinos for Reform group to attack Harry Reid from the left on immigration.

Finally, are we getting "trained" by this massive PR effort. Corporate American controlled the media, and hid this fact behind the "liberal" media narrative. Now, we have the rise of astro-turf and sock puppets. Are we steadily being trained to blame Democrats and give Republicans a free pass.

Today, in Ohio, the legislature passed a bill curtailing workers' rights. In California, Republicans walked away from the budget table because they insisted that Jerry Brown unrelated laws curtailing environmental protections. Yet, turning on Rachel Maddow and the Ed Show, this was not covered even though (with apologies to Libya news fanatics) these stories will have a direct impact on our lives. If California does not pass a responsible budget, millions of people will suffer. The social safety net is about to get destroyed, and not a word of this fact is being mentioned because corporate America wants to prevent Jerry Brown from pushing through a mere extension of an existing corporate tax.

C'mon! Ohio workers are losing their rights and corporations are about to receive a huge tax cut in California in the face of a huge state deficit that will require drastic cuts in services!!! Where is my local independent media that will tell me the truth about what is happening in my own backyard!?!?

In China, the censorship is heavy handed. Here, the censorship exists, but it is just a little more discrete. It is called a PR campaign and the censor is called the program's corporate sponsor.

The corporate censor's pen is often unseen behind the cloak of confidentiality agreements and private PR consultants, but occasionally there is a leak such as this 2006 ABC Radio memo documenting a blacklist by corporate advertisers of Air America:

http://mediamatters.org/research/200610310008

<>