I want to start this video off with a synopsis of Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent. It’s only four and a half minutes so it’s a quick watch.
“According to American linguist and political activist, Noam Chomsky, media operate through 5 filters: ownership, advertising, the media elite, flak and the common enemy.”
…the common enemy. Looks like we just got a new one added to that list besides communists and terrorists!
But let’s talk ownership. Almost all media is owned by five companies now.
This infographic shows six, but it is out of date, with Disney buying Fox. https://www.webfx.com/blog/internet/the-6-companies-that-own-almost-all-media-infographic/
A few decades back this would have been illegal. But with companies growing powerful that buys politicians and lobbyists. These then work to dismantle the laws that stand in the way of becoming more powerful.
More and more consolidation brings worse and worse news.
In my last post on Fake News, I showed how the CIA was involved in ALL news services. https://loganchristopher.com/fake-news-is-not-new/
Let’s look at Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and the Washington Post. Yet, here’s a conflict of interest. “The Post is supposed to expose CIA secrets. But Amazon is under contract to keep them. Amazon has a new $600 million “cloud” computing deal with the CIA…The Washington Post ‘s refusal to provide readers with minimal disclosure in coverage of the CIA is important on its own. But it’s also a marker for an ominous pattern — combining denial with accommodation to raw financial and governmental power — a synergy of media leverage, corporate digital muscle and secretive agencies implementing policies of mass surveillance, covert action and ongoing warfare.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-the-washington-posts_b_4587927
Or take HBO. Last month they aired “After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News.” I watched this propaganda film as I like to see things from different perspectives, even though I had a good idea of what was in store.
Nowhere did I see the conflict of interest disclosed. CNN which gets very good play in the film. They’re the victims of fake news of course. It just so happens that CNN have the same owners of HBO. The idea of this film is that only the right uses fake news, while the left is innocent.
Sorry, but no. Everyone lies!
It is interesting to see that trust in media has gone down over time as shown in these Gallup polls. https://news.gallup.com/poll/267047/americans-trust-mass-media-edges-down.aspx
But look when we split the liberals and conservatives!
This is hugely problematic (and I would argue that increased polarization is something many of these people want).
This further destroys our information ecology because one side pointing out the lies of the other, tends to get people more polarized and locked into one point of view. It’s gets people wrapped up in their ideology whatever that happens to be.
Again, both sides lie. (I’m not a big fan of Trump…but that is for different reasons than most…because certain things aren’t covered in any of the media.)
Just a few more of the problems behind what masquerades as new today.
This is why many people are seeking better information online. And that is where online censorship comes into play. We’ll dive into that soon…
P.S. In the previous post on Fake News I showed Anderson Cooper in hurricane flood waters in what appear to be a way to make the situation look worse than it was. David sent me this video where he addressed this specifically.
I’ll leave you to make up your own mind on that as it does appear genuine. However, even if this wasn’t a case of exaggeration, I don’t feel like it has an impact on the rest of that post or this one.