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April
26 / 27, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
The Other War: Bush, Ashcroft and
the End of Civil Liberties
Saul
Landau
Iraq War: a Policy of Christian and Jewish Fundamentalism
William
A. Cook
Sharon Recruits US as Mercenaries Against Syria
William
S. Lind
Now the Real War Starts
John Chuckman
In Jesus's Name:
Franklin Graham's Christian Empire
David
MacMichael and Ray McGovern
Ex-CIA Analysts on WMD: Where? Find?
Plant?
Gary Leupp
Why the War on Iraq was (and Remains) Wrong
Robert
Sandels
Cuba Crackdown: a Revolt Against Bush's National Security Strategy?
CounterPunch
Wire
An Open Letter to Jerry Brown on Oakland Police Violence Against
Peace Activists and Dock Workers
Mickey
Z.
Our Ba'athists
Anthony
Gancarski
Nader Plays Pullman
Scott
Handleman
The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case in Its True Colors
Claud Cockburn
Evelyn Waugh's Ear Trumpet
Poets'
Basement
Matt Simon, Sam Hamod, Hammond Guthrie and Stew Albert
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/26
April
25, 2003
David
Vest
It's Not the Oil; It's the Art!
Steven
Higgs
All About Tucker Carlson
Walt
Brasch
The Shock and Awe of American Ignorance
Alexander
Cockburn
The Decline of American Journalism:
the Case of Judy Miller
Zeynep
Toufe
A Letter to the People of Iraq from an Anti-War Activist
CounterPunch
Wire
Season of the Witch: Jeane Kirkpatrick Unbound
Hammond
Guthrie
Springtime in Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/25
Website
of the Day
Having
a Great Time, Wish You Were Here: Postcards from a War
April
24, 2003
Lois
Whitman
An Open Letter to Rumsfeld on the
Child Detainees at Guantanamo
Uri
Avnery
Abu vs. Abu: It's Not About Egos
David
Lindorff
Day Care in the Name of National Security? About Those Kids in
Camp X-Ray
John Grebe
Rev. Pat Robertson's Message in the Temple
Dokhi
Fassihian
Monster.Com: Ethnic Cleansing on the Web?
CounterPunch
Wire
Israeli Army Chief Threatens Peace Activists
Sam
Hamod
Our Man in Baghdad
Annie
C. Higgins
Do You Regret Being an American?
Harold
A. Gould
Will They Hate Us Forever?
Stew Albert
Big Brother in Bed
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/24
Website
of the Day
Muscles
Abroad
Hot Stories
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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April 28,
2003
Total Information
Control
The Goal of Corporate Media
and Homeland Security
By PETER PHILLIPS
Freedom of information in American society is
in danger because corporate media needs to maintain access to
official sources of news. Consolidation of media has brought
the total news sources for most Americans to less than a handful
and these news groups have an ever-increasing dependency on pre-arranged
content.
The 24-hour news shows on MSNBC, Fox
and CNN are closely interconnected with various governmental
and corporate sources of news. Maintenance of continuous news
shows requires a constant feed and an ever-entertaining supply
of stimulating events and breaking news bites. Advertisement
for mass consumption drives the system and pre-packaged sources
of news are vital within this global news process. Ratings demand
continued cooperation from multiple-sources for on-going weather
reports, war stories, sports scores, business news, and regional
headlines. Print, radio and TV news also engages in this constant
interchange with news sources.
The preparation for and following of
ongoing wars and terrorism fits well into the visual kaleidoscope
of pre-planned news. Government public relations specialists
and media experts from private commercial interests provide on
going news feeds to the national media distributions systems.
The result is an emerging macro-symbiotic relationship between
news dispensers and news suppliers. Perfect examples of this
relationship are the press pools organized by the Pentagon both
in the Middle-East and in Washington D.C., which give pre-scheduled
reports on the war in Iraq to selected groups of news collectors
(journalists) for distribution through their individual media
organizations.
Embedded reporters (news collectors)
working directly with military units in the field must maintain
cooperative working relationships with unit commanders as they
feed breaking news back to the U.S. public. Cooperative reporting
is vital to continued access to government news sources. Therefore,
rows of news story reviewers back at corporate media headquarters
rewrite, soften or spike news stories from the field that threaten
the symbiotics of global news management.
Journalists who fail to recognize their
role as cooperative news collectors will be disciplined in the
field or barred from reporting as in the recent celebrity cases
of Geraldo Rivera and Peter Arnett.
Journalists working outside of this mass
media system face ever-increasing dangers from "accidents"
of war and corporate-media dismissal of their news reports. Massive
civilian casualties caused by U.S. troops, extensive damage to
private homes and businesses, and reports that contradict the
official public relations line were downplayed, deleted, or ignored
by corporate media, while content were analyzed by experts (retired
generals and other approved collaborators) from within the symbiotic
global news structure.
Symbiotic global news distribution is
a conscious and deliberate attempt by the powerful to control
news and information in society. The Homeland Security Act Title
II Section 201(d)(5) specifically asks the directorate to "develop
a comprehensive plan for securing the key resources and critical
infrastructure of the United States includingSinformation technology
and telecommunications systems (including satellites)S emergency
preparedness communications systems."
Corporate media today is perhaps too
vast to enforce complete control over all content 24 hours a
day. However, the government's goal is the operationalization
of total information control and the continuing consolidation
of media makes this process easier to achieve.
Freedom of information and citizen access
to objective news is rapidly fading in the United States and
the world. In its place is a complex entertainment-oriented news
system, which protects its own bottom-line by servicing the most
powerful military-industrial complex in the world.
For the majority of Americans who depend
on corporate media for their daily news, this monolithic news
structure creates intellectual celibacy, inaction and fear. The
result is a docile population, whose principal function within
society is to simply shut-up and go shopping. The powerful would
like us quiet and consumptive and the corporate media is delivering
that message on a daily basis.
Peter Phillips
is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University
and Director of Project
Censored a media research organization. He can be reached
at: peter.phillips@SONOMA.EDU
Yesterday's
Features
Elaine
Cassel
The Other War: Bush, Ashcroft and
the End of Civil Liberties
Saul
Landau
Iraq War: a Policy of Christian and Jewish Fundamentalism
William
A. Cook
Sharon Recruits US as Mercenaries Against Syria
William
S. Lind
Now the Real War Starts
John Chuckman
In Jesus's Name:
Franklin Graham's Christian Empire
David
MacMichael and Ray McGovern
Ex-CIA Analysts on WMD: Where? Find?
Plant?
Gary Leupp
Why the War on Iraq was (and Remains) Wrong
Robert
Sandels
Cuba Crackdown: a Revolt Against Bush's National Security Strategy?
CounterPunch
Wire
An Open Letter to Jerry Brown on Oakland Police Violence Against
Peace Activists and Dock Workers
Mickey
Z.
Our Ba'athists
Anthony
Gancarski
Nader Plays Pullman
Scott
Handleman
The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case in Its True Colors
Claud Cockburn
Evelyn Waugh's Ear Trumpet
Poets'
Basement
Matt Simon, Sam Hamod, Hammond Guthrie and Stew Albert
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/26
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