Big Media & Corporate America, analysis of boards of directors

[G_j]

check this out:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0624-25.htm

Big Media Interlocks with Corporate America

by Peter Phillips

Mainstream media is the term often used to describe the collective group of big TV, radio and newspapers in the United States. Mainstream implies that the news being produced is for the benefit and enlightenment of the mainstream population-the majority of people living in the US. Mainstream media include a number of communication mediums that carry almost all the news and information on world affairs that most Americans receive. The word media is plural, implying a diversity of news sources.

However, mainstream media no longer produce news for the mainstream population-nor should we consider the media as plural. Instead it is more accurate to speak of big media in the US today as the corporate media and to use the term in the singular tense-as it refers to the singular monolithic top-down power structure of self-interested news giants.

A research team at Sonoma State University has recently finished conducting a network analysis of the boards of directors of the ten big media organizations in the US. The team determined that only 118 people comprise the membership on the boards of director of the ten big media giants. This is a small enough group to fit in a moderate size university classroom. These 118 individuals in turn sit on the corporate boards of 288 national and international corporations. In fact, eight out of ten big media giants share common memberships on boards of directors with each other. NBC and the Washington Post both have board members who sit on Coca Cola and J. P. Morgan, while the Tribune Company, The New York Times and Gannett all have members who share a seat on Pepsi. It is kind of like one big happy family of interlocks and shared interests. The following are but a few of the corporate board interlocks for the big ten media giants in the US:


New York Times: Caryle Group, Eli Lilly, Ford, Johnson and Johnson, Hallmark, Lehman Brothers, Staples, Pepsi


Washington Post: Lockheed Martin, Coca-Cola, Dun & Bradstreet, Gillette, G.E. Investments, J.P. Morgan, Moody's


Knight-Ridder: Adobe Systems, Echelon, H&R Block, Kimberly-Clark, Starwood Hotels


The Tribune (Chicago & LA Times): 3M, Allstate, Caterpillar, Conoco Phillips, Kraft, McDonalds, Pepsi, Quaker Oats, Shering Plough, Wells Fargo


News Corp (Fox): British Airways, Rothschild Investments


GE (NBC): Anheuser-Busch, Avon, Bechtel, Chevron/Texaco, Coca-Cola, Dell, GM, Home Depot, Kellogg, J.P. Morgan, Microsoft, Motorola, Procter & Gamble


Disney (ABC): Boeing, Northwest Airlines, Clorox, Estee Lauder, FedEx, Gillette, Halliburton, Kmart, McKesson, Staples, Yahoo


Viacom (CBS): American Express, Consolidated Edison, Oracle, Lafarge North America


Gannett: AP, Lockheed-Martin, Continental Airlines, Goldman Sachs, Prudential, Target, Pepsi


AOL-Time Warner (CNN): Citigroup, Estee Lauder, Colgate-Palmolive, Hilton

..more..

[leftchick]

1. look at all of the defense contractors....

and war profiteers! No wonder our news looks like an ad for republicans daily.

Did you know that 120 of these folks meet with Grover Norquist weekly to "set the message" with the WH?

[smirkymonkey]

2. Aren't some of these violations of Anti-Trust Laws as

Interlocking Directorates? It would be interesting to see the names of the individuals on each of these boards.

Where the hell are all the Antitrust lawyers these days anyway?

[Snotcicles]

4. To much government regulation where have you heard that before n/t

[Snotcicles]

3. All done with the help

and blessing of another Powell.

[Karenina]

5. Connecting the dots...

[NewJeffCT]

6. as an update - Gillette

Gillette was recently acquired by Proctor & Gamble...