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Subtle censorhip: bias toward war, war profiteers and corporate rule in 'news' stories, headlines and lede lines (first sentences--what most people read); disinformation (promulgation of CIA/State Department/Pentagon "talking points"), black holes in the 'news' where information should be (no context, no history), suppression or "back-paging" of vitally important stories, trivial 'news' replacing real news, lack of serious investigation (resources bled off to enrich investors and CEOs; understaffing; no incentives to investigate), editorial creation of 'news' narratives that serve corporate/war profiteer interests (reporters must fit their stories into these narratives), self-censorship by reporters (subtle and unsubtle pressure on reporters to view things the corporate way), corporate monopolies of 'news' venues (lack of competition; too much power to control the 'news'), promotion of a gaggle of right to far rightwing 'columnists,' failure to separate the 'news' and business divisions of 'news' monopolies, and conglomerates owning both 'news' monopolies and other types of businesses (such as military manufacturers) and tailoring the 'news' to the profit of those divisions.
These are just some of the problems of the modern 'news' corporation that result not just in crap 'news' but in evilly manipulative 'news' --'news' that serves the interests of the rich and that keeps the majority of people ignorant of how they are being exploited and lied to.
Thomas Jefferson proposed that the government fund newspapers (the main means of communication in those days), but without any interference in content--to insure that the rich do not monopolize news and opinion. He saw this problem developing that long ago--the rich can afford to promulgate their views; the poor cannot. And when TV technology arrived, democratic societies, including this one, immediately recognized that TV has a propaganda/manipulative power far more dangerous to democracy then rich-controlled newsprint, and instituted the Fairness Doctrine to regulate use of the TV/radio airwaves (all of which belong to the public) to specifically require: balanced, objective political news coverage, equal time for opposite views and public service broadcasting. This set of laws also forbade 'news' monopolies. The Fairness Doctrine, in turn, influenced print media toward objective news coverage and fair treatment of alternative opinion. (Print media was not directly regulated.) The general drift of these regulations was that business corporations were NOT supposed to prejudice the news toward their own profit. News was a PUBLIC SERVICE.
The Reagan thugs got rid of or disabled these laws--and thus, today, we have the very worst 'news' coverage and commentary imaginable. There is no effort by government ('of, by and for" the people) to break up'news' monopolies or to influence news/commentary with democratic values. The corporate 'news' monopolies--which own all the means of 'news' production and basically now 'own' the PUBLIC airwaves--can freely propagandize for their own profit. There are no checks on them whatever. This is not normal. This is not how a democratic society should operate: 24/7 rightwing-slanted 'news' and commentary, on all channels and in every newspaper, news magazine and other venues (book publishing, movie-making, etc.).
It is a nightmare.
Idiots will say that this is a "right" of private business corporations. Not true! Private business corporations have NO RIGHTS--they only have the PRIVILEGE of doing business in this country WITH OUR PERMISSION--by state (public) chartering of their corporations and by regulatory (public) laws, rules and regulations. Corporations are HIDING BEHIND "free speech" rights that they do not possess in order to brainwash the public in their financial interest. Secondly, as to the PUBLIC airwaves--which influence the print media--the principle was long ago established (and this has not changed, in theory) that the TV/radio airwaves belong to the PUBLIC and must be used IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST.
Corporate monopolization of news/opinion and use of both print and TV/radio venues to brainwash the public is not the worst problem of our democracy, in my opinion. But it IS the SECOND worst problem. The 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines are the worst problem (privatization of the very counting of our votes--unfriggingbelievable!). Prioritizing these enormous problems is difficult. For instance, of course work should go forward--on the internet and in other venues--to provide alternative news/opinion and to counter the evil influence of corporate 'news.' But I prioritize on a practical basis. If we can't elect leaders who will act in the public interest--who, for instance, will work to restore the Fairness Doctrine--then we can never solve the corporate media problem. This is true of ALL problems in our society. They cannot be solved--and reform is not possible--without transparent, honest elections. Transparency comes first (THE most essential condition of democracy--vote counting that everyone can SEE), honesty comes second (money loses some power when vote counting is transparent) and reform comes third--by honest people representing us.
In Latin America, they have terrible corporate media--worse than our own--yet Latin Americans have been able to elect Leftist governments in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras (until the U.S. supported rightwing coup) and other countries, precisely because these peoples have attended to their voting systems. With a transparent voting system, the majority has a chance to elect good leaders. Without transparent vote counting, the majority has no chance. That is WHY our voting system was rendered non-transparent (by the Anthrax Congress, in the same month as the "Iraq War Resolution"--Oct '02!).
So, to address the problem of corporate media censorship--overt, in this Doonesbury incident--and the pervasive and ruinous subtle censorship, brainwashing and propaganda throughout the corpo-fascist media, we must FIRST restore transparent vote counting, to be able to elect representatives who do the will of the people--for instance, as to the use of our public airwaves.
IF our democracy was working normally, news reporters and commentators would be all over this 'TRADE SECRET' voting machine business. They would have sounded the alarm long ago, and very loud. But there is NOTHING more important to these corpo-fascist 'news' organizations that suppressing WHO is 'counting' all our votes and HOW they are (not) 'counting' them.
One.
Private.
Far rightwing-connected.
Corporation.
ES&S, which bought out Diebold.
Controls.
80%.
Of the voting systems in the U.S.
Using.
'TRADE SECRET.'
Programming.
Code.
With.
Virtually.
No.
Audit/recount.
Controls.
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You wonder what the problem is--why this country seems whacko-fascist-suicidal? THAT is the problem.
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