SFGate.com: Don't blame us, we're incompetent!

SAN FRANCISCO (IMC) - On a day when protests surround the G8 meeting in Canada, and two people are shot dead in Argentina during protests against the same neoliberal tyranny, one might wonder why a general news blackout is preventing this information from reaching people. At SFGate.com, stories like "[William] Shatner gets a TV show" and "Cell phones are a must for teen-pop concerts" received homepage billing, but news about the protests in Canada or Argentina are nowhere to be found.

Faced with Kakfa-esque frustration, I decided to call SFGate.com and find out exactly what the hell is going on over there. I spoke with Vlae Kershner, news director for the site. Kershner began by saying, "Argentina is a small ... how can I say this diplomatically?" He went on to say that he takes his cue from "news leaders," like the BBC and New York Times (to the BBC's credit, the Argentina story does appear in small text at the bottom of their homepage). He also said that they try to "maximize page views." So the answer to my question about why Argentina is not a featured story? "Argentina is not a big story right now," says Kershner. Yes, this tautological double-speak will only compound the frustration, but you'll get no complaints from William Shatner.

Someone with an interest in investigating newsworthy events might speculate that the multinational corporations (which own and fund the corporate media) are the ones applying pressure to downplay stories that threaten their hegemony. Kershner says he feels no pressure, and puts the blame on "incompetence." One might wonder if it is in the interest of multinational corporations to ensure that incompetent people are promoted, while investigative journalists are pushed out (for instance, when Gary Webb was demoted after his CIA-crack story broke).

But all this wondering gets nowhere. All we really need to know is that the corporate media is useless. And when it isn't useless, it is working hard to keep everything hush-hush as the capitalist empire murders, starves and beats people into submission. Every modern dictatorship has a propaganda wing.