Where is the Truth in Mainstream Media?

Where is the truth in the news?

I’m concerned. I don’t think we, the public, are getting the information we need to make informed decisions. Because the media is owned by a dozen major companies and that’s about it. Let’s walk through a potential scenario.

I get home after a long day of job hunting, since jobs are so scarce these days. I turn on the television to catch the latest headlines. I turn to CNN Headline News, which has the top international, domestic, and business news every half an hour. I don’t know it, but a major oil company just dumped a ton of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Let’s say that company is Exxon. And Exxon is a major advertiser on CNN Headline News. I watch the news and see nothing about the Exxon oil spill. I decide to try other channels and see if there are any variations in the content of the news.

I switch to another cable station. What I don’t know is that Time Warner owns CNN Headline News. It also owns 14 other cable stations, 177 cable systems in 1445 different communities in 30 states. They own all of the Turner Broadcasting stations, 15 different film and television production and distribution studios, 77 magazines world wide, 52 record labels, and 27 publishing companies. Chances are pretty good that if I turn to another station, it will be owned by Time Warner and, if Exxon is a big advertiser for Time Warner, I won’t hear a peep about the oil spill. Even if I live right in Galveston, Texas, and my children swim at the beach every day. I’ll find out when they come home covered in tar from the congealed bits of oil floating in the water. Time Warner is the biggest media conglomerate in the world and is expanding every day.

Forget TV or cable. What about a nice radio station? Has anyone noticed how the radio stations sound pretty much alike these days? And how the same announcer is on several radio stations in the same city at the same time? Clear Channel owns over 1300 radio stations in 300 different markets across the United States. It all happened in the past eight years when the FCC enacted the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and deregulated radio. In the past, the FCC had set limits on how much media any one company could own in any market and how much they could own nationwide. The act of 1996 removed all of those regulations and Clear Channel came into being.

Okay, moving onto public radio. But public radio is sponsored by the government as well as by individual contributions. They still have big sponsors, like Mercedes or the Ford Foundation. While NPR and PBS provide more in-depth materials and great programming that speaks to different issues, they still have to be careful not to offend or otherwise alienate some of their big sponsors. Or they cease to exist, especially in light of how the current government is cutting budgets for public programming.

As I sit here writing this, I have found a minor solution to the problem. The rapidly growing underground media. One of my friends, who is equally outraged by the lack of truth and fair coverage in our media, handed me two things yesterday when we met. She handed me a videotape that gives the real story about what happened on 9/11/01 and she handed me an independent, non-corporate, citizen’s news paper to read. Who’s writing the news? Concerned citizens, but not just anyone. There are people involved in these underground publications and broadcast media that are ex-IRS members, ex-FBI, ex-Military leaders, ex-corporate CEOs. People who saw what was really happening when it was happening and they are doing something about it. They are sharing what they know with others. So what will I do when I’m done with my newspaper and video tape? I will pass it along to my friends and have them pass it along to their friends and we will spread the word that way. I know that IMC offers a great portal of truth and valid information to the world and the local communities. It’s important to spread the word. Tell people about alternative media. Tell them where to find it and pass independent newspapers and articles around. Circulate, circulate, circulate.

I also frequent sites such as The Center for Public Integrity, http://www.publicintegrity.org. They offer news from all over the world and nation and are corporate watchdogs. They write in-depth articles on issues that don’t get covered in the mainstream media. Obviously, the media that was supposed to “serve the public interest” has become the media that serves the corporate interest and truth be damned. I’m ready to hear the truth. Are you?