Two Year Old Article Shows Problems with Corporate Media

We recently came across an article more than two years old on www.consortiumnews.com called "The Rise of the 'Patriotic Journalist'". If you are looking for an example of what is wrong with the corporate owned media in America, this is the article for you.

The article's author, Robert Parry, who used to work for both Newsweek and the Associated Press, gives example after example of how, starting in the seventies and continuing on in the eighties under Reagan and Bush, the corporate owned media carried water for Bush and Reagan on issues such as Iran-contra, right-wing death squads in El Salvador, and the involvement of the contras in Nicaragua in drug trafficking in America. He gives example after example of how editors and managers in so-called "mainstream" media outlets like the AP and Newsweek either ignored stories of Reagan and Bush misdeeds or, indeed, attacked journalists who revealed such information.

This kid-glove treatment of conservatives and Republicans continued with the election of George W. Bush in 2000 and the suppression of stories about how Al Gore would have carried Florida if an honest count had taken place. Then, of course, came Iraq and the so-called weapons of mass destruction. The Washington Post and the New York Times in particular became cheerleaders for George W. Bush's invasion by allowing its reporters, particularly Judith Miller, to basically become in-house reporters for the Bush administration.

It is not surprising that news corporations want Republicans to win because Republicans stand for allowing corporations to do what they want without regulation or oversight. Of course, we are never told that this is the agenda of these organizations. Instead we are told that they are dedicated to giving us vital information that we need to be informed. All while maintaining a profit margin of around 20% or so.

Thankfully the Internet has the promise to change this situation, but only if it does not become dominated by the same corporations that control other news organizations. That's why the battle over access to the 'Net is so important.