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By Peter Phillips, April 27, 2003 Freedom of information in American society is in danger because corporate media needs to maintain access to official sources of news. Consolidation of media has brought the total news sources for most Americans to less than a handful and these news groups have an ever-increasing dependency on pre-arranged content. The 24-hour news shows on MSNBC, Fox and CNN are closely interconnected with various governmental and corporate sources of news. Maintenance of continuous news shows requires a constant feed and an ever-entertaining supply of stimulating events and breaking news bites. Advertisement for mass consumption drives the system and pre-packaged sources of news are vital within this global news process. Ratings demand continued cooperation from multiple-sources for on-going weather reports, war stories, sports scores, business news, and regional headlines. Print, radio and TV news also engages in this constant interchange with news sources. The
preparation for and following of ongoing wars and terrorism fits well
into the visual kaleidoscope of pre-planned news. Government public
relations specialists and media experts from private commercial interests Embedded
reporters (news collectors) working directly with military units in
the field must maintain cooperative working relationships with unit
commanders as they feed breaking news back to the U.S. public. Cooperative Journalists who fail to recognize their role as cooperative news collectors will be disciplined in the field or barred from reporting as in the recent celebrity cases of Geraldo Rivera and Peter Arnett. Journalists working outside of this mass media system face ever-increasing dangers from "accidents" of war and corporate-media dismissal of their news reports. Massive civilian casualties caused by U.S. troops, extensive damage to private homes and businesses, and reports that contradict the official public relations line were downplayed, deleted, or ignored by corporate media, while content were analyzed by experts (retired generals and other approved collaborators) from within the symbiotic global news structure. Symbiotic
global news distribution is a conscious and deliberate attempt by the
powerful to control news and information in society. The Homeland Security
Act Title II Section 201(d)(5) specifically asks the directorate Corporate media today is perhaps too vast to enforce complete control over all content 24 hours a day. However, the government's goal is the operationalization of total information control and the continuing consolidation of media makes this process easier to achieve. Freedom of information and citizen access to objective news is rapidly fading in the United States and the world. In its place is a complex entertainment-oriented news system, which protects its own bottom-line by servicing the most powerful military-industrial complex in the world. For
the majority of Americans who depend on corporate media for their daily
news, this monolithic news structure creates intellectual celibacy,
inaction and fear. The result is a docile population, whose principal Peter Phillips is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and Director of Project Censored a media research organization. Peter
Phillips Ph.D. Please take a moment to write to the FCC. As you may know, the Federal Communications Commission recently initiated a proceeding to review its media ownership rules. The FCC has tentatively set June 2, 2003 to vote on these changes. The
FCC is also stealthily moving toward complete privitization, meaning
our rights as citizens of a democracy could be totally erased and corporations
would own and control all media systems. The corporate backed http://www.media-alliance.org/action/fccsubmit2.html If
you prefer to pen your own letter just paste the emails into Cc: or
To: FCC
Chairman Michael K. Powell via email at mpowell@fcc.gov Thank you for taking the time to show the FCC how you feel. Sincerely, Ann Media
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