That Whacky Corporate Media
Jun 27th, 2005 at 8:17 pm by Susie
This really is the root of much political evil:
A research team at Sonoma State University has recently finished conducting a network analysis of the boards of directors of the ten big media organizations in the US. The team determined that only 118 people comprise the membership on the boards of director of the ten big media giants. This is a small enough group to fit in a moderate size university classroom. These 118 individuals in turn sit on the corporate boards of 288 national and international corporations. In fact, eight out of ten big media giants share common memberships on boards of directors with each other. NBC and the Washington Post both have board members who sit on Coca Cola and J. P. Morgan, while the Tribune Company, The New York Times and Gannett all have members who share a seat on Pepsi. It is kind of like one big happy family of interlocks and shared interests. The following are but a few of the corporate board interlocks for the big ten media giants in the US:
New York Times: Caryle Group, Eli Lilly, Ford, Johnson and Johnson, Hallmark, Lehman Brothers, Staples, Pepsi
Washington Post: Lockheed Martin, Coca-Cola, Dun & Bradstreet, Gillette, G.E. Investments, J.P. Morgan, Moody’s
Knight-Ridder: Adobe Systems, Echelon, H&R Block, Kimberly-Clark, Starwood Hotels
The Tribune (Chicago & LA Times): 3M, Allstate, Caterpillar, Conoco Phillips, Kraft, McDonalds, Pepsi, Quaker Oats, Shering Plough, Wells Fargo
News Corp (Fox): British Airways, Rothschild Investments
GE (NBC): Anheuser-Busch, Avon, Bechtel, Chevron/Texaco, Coca-Cola, Dell, GM, Home Depot, Kellogg, J.P. Morgan, Microsoft, Motorola, Procter & Gamble
Disney (ABC): Boeing, Northwest Airlines, Clorox, Estee Lauder, FedEx, Gillette, Halliburton, Kmart, McKesson, Staples, Yahoo
Viacom (CBS): American Express, Consolidated Edison, Oracle, Lafarge North America
Gannett: AP, Lockheed-Martin, Continental Airlines, Goldman Sachs, Prudential, Target, Pepsi
AOL-Time Warner (CNN): Citigroup, Estee Lauder, Colgate-Palmolive, Hilton
Can we trust the news editors at the Washington Post to be fair and objective regarding news stories about Lockheed-Martin defense contract over-runs? Or can we assuredly believe that ABC will conduct critical investigative reporting on Halliburton’s sole-source contracts in Iraq? If we believe the corporate media give us the full un-censored truth about key issues inside the special interests of American capitalism, then we might feel that they are meeting the democratic needs of mainstream America.
However if we believe - as increasingly more Americans do- that corporate media serves its own self-interests instead of those of the people, than we can no longer call it mainstream or refer to it as plural. Instead we need to say that corporate media is corporate America, and that we the mainstream people need to be looking at alternative independent sources for our news and information.
Could this be why the NYT is seeking to “diversify” its reporting staff? It sure doesn’t make sense otherwise.
This is an important post which deserves attention. Just as a by-the-way, I’ve found that Reuters is a much more objective source — for some reason, perhaps corporate in nature — than almost any other news outlet.
clusterfizzle
well, its widely held that the top of the corporate pyramid is often incestuous, but the suburban guerilla shows us where the hard data comes from. …
Can you trust the corporate America? No.
History is the best indicator of corporate motivation. That motivation is to make money. That is no secret and most of us know it. They want to maximize profits anyway possible. That takes the form of major corporations taking control of the product which is news and commentary. It makes sense, from a business point of view, to ensure that your product is portrayed in a positive light, so control the source of information. As I said, this is not a secret.
The majority of Americans will not seek alternative sources for the news and commentary. When it comes to news and commentary, we want it parsed out in simple, bite sized pieces, easy to understand and process. That is what the corporate America is betting on. Looking at the media, it comes at us as ‘infotainment’ (I hate that term). Fast and shallow.
Most of us are trying to make a living by whatever means necessary. We are trying to, at a minimum, keep our current lifestyle, if not move up into a better income bracket. We spend our time worrying about jobs, ensuring our families are secure, paying our bills, etc. We don’t have the time or the energy to do the research the inconsistencies, and contradictions we see. We take it at face value.
There is an encouraging theme emerging from the current morass of media. That is the internet which bypasses the old media in speed and volume of information. It requires the consumer (you) to process information and probably rethink what you are presented in corporate media. There is a move to control what is on the net but that is a discussion for another time.
We are sooooooo fucked.
This site shows alot more of the spiderweb, but in a cartoonish way.
http://www.theyrule.net/2004/tr2.php
This post confirms why the phrase ‘corporate media’ must be used instead of ‘mainstream media’. Shareholder value fundamentalism — like any single answer fundamentalism religious or otherwise — imperils the planet. This, by the way, is not — NOT — a complaint against profits or the profit motive. In a world of markets, networks, organizations, friends and families, our way of life cannot be sustained without profits. BUT, the pursuit of profits as the single answer to all life’s issues and concerns surely endangers our way of life as much as ignoring profits would.
‘Corporate media’ comprise a series of organizations on whom the rest of us depend for bringing sanity to the many difficult issues and problems we face. When those companies — and, I argue, all the employees who work for those companies — put profits first, the rest of us — and get this: they themselves — suffer.
We must all learn to practice a new golden rule — one that grounds itself in the realities and roles of our lives; namely,
In our roles as employees, we must do unto others in their roles as consumers what we would have them in their role as employees do unto us in our roles as customers.
Surely, the employees of corporate media — and that includes CEOs to frontline workers — would not have any of us who, say, work at car companies or insurance companies or real estate brokers and so on be so beholden to profits and shareholder value that we ignore the health and well being of those folks when they are our customers. Yet, that is what happens every single day in the organizations of the corporate media…..every single day.
Our world has changed. Our responsibilities have not. But we cannot exercise these responsibilities — such as the golden rule — without adjusting to the new reality. We no longer live in a world of places as citizens and neighbors. We now live in a world of markets, networks, organizations, friends and families as customers, employees and investors.
The question is: will we accept our responsibiliteis in these new roles to act ethically and responsibly toward others? Or, will we — like the worst jihadists — allow single answers to ruin our lives and the fate of the planet?