Big Media Interlocks with Corporate America

By Peter Phillips

Mainstream media is the term often used to describe the collective group of big TV, radio and newspapers in the United States. Mainstream implies that the news being produced is for the benefit and enlightenment of the mainstream population—the majority of people living in the US. Mainstream media include a number of communication mediums that carry almost all the news and information on world affairs that most Americans receive. The word media is plural, implying a diversity of news sources.

However, mainstream media no longer produce news for the mainstream population—nor should we consider the media as plural. Instead it is more accurate to speak of big media in the US today as the corporate media and to use the term in the singular tense—as it refers to the singular monolithic top-down power structure of self-interested news giants.

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:

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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.

SOURCE

Corporate Media Ownership Click Here For Report PDF

 

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

I used to listen to Rush all the time, I don't think I ever heard him mention who owns the liberal media though. Seems like a man with all his vast knowledge of the media would know, but then with half his brain tied behind his back I guess maybe even he could miss a few of the finer points.

Think I should send this report to Rush today? Maybe he didn't realize that the board members of all these big companies were liberals. Yeah, he might even give me credit in his next book for sending him a scoop like this!

 

Mc Clatchy bought it and is going to break up Ridders conglomerate and sell off most of it. That's what I've been reading. Don't know all the particulars though.

Rupert Murdoch (News Corp, Fox, Rothschild) bought myspace.com last july for 580 million. It's now ranked the 8th most visited internet site. There has been reports of censorship going on. Quote from above link.

Murdoch has alread said that "the traditional media needed to engage with more demanding, questioning and better educated consumers and adapt"

Imo, his idea of adaptation is to control the free flow of information on the internet. The MSM is losing control of all information to the net and they don't like it. It seems the Pentagon doesn't like it either they have already said they had plans to engage in information warfare.

The internet is a thorn in the sides of the elite. They can't stand the the thought of the public having that much access to information. So they are thinking of ways to gain control of the internet.

SOURCE

Wonder how long it will be before Rush starts slamming the "liberal internet"? If you can stand listening to him everyday (I can't) BiR will you let me know if and when he starts shilling for the new and improved corporate Murdoch/Rothschild internet?

 

Well, that's what shills are for I reckon BiR. To keep pointing out the obvious in one direction while ignoring it the other.