The Stupefaction of a Nation
Corporate Media Propaganda and
its Weapons of Mass Distraction
by Manuel Valenzuela
www.bigeye.com/, Dec. 10, 2003
He who controls the media controls the
masses. Today, America's media is controlled exclusively by fewer
than a dozen multinational conglomerates and their many interests.
NewsCorp, AOL, Viacom, General Electric, Disney and others have
formed a media oligarch that reaches into every American home
and most every citizen. These few omnipresent entities hold as
paramount the belief in assuring for themselves perpetual loyalty
from as many of the masses as possible. Revenue and profit, corporate
growth and power, executive pay and ego, these are all determined
by us, the masses, and helps explain why the oligarchy has decided
to invest and take an interest in all forms of media that reaches
and influences us.
We are the lifeblood of the conglomerate,
of vital importance, and, as such, it is in its best interest
to control as much of our lives as possible, transforming us into
obedient servants of obliviousness. Is it no coincidence, then,
that the United States has become a nation whose masses no longer
question authority or the propaganda that passes for news? Is
it any wonder why we seem so ignorant as to what is being done
to us and incurious as to what is happening in the world, readily
and naively accepting as true everything that is spewed out of
our televisions and newspapers? We have allowed the oligarchy
to hide the keys of democracy while we carelessly follow it on
the road to fascism, where the elite have control of all aspects
of our lives, including our mind.
We live at a time when capitalism's inner
demons are beginning to be exhumed from the catacombs of the human
ego, when love for the almighty dollar and her sister greed blinds
those basking in the hypnotizing light of greenbacks and materialism.
This phenomenon, combined with the addictions spurred by power
and pomposity, has created in the last several decades a need
by the powerful elite to manipulate and condition the masses;
to transform and mold us into subservient drones that neither
think, question, participate or demand.
Through the use of the television - the
most influential instrument of control and propaganda in present
day America - conglomerates can direct and sway public opinion
on virtually every subject they see fit. The television has become
an opiate for the masses and a conduit from where conglomerates
can dictate how society thinks, acts and evolves. Our habits and
ethics are manipulated, our ideas and beliefs distorted. We are
but pawns in a game of corporate capitalism played by a few elites
whose economic interests lie in making us docile, conformist and
oblivious creatures of mediocrity ingrained with the need to shop
and consume. The system instills a sense of paralysis, isolation
and uniformity among the masses. We are assimilated to conform
to society, to incorporate how the oligarchy wants us to live.
The derailment of democracy as we know it is the end result of
the reality we are presently experiencing.
As captives to their propaganda, our ears
become theirs, our mouths spout their distortions and our minds
contemplate what they want us to believe. To the capitalist elites,
we are but a product, hundreds of millions of worker bees addicted
to televison, easily persuaded and exploited, wishing for the
escapist fantasies we see, sold like shares of stock to other
corporate entities interested in our existence, in our captive
audience. They are the strings by which we move, the drill instructors
by which we march and the brain by which we think.
Propaganda, both corporate and governmental,
has seemingly exploded with the ever-increasing consolidation
of the media. Today few interests own the majority of our nation's
airwaves, newspapers, Internet access, print media and television
stations. One company can in essence control everything you hear,
see and read on a daily basis, every year of your life. From coast
to coast our sources of information are increasingly being sold
to wealthy multinational corporations that more and more are mingling
into our daily lives, transforming our beliefs, views and goals.
American society is guided by them, evolving through the commands
that help shape the direction opinion will take. Diversity of
opinion and thought is disappearing faster than biodiversity on
Earth.
There is nothing more ominous than peering
into the not-to-distant future and seeing Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp
- one of the world's largest media companies and owner of the
Fox network (We distort, We decide) - have majority ownership
of DirecTV, the nation's largest home satellite TV company that
in many ways represents the future of entertainment and information
delivery. If the deal is allowed to go through NewsCorp could
incessantly shove down our throats its right-wing, pro-Bush, pro-Murdoch
business propaganda while shutting off truthful and diverse sources
of information. With Bush's FCC enamored with consolidation it
is a good bet that the deal will go through.
Guided by measly crumbs of ten-second
news flashes, in paltry thirty-minute news capsules loaded with
a potpourri of deceptions and distortions, the masses are subjected
to a blitzkrieg-like summary of that news which the elites deem
necessary to serving their own interests. These drops of news
and information we are granted are designed to quench the already
conditioned low level of curiosity among the masses. These morsels
have no intellectual worth, no capacity to inform and act more
to exacerbate ignorance than to educate. What tidbits of news
are allowed to fester are an amalgam of contorted half-truths,
cheerleading subjective diatribe and porous reporting that is
biased in favor of those conglomerates that employ the reporter.
This assures that the decisions and interests of the wealthy and
powerful are maintained and accepted by the masses.
What information does not serve the oligarch
interest is either suppressed by omission or attacked. Government
and corporate interests, such as those prevalent in our occupation
of Iraq, prevent realities and truths from surfacing. Instead,
propaganda is disseminated that will distort and manipulate the
masses into believing exactly what those in power want. Corporate
media caters to military interests because in many instances they
are part of the military industrial complex. Simply look at General
Electric, one of the world's largest military contractors and
owner of NBC and its sister stations. Helping manipulate the masses
in time of war allows both the corporate media and the government
advance their respective interest in subverting public participation
and discourse while advancing a perception of consent around the
nation. Forming a symbiotic relationship, both now fused into
the same two headed beast, one the master of the other, their
combined actions undermine the reality of a world not seen by
the American public.
Corporate media, an extension of its mother
company, reports pro-business, pro-corporate and anti-labor positions
on a constant basis. News bits lean towards those interests that
will help the corporation achieve its goals of profit maximization,
whether from pushing conservative, right-wing views onto a gullible
public or from conditioning audiences towards those views it sees
as paramount in securing allegiance. News reports are created
not to be right but to have the highest ratings, which in turn
means greater profit. The interests of the masses are ignored
and exchanged for that debate which will fit the interests of
the elite minority. Today, growing reports of an economic recovery
linger on the evening news, but can we see it in our lives and
in that of our friends and neighbors? No, but good economic news
benefits the elite who depend on your wallets to fatten up theirs.
Many low and middle-class citizens, through
propaganda, manipulation and constant bombardment by incessant
repetition of sound-bite slogans and visual imagery end up supporting
those interests that are contrary to their own socioeconomic well-being.
These people have in essence been brainwashed into believing that
by assenting to the will and opinion of the elite their lives
will be made better. Unfortunately for them, their lives are made
worse as the continued exploitation and subjugation of their class
continues by the same entities they so fervently believe in. This
is a system where the powerful few command the weak majority and
where the most important decisions are made to the benefit of
the elite at the detriment of the rest.
Manipulation of the masses has been made
easy with the advent of television. Populations, many made ignorant
by pervasive and purposeful determents of education (itself a
different article altogether), naturally believe and blindly place
their confidence in those "trusted" entities they watch
on a daily basis. Television is made an all-comforting apparatus
as we warmly welcome home the many celebrities we become enraptured
with, each manifesting inside us our desire to partake in the
small fictional fantasy world they inhabit. We become numb to
reality and its consequences, failing to analyze and question
the actual world we reside in due to conditioning we have undergone
since early childhood.
Over time we become robots incapable of
discerning or even seeking the truth in the news that is provided
us. We have been stupefied into believing the garbage blasted
from the monitor. We have been trained to never question, always
accept and to always flip the remote when our attention runs dry.
News is decided on the basis of ratings and on the advertisers
paying for commercial spots. Corporate media is but a business
where profit is king and where the seeking of customers ñ
other corporations buying ad space ñ is of primary importance.
We are but a means to an end, mere statistics in the earnings
game. Shows are designed not for our enjoyment but to attract
and retain as many souls as possible from which to harvest revenue
from advertisements and product consumption.
The corporate media inundates us with
promotion, news, gossip, tabloid, rumor and innuendo from those
celebrities placed high above the pedestal of sanctimony. Our
heroes' daily lives, loves, mistakes and exploits are absorbed
into our psyches through the constancy of corporate media's assault
on our brainwaves. Hollywood-hero news is designed to distract
us from real world events such as war and recession, keeping our
minds pre-occupied and away from information that might wake our
slumbering conscious. While showcasing for our viewing pleasure
the present tribulations of our halo-anointed superstars of the
moment, so-called journalists dissect, analyze and comment about
hairstyles, appearance and supposed crimes with award winning
passion. Yet real, pertinent and important news is given minor
and oftentimes erroneous insight. Throughout the channel-horizon
we see the same news, headlines and marketing package. The oligarch's
WMDs have been unlocked; weapons of mass distraction fester like
noxious gases in every state, city and home.
Repetitive sound-bites, facetious imagery,
verbosity and one-sided and frivolous analysis and commentary
by pundits, spinsters, newscasters and recycled "experts"
is a daily and rampant occurrence on corporate channels, each
spitting out talking points and the company lines and opinion,
never forcing the viewer to actually think for herself. Relevant
news is brushed aside in seconds so that the latest up-to- the-second
news on "Wacko Jacko" is aired. Stories that have no
relevance other than to stupefy a nation into ignorance are played
and replayed, trumping that news that affects most people. We
are witnesses to a form of propaganda that is transforming this
nation from a once bright-shining pulsar of informed democracy
into a dark nebula of nothingness where everything that matters
is neglected and all that degenerates and indoctrinates prospers.
Without an informed and participatory
citizenry democracy begins to stumble. Our government is being
taken over by the corporate Leviathan and we are indifferent as
to its consequences. Crony capitalism is affecting tens of millions
through lower wages, layoffs, longer hours, lost savings, tax
burdens, lack of health care, increased pollution, perpetual warfare,
electoral fraud and the gradual elimination of social services.
Yet we remain passive and loyal, ignorant to the Leviathan's war
against us. The oligarchy uses its powers of manipulation to divide
and alienate us from each other. The divisive and passionate topics
of class, race, culture, religion, party affiliation, immigration
and education are constantly hammered into our collective mind,
announcing as real myths and stereotypes, classifying peoples
into groups and imputing on them the necessary ingredients by
which society will marginalize and disdain them. We are told our
way of life is in peril, that we must vote against our interests
in order to preserve that which we most cherish. As usual, fear
is used to attain the Leviathan's interests. A united society
is a threat to the establishment, which is why we are separated
and corralled into distinct clusters, conditioned to segregate
ourselves from those deemed different and to fear those labeled
a threat to our existence.
In its never-ending campaign to control
us, corporate media instills fear into our daily lives. It has
found a gold mine with the war on terror, becoming yet another
fear-mongering profiteer and looter of the American public. Abusing
our still fragile memories of 9/11, the corporate media unleashes
the vast array of products it manufacturers onto us, using fear
as its principle marketing tool, hurling diatribes about our supposed
imminent threats looming in every city. Consume, consume, consume
the Leviathan commands, knowing full well that our fear will eventually
succumb to their perpetual warnings of apocalyptic zeal.
America has become a nation of obedient
drones, aimlessly walking empty streets devoid of an informed
and participatory population. Our nation is being pillaged in
front of our eyes, the government is now in the hands of our masters.
Apathetic puppets we have become, free thinking minds we have
none. The light that once shined so bright has disappeared in
a fictional world of fright. The elite that pull our strings are
becoming stronger, objective information is disappearing. The
powerful few now control the nation's media and its ideas, and
soon our free will and freedom to think as well. Democracy is
disappearing, the Leviathan is swallowing us whole little by little,
assuring itself of allegiance from a people who once questioned,
were once curious and who once had control of this great nation.
Manuel Valenzuela is an attorney, consultant,
freelance writer and author of Echoes in the Wind, a novel that
will be published in 2004. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin and
can be reached at manuel@valenzuelas.ne
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