The Corporate Media In American Society

This informative video explains the media system that America has, and just how powerful and influential it really is. I'm sure most members on this website are one step ahead of me, but I'll say it anyway: don't watch the mainstream news networks because they are controlled. They have an agenda to push, and they are propaganda machines that aren't there to give you the objective factual information. They want you to think a certain way and have a certain attitude, and their programming is where this ideology is developed.

An army of thousands of troops is less dangerous than a population of millions of people who won't even show resistance because they are programmed to blindly submit to whatever the corporate media endorses.

As Alex Jones puts it, there is a war on your mind. Stick to alternative news sites, abovetopsecret.com,infowars.com, or anywhere you know of that actually accurately portrays world events. Also, if you could post some news sources that aren't a part of the corporate media, and are truly there to simply inform people of what's going on in the world rather than putting a spin on news stories, only showing stories that fit into their agenda, or just outright lying and pushing propaganda, post that in here and let us know.

Tactics:
--Selection of topics
--Distribution of concerns
--Emphasis
--Framing of issues
--Filtering of information
--Bounding of debate

They determine, select, shape, control, and restrict in order to serve the interests of the dominant elite groups.

The truth of the matter is that increasingly, what we see, what we hear, and what we read is being controlled by fewer and fewer large, multi-national corporations.
--Representative Bernie Sanders, US Congressman, Vermont.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1701014bd084.jpg[/atsimg] Who owns the news?

GENERAL ELECTRIC - NBC

TV Holdings:
* NBC: Owns outright 13 stations and many affiliates, Market penetration: 28% of US households.
* NBC Network News: Owns The Today Show, Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, Meet the Press, Dateline.
* CNBC business network, MSNBC 24-hour cable and Internet news service (co-owned by both NBC and Microsoft); Court TV (co-owned with Time Warner), Bravo (50%), A&E (25%), History Channel (25%).
The MS in MSNBC stands for Microsoft, Bill Gate's Microsoft donated 2.4 million in 2000 to get George W Bush elected.

Other Holdings:
* GE Consumer Electronics and Household Products and components used in military electronics..
* GE Power Systems, which makes turbines for nuclear reactors, wind turbines, "clean" coal technology.
* GE Plastics: produces military hardware for fighter jets, ships and nuclear power equipment.
* GE Transportation Systems: manufactures engines and diesel and electric locomotives.

WESTINGHOUSE / CBS INC.

Westinghouse Electric Company, part of of the large Nuclear Utilities Business Group of British Nuclear Fuels.
Which is Headed By Frank Carlucci of the Carlyle Group. A group with very strong ties to the Bush Administration.

TV Holdings:
* CBS: Owns outright 14 stations and over 200 affiliates in the US.
* CBS Network News: 60 minutes, 48 hours, CBS Evening News, CBS Morning News.
* Country Music Television, The Nashville Network.
* Group W Satellite Communications.
Other Holdings:
* Westinghouse Electric Company: provides services to the nuclear power industry including owning 4 nuclear plants, waste disposal and transport.

DISNEY - ABC

(Donated $640,000 to George W Bush's 2000 political campaign)
TV Holdings:
* ABC: includes 10 stations outright, many affiliates, Penetration in the market: 24% of US households.
* ABC Network News: Prime Time Live, Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America.
* ESPN, Lifetime Television (50%), as well as smaller holdings in A&E, History Channel and E!
* Disney Channel/Disney Television, Touchtone Television.
Other Major Media Holdings.
* Miramax, Touchtone Pictures.
* Major Magazines: Jane, Los Angeles Magazine, Discover.
* Three recording labels, twelve major local newspapers.
* Hyperion books.
* Infoseek search engine.

Major shareholders include Sid R. Bass, oil and gas baron.

TIME-WARNER TBS - AOL

America Online (AOL) acquired Time Warner which was the largest merger in corporate history.
TV Holdings:
* CNN, HBO, Cinemax, TBS Superstation, Turner Network Television, Turner Classic Movies, Warner Brothers Television, Cartoon Network, Sega Channel, TNT, Comedy Central.
* Largest cable system owner with an estimated 13 million households.
Media Holdings:
* HBO Productions, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock, Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera.
* Music: Atlantic, Elektra, Rhino, Sire, Warner Bros. Records, EMI.
* Thirty three major magazines including Time, Sports Illustrated, People Magazine, In Style, Fortune, The Book of the Month Club, Entertainment Weekly, Life Magazne, DC Comics, MAD Magazine.
Other major corporation Holdings:
* Sports Teams and Wrestling: The Atlanta Braves, The Atlanta Hawks, World Championship Wrestling.

NEWS CORPORATION LTD. / FOX NETWORKS

Major Television Holdings:
* Fox Television: includes 22 major and many affiliate stations, Penetration into more than 60% of US households.
* Fox International: extensive worldwide cable and satellite networks include British Sky Broadcasting (40%); VOX, Germany (49.9%); Canal Fox, Latin America; FOXTEL, Australia (50%); STAR TV, Asia, IskyB, India; Bahasa Programming Ltd., Indonesia (50%); and News Broadcasting, Japan (80%), major owner of DirecTV.
* The Golf Channel (33%).
Other Major Media Hodings:
* Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Searchlight.
* 132 major newspapers (113 in Australia alone) including the New York Post, the London Times and The Australian.
* Owns 25 magazines including TV Guide and The Weekly Standard.
* Owns HarperCollins books.
Othe Major Corporation Holdings around the word:
* Sports: LA Dodgers, LA Kings, LA Lakers, National Rugby League.
* Ansett Australia airline, Ansett New Zealand airlines.
* Rupert Murdoch is on the Board of Directors of Philip Morris, a major Bush donor.

And the final piece to the puzzle, the connection between mainstream media and our government:

The Council On Foreign Relations and What It Has To Do With Corporate Control Of The News

What do Dan Rather, Barbara Walters, Jim Lehrer, Rupert Murdoch, Tom Brokaw and the late William F. Buckley have in common? They are all members of the CFR, The Council On Foreign Relations. The stated goal of the CFR is to manipulate the News to bring about a new world order or corporate control of everything. This is not some weird conspiracy theory, it is stated in their original charter. Who else belongs to the CFR, Disney's Michael Eisner and ABC's Thomas Murphy, Tom Johnson, CEO of CNN, Time Warner's Gerald Levine, and many, many more media CEO's who have merged their empires under the CFR's guidance.

I leave you with a great song about the corrupt media system and government that this country has: Warning--profanities

I was putting together a collab of information such as you have here about the MSM but I see you have beat me to it.

the dangerous part is these few corporations are in control by the chozen. if you read the pr0t0c0ls of xi0n, you can see clearly, this has all been in the plans since AT LEAST 1850.

reply to post by TupacShakur


I was running up my character limit in the OP, so here's a video that explains the governments connection to the mainstream media:

This is one of the best threads I have seen on ATS this year! Great job. I believe corporate controlled media is the biggest threat our country has faced thus far. They lull people to sleep and have the ability to put the "spin" on the masses rendering any resistance to tyranny the vast minority.

When you combine the fact that corporations own media then add Lobbying, we start to see that America is not even close to what it once was. We are not free, we are corporate slaves, surfs, we serve one purpose only and that is to consume and spend.

We have lost our way and I don't see a way out anymore. The beast is too hungry, the machine to smart, the train to fast barreling down the tracks..... What are we to do?

Human nature is what has brought us to this point, ultimately, human nature will be the end. The question is, when will that happen and in what fashion?

Since the 70s we have lost our ability to see un bias media, thats about the time that corporate America started to monopolized the media, now like you said they own it.

Media is such a power mind control, they manipulate the public into wanting the crap they are offering, then they program the people's mind into accepting what they have to offer.

American media is nothing but a well manufactured life style that keeps the public living an illusion and oblivious of what reality is all about.

Originally posted by marg6043
Since the 70s we have lost our ability to see un bias media, thats about the time that corporate America started to monopolized the media, now like you said they own it.

Media is such a power mind control, they manipulate the public into wanting the crap they are offering, then they program the people's mind into accepting what they have to offer.

American media is nothing but a well manufactured life style that keeps the public living an illusion and oblivious of what reality is all about.

We are very literally one step away from having the same media as North Korea. The only difference is we operate on a two party system but none the less we get the same exact BS from both sides minus the shots at the other party.

reply to post by Helious


A few years ago I did a thread on how the media in the US metamorphosed into what we have right now, quite interesting, people think we have the best freedoms in the world, but they fail to see that, that freedom is very well restricted to what the governemnt feels is "safe" for us.

reply to post by marg6043


Yes, that and the fact when the media is controlled to the extent it is now. "Authorities" can pretty much get away with anything they want as it is MUCH harder to get an unjust or unconstitutional injustice into the public spotlight.

The people have been robbed of them there recourse of injustice on a very large scale. Fear and intimidation seem to be the rule of the day to those that would seek to control us and our best tool against those tactics is now lost.

reply to post by Helious


Yes you are right, sometimes people comes into the boards and post "what freedoms we have lost" actually we have not lost any, as per written in the constitution, what we have lost is the ability to exercise those freedoms, people tend to forget that laws and regulations are the biggest deterrent when it comes to exercising our freedoms.

The more laws and regulations are forced upon us the citizens the least we will be using our freedoms to avoid confrontation with the authorities that are there to make sure we have the worst experience trying to exercise our rights.

We have constitutional rights until we try to exercise them, then big brother step in and tells us that we can only exercise them under their laws and regulations.

reply to post by Helious

I believe corporate controlled media is the biggest threat our country has faced thus far. They lull people to sleep and have the ability to put the "spin" on the masses rendering any resistance to tyranny the vast minority.

Exactly, it's a massive threat. I've noticed that the majority of time that I have an opinion that's against what the mainstream media is pushing, I get treated like I'm crazy! If your line of thinking doesn't follow the crowd, you're seen as stupid or a kook? When did this happen?

When you combine the fact that corporations own media then add Lobbying, we start to see that America is not even close to what it once was. We are not free, we are corporate slaves, surfs, we serve one purpose only and that is to consume and spend.

Yeah for quite a while I've had the idea that the media is controlled, but I only seriously started researching it today. Less than 2 hours and I've figured out that 5 corporations own the vast majority of media outlets and have ties to the government. This comes off as condescending, but can the rest of Americans not spend 2 hours researching this themselves? Or do they just have blind faith in their media networks and believe that everything is factual, unbiased information?

We have lost our way and I don't see a way out anymore. The beast is too hungry, the machine to smart, the train to fast barreling down the tracks..... What are we to do?

That's a good question, most likely, Americans won't do anything and nothing will happen because they're too powerful to be stopped. The majority of people who currently eat up all of the propaganda will eat it up around the time that people start waking up and try to fix this. Anybody who is against either the government/the mainstream media will be labeled domestic terrorists or something like that, and the majority of people will buy it.

I could be wrong, maybe people aren't as brainwashed and ignorant as I think and they too can see the clear bias and all of the propaganda that comes out of MSM, but to be honest I think only a small percentage of people can see it for what it really is.

reply to post by atoptreetops

I was putting together a collab of information such as you have here about the MSM but I see you have beat me to it.

Sorry. Can you post what you were going to post in here? Any information about the corporate media will do.

I came across this video today on this website, and it exposes some of the tactics used by Fox News. The video is a part of a 10 video playlist, so I doubt a lot of people will watch them all, but just check out a few of them at least:

reply to post by marg6043

Media is such a power mind control, they manipulate the public into wanting the crap they are offering, then they program the people's mind into accepting what they have to offer.

American media is nothing but a well manufactured life style that keeps the public living an illusion and oblivious of what reality is all about.

Yep, the video in the OP made a few comparisons to George Orwells 1984 and included some quotes from there, and it's eerie how accurately he predicted certain aspects of the future world.

5 years ago, if somebody tried telling me that the media was controlled just like in a fiction novel about a futuristic dictatorship, I would think it's insane because we would be able to tell. Now, it's clear to me that our media really does function a lot like that, they show what they want us to see, tell us what they want us to hear, and have reporters/guests that come to the table with a preconceived bias which mirrors what they want to public opinion to follow.

Originally posted by marg6043
reply to post by Helious

 

Yes you are right, sometimes people comes into the boards and post "what freedoms we have lost" actually we have not lost any, as per written in the constitution, what we have lost is the ability to exercise those freedoms, people tend to forget that laws and regulations are the biggest deterrent when it comes to exercising our freedoms.

The more laws and regulations are forced upon us the citizens the least we will be using our freedoms to avoid confrontation with the authorities that are there to make sure we have the worst experience trying to exercise our rights.

We have constitutional rights until we try to exercise them, then big brother step in and tells us that we can only exercise them under their laws and regulations.

I honestly couldn't of said it any better myself and I consider this one of the biggest things that bothers me about this country at present. I'm just happy to hear and see for myself that there are other people who see things for what they are and know how dangerous the situation has become. Information age, indeed.

reply to post by Helious

I honestly couldn't of said it any better myself and I consider this one of the biggest things that bothers me about this country at present. I'm just happy to hear and see for myself that there are other people who see things for what they are and know how dangerous the situation has become. Information age, indeed.

Sadly, we are a small minority. Sure, on conspiracy websites lots of people are informed. But think about all of the people you know, all of the people that you see througout your day. Everyone you walk by, drive by, etc. How many of them do you think spend time researching the corporate media and the propaganda that they use to influence public opinion?

I would estimate 1 in 100 people that I see daily, but it's probably much less than that. People just aren't programmed to think that way I guess, probably because the media hasn't told them to.

reply to post by TupacShakur


...We can't have freedom without free access to information. And our access to information is controlled, censored and manipulated. Sucks. My fave of your quotes:

The truth of the matter is that increasingly, what we see, what we hear, and what we read is being controlled by fewer and fewer large, multi-national corporations.
--Representative Bernie Sanders, US Congressman, Vermont.

Check out MaxMars thread: Study shows powerful corporations really do control the world's finances - which means they also control the media and peoples' minds.

Thank you. Important stuff. S&F&

Originally posted by TupacShakur
reply to post by Helious

 

I honestly couldn't of said it any better myself and I consider this one of the biggest things that bothers me about this country at present. I'm just happy to hear and see for myself that there are other people who see things for what they are and know how dangerous the situation has become. Information age, indeed.

Sadly, we are a small minority. Sure, on conspiracy websites lots of people are informed. But think about all of the people you know, all of the people that you see througout your day. Everyone you walk by, drive by, etc. How many of them do you think spend time researching the corporate media and the propaganda that they use to influence public opinion?

I would estimate 1 in 100 people that I see daily, but it's probably much less than that. People just aren't programmed to think that way I guess, probably because the media hasn't told them to.

edit on 1-9-2011 by TupacShakur because: To edit my post

I would agree with you, I would guess 1 / 500 of the American population have some kind of handle on whats really going on. Even that number is kind of scary.

reply to post by soficrow

Check out MaxMars thread: Study shows powerful corporations really do control the world's finances - which means they also control the media and peoples' minds.

They control our money, our media, our minds, and arguably our military too. The 4 M's.

One might even go as far as saying they have a considerable amount of control over our politics too, and in the OP all 5 of the major corporations contributing to George Bush's presidential campaign hints at that.

Plus just look at the position that poll-leader Perry has on issues, and from what I've read the media airs lots of positive stories about him. And with Bank of America saying they'll back his campaign or something like that, it really makes you wonder just how much control the corporations have over our lives and if we can do anything to stop it.

Who Rules America?

Corporate Media is more than just profits. Ultimately, it is about conforming to a belief system. If you are not cut from the sacred cloth like your rulers, you will be bound by it for eternity as a slave. Unless of course, you wake up and learn to fight this plague.

reply to post by soficrow


Exactly, when nobody is tracking the illegal dealings of our own government the people doesn't know how to fight back, by the time we get some whistleblower to tells us that something is wrong and to be aware is usually late.

Do you know how many laws and bills are passed behind citizens in this nation that never get to be scrutinized by us the voters, most of them to work against our rights and pay by corporate and private interest. This laws are to benefit and to profit from the hard working tax payers endorsed by our own whores in congress.

Because is not media to keep the public informed on what goes on behind our backs in with our government.