THE

NEW
MEDIA
MONOPOLY
 THE MEDIA
NEW
ALSO BY BEN H. BAGDIKIAN

DoubleVision:ReflectionsonMyHeritage'Life'and
Profession

Caged:Eight Prisonersand
Their Keepers
BEN H. BAGDIKIAN
Other Crimesby the Press
TheEffeteConspiracy'and
lmpact on Men and theMedia
lnformation Machines: Their
Poorin America
ln the Midst of Plenty: The

BE A C O N BEACON PRESS
r50 BOSTON
 c0NTENTS
Foreword ' ix
BEACON PRESS
25 Beacon Street Preface to the First Edition . xv
B"oston,Massachusettso2ro8-2892
www.beacon.org
c HApTER oN e : Common Media for an Uncommon Nation . r

cHAPTERrwo: The Big Five . z7

BeaconPressbooks
are published under the auspices ot
tuJJr"
universalist Association
of Congregatlons' cHAPTERTHREE:The Internet ' bs
t"
cHAprER FouR: (Not) AII the News That s Fit to Print ' 74
@zoo4bY Ben I{' Bagdikian
All rights reserved cHAprER rrvs: All the News That Fits? . 9r
pri"iEa i" rft" United States of America
cHAprER srx: Paper in the Digital Age ' rr4
r r r o o g o 8 o T8 7 6 s
that m11l1the uncoated
paper cHAprER sEVEN:Rebellionand Remedies . r3r
This book is printed on acid-free naner revised in r99z'
fo' p"**"o"" as
ANSI/NISO specifications cHAprER ErcHT: "Won't They Ever Learn?" . r53

Text designbY Isaac Tobin cHAprER NrNE: FromMythologytoTheology . r7

services
& ravlorPublishing
;"*;Ji;;;twilsted
cHAprER TEN: "Dear Mr. President. . !' ' zo4

DATA cHAprER ELEVEN:Only the Afiluent Need Apply . zr8

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION

cHAprER TwELVE: Dr. Brandreth Has Gone to Harvard . 233

Bagdikian,
---Th" BenH'
H' Bagdikian'
tt"* -"dia monopoly/ Ben Afterword: Paradise Lost or Paradise Regained?
of the best-sellingclassic SocialJusticein Democracy' 2ST
'o l"frL"t, 'evised andupdatededition
ThemediamonoPolY''
index' Notes ' 266
i""r"i"t
"'ltt" ituu"gr^aphicalreferencesand
('1k'paper)
gzAt--Aozo-Or87-g Acknowledgments ' 283
r. Massmedira- OwnershiP'
i. stgaif.*, BenH' MediamonoPolY' Index' 285
il. Title.

zoo4
Po6.Ez5B34
zoo3ozz3sr
iiJ',i"*t'"s7s-dczz
In this job, you have to ask the questionsthat tend toward
greater fairness.Without the right questions,you'll neverget
the factsthat willleadyou tobetterdnsv)ers.

DAvrD BAzELoN, Chief Justice of the United StatesCourt

of Appeals of the District of Columbia Circuit, 1964
FOREWORD
In the years since r98o, the political spectrum of the United
Stateshas shifted radically to the far right. What was once
the center has been pushed to the left, and what was the far
riglrt is now the center. What was considered the eccentric
right wing of American politics is now considered the nor-
mal conservative outlook. What was the left is now at the far
edge,barely holding its precarious position and treated in
the news as a sometimes amusing oddity. Republican con-
servatives dismiss in ridicule more moderate Republicans as
heretical "Eastern moderates"or "Rockefeller Republicans"
(after the former Republican vice president under President
Gerald Ford in rg74).
Within the Democratic Party, conservatives in the Con-
gressional Leadership Council have for decades pushed
their parry more toward what they call "the center." This
included President William Clinton (r9g3-zoor),who spon-
sored liberal programs but as former leader of the Dem-
ocratic Leadership Council was committed to centrist
initiatives and had to contend with a running battle against
impeachment launched by a Republican House of Repre-
sentatives. The result has been that over the years, the Re-
publican and Democratic parties have continued to overlap
so much that, as Democrats have moved toward the right,
conservatives have moved to the far right.
This shift has had sweeping consequences.It has muffled
social justice as a governing principle in government agen-
cies. It has granted advantages to the wealthy and to large
corporations at the e4pense of the middle and working
classes.It has reversed earlier reforms by starving agencies
like the Securities and Exchange Commission and tried to

IX
 FOREWORD
FOREWORD

sional human interest profile, but not in systematic,daily in-

lilrmation from seriousorganizationsthat documentfeasible
programsto meet the needs of most ordina.r;'Americans.
Ideas, views, and proposed programs that go beyond
I hoseof establishedpower centersare the domain of small-
r:irculation political journals and magazineson what, in the
United States,is called "the Left." Theseinclude books from
small book publishers,progressiveInternet essays,and pub-
lications ltke The Nation, The Progressive,andExtra.!'Iheir
criticisms and proposals only slowly, and in fragments, move
by osmosisinto mainstream news. Even the names of pro-
gressivepublications and think tanks do not normally appear
as the original sourcesof the proposed ideas and programs.
Progressive ideas and suggestedprogrzrms slowly trickle
into the major news, but anon)finouslyand too late to affect
pending actions in cities, states, and official Washington.
'llhey
remain obscure in the daily printed and broadcast
news and thus increaseapublic senseof hopelessness.
In contrast, the major printed and broadcast news fre-
quently uses-prominently, unapologetically,and by name
-conservative think tanks like The Heritage Foundation,
American Enterprise Institute, and Hoover Institution.
Theseconservativesourcesare not without useful data, but
they are generated with far-right goals in mind and are re-
garded by the main media as more "respectable" sources.
Rupert Murdoch created a serious organ of conservative
thought, the Weekly Standard, edited by William Kristol,
which is required reading in the White House of Republi-
can president GeorgeW Bush. The paper's editors are fre-
quent guests of network programs of news and commentary
while editors and writers of Ieft organizations are rarely
invited.
This imbalancehashad fundamental consequences.One
 FOREWORD
FOREWORD
lirrmed through the millennia are so embedded in human
since r98o of wealth distri-
example is the radical change scnsesthat even infants react to expressionsofothers.
of great wealth' with 'Ihe
bution in the United ittt"''?olders other world in which most human beings live today
preferred political conserva-
rnt.; exceptions, have always is the mass media world. In terms of human history it is
of lower income taxes
tirr"r, *ho are the main proponents rrcw and sudden. Its origins may go back to signs and sym-
governmental social
i;;;;" at all) and *t'o i""- reduced IxrIs in prehistoric times or to Gutenberg's movable type five
The progressive income
services for the general population' hundred fifty years ago. Those earlier changesultimately
the top rate
ar", fo. ht' 'h*ok so drastically that rundercutthe traditional monarchical and religious social
"*-p1", half its level of r97o' During
fo, th" most wealthy is less than orders in their own time.
national household
tt i, p"rioa of drastic shrinkage' Today's modern mass media transcend global differ-
ihe richest families with
income has been *o"i"g toward cncesin language,culture, social class,and even penetrate
richest r5 percent of families
stunning speed' ey zoof the i Iliteracy.When measuredon the scaleof human experience,
;ot" of-th" household income than all of
;;"d "utional change has come upon us swiftly, a world contrived by
ihe remaining 85 percent of Americans'l human beings in our own time. At its creation, it was the
in creating this trans-
The mass media are frrndamental work of curious and ingenious individuals. But their cre-
formationlnthemode**'T;:li"Tiffii,txffi
#r"i; ittions have been adopted by corporations and governments
with avariety of goals-some of genuinebenefit for science,
T their news' It is a handfirl of
cducation, and personal gratification; some for profit, social
nt create the dailY and niglrtlY
t:onditioning, self-censorship,and control. Compared to the
Americans'
long history of face-to-facehuman contact, there has been
* * * too short a period for universal perception of what in the
rnedia is benevolent and what is harmfirl, what is designed
lbr the privileged and what for the common good.
in two worlds'
Every person in our time lives Today, the rapidly evolving digital world is added to the
world that has been
One is the natural, flesh-and-blood lraditional media. Modern mass media in the industrial
since the origrns of Homo
the environment of humanbeings nationshave transformed social relations, politics, and eco-
up and mature in
sapiens.Men, women, and children B-row nomic and legal structures. Most inhabitants of industrial-
and community life' They
families, schools, neiglrborhoods' ized nations spend an extraordinary portion of their daily Iife
in endless com-
interact faceto faceJth otherhumanbeings within this new world. We continue to argue how individu-
systemsof
tf'", *"ate social patterns' laws' als can find a humanistic balance between their flesh-and-
ni"" "J*"rrr. it-
education, *d of ethics and are influenced by
"od"' encounters' blood environment and the contrived power of the new
human
stincts accumulated from immeasurable rnedia. Nevertheless, only a handful of powerful, monopo-
'ig!tt'' sounds' and smells' whether in the
i;;;**pt"h""d listic corporations inundate the population day and night
Manhattan' Instincts
outer reaches of Sibelriaor in midtown

XII
FORE\MORD

with news, images,publications'

intowhich every child is nowborn'
and sounds' It is a world
PREFACE
TOTHE
This book is an attempt to describe
pact, and the actors in this^new
the nature' the im-
world and how it seemsto be
mixed blessings
FIRST
EDITION
:;;1** with such bewildering speed and
in our owntime'
As a young reporter in Providence,R.I., I used to drop by for
tea in the back room of a secondhandbookstore run by Mary
and Douglas Dana. Douglas, a rosy-cheeked Scot,would pull
out his latest find in first editions and Mary would predict
that he would keep the book and never sell it. One Saturday
afternoon, psrrglas showed me a first edition that made a
difference in my reportorial life. It was The Letters of Sacco
and Vanzettf, edited by Marion Denman Frankfurter and
GardnerJackson.
I knew that there had been a "Sacco and Vanzetti Case."
I was seven years old when the two men were electrocuted
at Charlestown Prison in Boston. I never heard anything ex-
cept certitude that the two Italians were murderers and that
when the switch was thrown on their electric chair there was
such a powerfirl flow of electricrty that in my hometown of
Stoneham,ffieen miles away, and in all of eastern Massa-
chusetts, the electric lights blinked. I had no childhood rea-
son to doubt their guilt and I remember no sevenTear-old's
reservations about the death penalty. But I was awed by the
phenomenonofthousands ofhomes where aflicker of dark-
nessrecorded the deaths of two criminals.
That was a]l I knew about Saccoand Vanzetti when I first
saw Douglas Dands book, with its good, clear type and solid
binding. As I flipped through the pagesmy eye caught the re-
curring name ofAlice Stone Blackwell. A feminist editor and
writer, daughteroflucy Stone,Alice StoneBlackwell, itwas
clear from the book, had befriended the two prisoners. I re-

xv
xrv
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
TO THE FIRST EDITION
PREFACE

wrote and dedicated Iryslcria.But in its great numbers and variety, it is also sup-
membered seeing a poem my mother
glackwel' I was interested in Alice lxrscdto be akind ofbalancewheel,bringingreasonand di-
to her friend Alice Stone vcrsity of opinion to its reporting and commentary. The
reluctantly sold me the
Stone Blackwell, so Douglas Dana lrrrlancewheel had tailed.
book. lly the time Saccoand Vanzetti were to be electrocuted
Vanzetti started a re-
Reading the letters of Saccoand in tgz7,most of the serious presshad changedits mind. Re-
my sparetime for the next
pot otttf prlrsuit that took much of
with a defini- 1xrrtersconfirmed that the statehad been dishonestand sup-
i"""t"f yi*r. It led me to a tantalizingbrush prcssedevidence.Editors had become convinced that there
SaccoandVanzettiwere
tive solutionto the crime forwhich lrrrdbeen a grave miscarriage of justice. It was too late. By
untrue that
iJr"ft and killed' I learned that it was
"""tcted the men were electro- lllrt time the pride of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
il" Ii*hat blinked anywhere when lrird become attached to the need to electrocute the two
transcript' post-
aom endlessreadingsof the trial
rfcfbndants.The state, frozenin its attitude, resisted a com-
""i"Ju", reports' interviews with
trial afrdavits and appeal'' ofr"itl rnutation because, in the words of Herbert Ehrmann, an
even now' six$/
ptin"ipul still living, and the books.that rulmirable lawyer in the case, it would have "signaled a
I also
still-being written about the case'
|^"^"* it "t, are weaknesswithin our social order."
role of newspapers'
i"urn"d something about the social In the United Stateswe depend on our mass media to
a fish peddlea
Sacco,a shoe repairman' and Vanzetti' signal, among other things, "weaknessin our social order."
paymaster and his assistant
were arrested for the killing of a ln r9zr,when SaccoandVanzettiwere tried, the newspapers
It was a cold-blooded
in South Braintree, tvtass- in rgzo' liriled to send that signal, though there was ample evidence
murderonasidewalki''d"yl'ghtbyfivemenwhodrove lo support one. By 1927,when the men were electrocuted,a
Italian irnmigrants and
offin a car. Sacco*J V"o'"iti were significant portion of the press had changed its mind. The
during a national hysteria'
anarchists. Their arrest came t:hangedidnot savethe twomen, butit said somethingabout
Revolution a few years ear-
*fttpn"a Ut fear of the Russian the media.
"foreigners"'by * Th-
U"r,'by an endemic bias against all The lessonrepeateditself duringmy subsequentwork as
and by A' Mitchell
formed public notion about anarchists' ir reporter. The news media are not monolithic. They are not
States' who used the
Palmer, attorney general of the United lrozen in a permanent set of standards.But they sufier from
radicals in mass arrests
Department ofJustice to attack all built-in biases that protect corporate power and conse-
..the Palmer Raidsi' which had become almost a
t.,'o*o as quently weaken the public's ability to understand forces that
national sPort. createthe American scene.Thesebiasesin favor of the sta-
newspapers supported
At the time of the arrests' most tus quo, Iike the ones operating during the Sacco-Vanzetti
the overwhelming evidence
the Palmer Raids and, despite case,do not seemto changematerially over time. When Sen-
justice' were enthusiastic about
of gross improprieties of atorJosephMcCarthy gained demagogicpower, he did it, as
ptess is a mirror of sorts'
convicting Saccoand Van'"tti' Th" did A. Mitchell Palmer thirty years earlier, with the enthu-
and promotion of the
which might account for its reflection

XVII
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
EDITION
PREFACE TO THE FIRST

oI'cvents in the order and significancein which they occur.

The newspapershad to
siastic support of most newspapers' Whcn part of the linkage between causeand effectbecomes
and critical judgment
abandon disciplines of documentation ollscure, the sources of our weakness and of our strength
but they-did it'
in order to promote McCarthy' lxrcomeuncertain. Errors are repeated decadeafter decade
rights movement in the
Duringthe emergenceoftire civil lxrr:ausesomethingis missingin the perceptionsby which we
North and the
,9b;, ;; of the best regional papet:' .t" :h"
{rride our socialactions.
dropped in for the traditional
South, would t"U *u *'ln f My personal associations,professional experience,and
'fill-irt'' for outside journalists' that there was no serious
rcsearch tell me that journalists, writers, artists, and pro-
"collred districts'" Yet in city after citythere
nr.Uf"Jafteir rlrrcersare, as abody, capableofproducing apicture ofreal-
even the local media'
came racial explosions that surprised ity that, among other things, will signal "weakness in the
poverty in the early
When f *u, '"pottiog on structural srrcialorder." But to expressthis varied picture they must
of some of the best pa-
r96os, once again in the newsrooms work through mainstream institutions and these institutions
problem' But a
that there was no significant
;:;;; *tt tol-d rnust be diverse. As the most important institutions in the
not only was there a prob-
few years later it *u' "t"ut that
time' lrroduction of our view of the real social world-newspa-
I"*, but it had existed for a long pers, magazines, radio, television, books, and movies-
about welfare cheaters'
Yet if I askedthese samepapers increasingly become the property of the most persistent
of almost any public
Iow{evel politi"ul "hit*"ry'-o'}tilittgt beneficiariesofmass mediabiases,it seemsimportant to me
of clippings'
.g"rr"y, th"i, Ubtuti"s were firll to write about it.
standard: sensitive to
There was, it appeared' a double
equally importalt
failures in public boiies, but insensitiveto
particularly in what affects the
failures in the pnvate '"*o"
bias does more than
corporate world' it'i' i"tti*ional
system' It robs the public of a
merely protect the corporate
io understand the real world'
"h*"L not burst upon us in one
Our picture ot reality does
day by day and year
splendid revelation. It accumulates
fragments from the world
by year in mostly r'rnspectacular
scene,produced "'ffiUy the massmedia' Our view of the
and self-correcting as
real world is dynamic' cumulative'
Iong as there is tp** of evenhandednessin deciding
But when one important
which fragments Jre important'
fiIered. out' or included only
category of the tttg1rt""it is
world is deficient'
vaguely, our view Jf the social-political and
The ultimat" t'** iot"llig"oce - discernment of cause
it depends on knowledge
efiect-becom"' Ju-ug"alecause

XVIII
I \ nw r corr upt s; absolute
lrnwcr corrupts absolutely,
t , ( ) l u )A C T o N 1
, 887

(]HAPTERONE

COMMON
MEDIA
FOR
ANUNCOMMON
NATION
Nrw YorkTimes,Febntary 2c.,2oo3.. . SenatorByronDorglan,Demo-
mtt of North Dakota, had a potential disasterin his district when a
li'tight train carryinganhydrousammoniaderailed,releasinga deadly
rhrudoverthecity ofMinot. Whentheemergenqtalert systemfailed, the
policecalledthe town radio stations,sixofwhich are ownedbythecor-
porategiant, Clear Channel.Accordingto newsaccounts,no one an-
sweredthephoneat thestationsfor morethan an hour and a half. Three
hundredpeoplewerehospitalized,somepartially blindedby theammo-
niu. Petsand livestockwerekilled.

Anhydrousammoniais a popularfertilizer that alsocreatesa noxious

gus,irritating therespiratorysystemandburning exposedskin.It fuses
clothingto thebodyand sucksmoisturefromthe qtes.To date,oneper-
son hasdiedand 4oo havebeenhospitalized.
- HTT p : / / www. u c c .o Rc/u c N Bws I tvtxy o z I r nAr N. H T M

(llear Channel is the largest radio chain in the United States.

It owns r,z4o radio stations with only zoo employees. Most
of its stations, including the six in Minot, N. Dak., are oper-
irted nationwide by remote control with the same pre-
recorded material.l
 COMMON MEDIA FOR AN UNCOMMON NATION
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
ph, irnd placeswould be hundreds of infividual local media
* * *
ow n()rs,eachfamiliar with the particular needs of his or her
own commumty. It would be a reasonableassumption that
often at home with pride and
The United States,as said so orrl.yI hen would an American communitlr receive the media
is the richest country in the
abroad with enr'y or hostility' 1rrrrgrammingit needs.
;;'Id. A nation tY'*T*;i:e;"Tit;HTi
ofnineteen It would be a reasonable assumption. But it would be
wr'ong.
tce' and country of origin' Its
Five global-dimension firms, operating with many of the
s as different as Amherst is
r'Iurrrrcteristicsof a cartel, own most of the newspapers,mag-
her major nations whose ori-
rrzines,book publishers, motion picture studios, and radio
States is a new country'
gins go back millennia' the United rrrrtltelevision stations in the United States.Each medium
old. consequently' it has not
less than three hundred years llrcy own, whether mAgazinesor broadcast stations, covers
of monarchs' czars' and
inherited the bagc;oi"""t*i"' llrc entire country and the owners prefer stories and pro-
other populations powerless
religious potentateJwho held gfams that can be used everywhere and anywhere. Their
its birth' the United States'
with absolute authority' From rrxrdiaproducts reflect this. The programs broadcast in the
government by consent of the
most sacred'principle has been six empty stations in Minot, N. Dak., were simultaneously
governed. lxring broadcastin New York City.
B u t t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s h a s a l w a y s b e e n i n a s tmost
ateof Thesefive conglomeratesare Time Warner, by zoo3 the
Today it is living througlr one of the
constant change. lirrgestmedia firm in the world; The WaIt Disney Company;
in its history' The speed
sweeping te"ftttotog# io"olations Murdoch s News Corporation, based in Australia; Viacom;
has penetrated an entire
with which tfre aiiital revolution rrrrd Bertelsmann, based in Germany. Today, none of the
computer and Internet'
;.;t; has been b-reathtaking' The rlominant media companiesbother with dominancemerely
largest quantity of mass ledia
added to one of the world's in a single medium. Their strategy has been to have major
*ilio"t live their daily lives'
outlets, ha.r" alt"'"d the way lroldingsin allthe media, fromnewspapers tomovie studios.
miraculous fimctions that at
The new technotogy ttu' almost 'l'his gives
each of the five corporations and their leaders
of numberlessaspects
,fr"lt U"r, hu'," l"ito the betterment rnore communications power than was exercised by any des-
and medicine'
of life,like science,scholarship' pot or dictatorship in history.
another way' It has left to
The country i' t'Jq"" in yet (In the manic-depressive cycle of corporate mergers that
own schools'its ownlanduse'
eachcommunity "o"t'i of itt hastranspired throughout the various editions of this book,
that in other
its own fire ptli;;' and much else' functions the names of the Time and Warner media conglomerates
"td solely to nationwide agencies'
developed countries are left lravechangedfour times. Timemagazinewas createdin r9z3
dependenceon local civic
Given the uniteilsau,"r' unique by Henry Luce andhis YaleclassmateBriton Hadden. Luce
decisionmakinganditsextraordinarymultiplicityoflocal lrcught out Hadden, created Time, Incorporated, and went
of media outlets' a ra-
seligoverning units and hundreds rrn to issueadditional magezinesl*e Life.In the first edition
such a vast diversity of peo-
tional system for a nation with

2
 COMMON MEDIA FOR AN UNCOMMON NATION
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY

Time' Incorporated' Io rrvoid certain kinds of competition. Technically,the dom-

of this book in 1983,the firm was simply
merged with Warner irrrrntmediafirms are anoligopoly,the rule of afewinwhich
i" *"-,he flurth edition-Time
sixth nlr.yone of those few; acting alone, can alter market con-
ioJirrni.ttions to form Time Warner' In zooo-the
server' bought it all rlilions. The most famous global cartel, the Organization of
edition-America Online, the Internet
in history and renamed Itrlroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has had brutal
io, gtt" UtUtonin the largest merger
the Securities and Ex- slrrnting wars between some of its members, and there are
the firm AoL Time wu'""'. In zoo3,
that it would investigate rrrrrtualjealousiesamong others. But when it comesto the
change Commission announced
prelude to AOLis purchase l)rrrposeof their cartel-oil-they speakwith one voice.
AOLjs accountingmethodsinthe 'fhus,
with embarrassing impli- Time Warner, the largest media firm in the group,
of Time Warner, an investigation
cations. In October ih" Board of Directors voted to r:ompetesagainst another member of the Big Five, Bertels-
"oo3, U'S' title' Nevertheless''AOL nrann,the largestpublisher of English{anguagebooks in the
;t.n ""Ot'from the firm's
separate corporate life world. But in Europe, AOL Time Warner is a partner with
Time Warner" continues to have a
entity' In this-the sev- lxrth Bertelsmann and News Corporation in the European
overseas,as doesAOL as a separate
of the Big Five' returns cirbleoperation, Channel V. According to the Securitiesand
enth edition-the company,asleader
where the business l,lxchangeCommission (SEC), in zoor AOL Time \Marner
to its former narne, Time warner, except
to use AOL Time Warner' rreededto inflate AOL ad salesfigures quickly for stockmar-
context and the date make sense
media firm in the ket reasons. So, in a complex set of transactions, Bertels-
Whatever its title, it is still the largest
rnann agreed to buy $4oo million worth of advertising in its
-
world.2)
had multiple media "competitor," AOL Time Warner, in return for AOL Time
No imperial ruler in past history
satellite channels that Warner transferring to Bertelsmann additional shares in a
channels that included television and
controlled sights and liuropean firm in which they were already partners. Thus,
can permeate entire societies with
are not Hitlers and Sta- lJertelsmann,according to the SEC,helped its 'tompetitor"
sounds. The leaders of the Big Five
entrepreneurs whose look healthier than it really was.
lins. They are American and foreign
means by which the popu- The Big Five'tompetitors" engagein numerous such
corporate empires control every
any close-knit hierarchy' t:artel-]ike relations. News Corporation, for example,has a
lation learns of its society' And like
all frve can work together joint venture with the European operations of Paramount
they find ways to cooperate so that
become a major I)ictures,which belongsto Viacom, another of its 'tompeti-
to rd their power, a power that has
""pt life' The Big Five tors" in the Big Five. According to French and American se-
force in shaping contemporary American
they jointly invest in the curities agencies,Vivenfi, the disintegrating French media
have similar boards of iit""to"'
go through motions {at' in conglomerate,had agreed to place $25 million worth of ad-
same ventures, and they even
swap properties when it vertising in AOL media in return for AOL giving the French
efiect,Iend each other money and
lirm a share of one of its operations in France.s
is mutuallY advantageous'
to oriln every- Some competition is never totally absent among the Big
It is not necessaryfor a single corporation
power' Nor is it necessary b-ivemedia conglomerates.The desire to be the first among
thing in ord'er to have monopoly

4
 (J0MMON MEDIA FOR AN UNCOMMON NATION
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY

as it is for politicians Arrollrr.rrcsrrltis that an innovativenewcomer can hope to

many is as true for linked corporations Irpcollt.rrsignificantparticipant in the industry only as one
ago when most big
and nations. It was true two decades ol llrl rrrrrrr_y subsidiariesof the billion-dollar establishedgi-
market control in
media companies aspired to corffnand *t rlq | | is on ly in legendsthat David beatsGoliath. In the his-
Gannett in newspapers;
only one medium, for example' I rrrv rrI rrrrxlern media, if two experimenters in a garagecreate
fv Schuster in
i#", Incorporated in magazines; Simon
in radio; CBS in television; nl lrrgcrriousinvention that could revolutionize their indus-
books; the three TV networks Itv, rrllinratelythey have limited choices:either sell their
But completion of that
Paramount in motion pictures' rlsrvinrlirr millions or billions to a dominant firm or risk a
toward a new and
process fed an appetite for expansion Itlctikr litkeoveror being crushedby the vast promotion and
of interlocked corpora-
;;;;;"*"tnil eout, a small group ItrrHru'irrl resourcesof a threatenedGoliath. In the end. Go-
over all the media on
tions that now have effective control l l a l l rw i n s .
depends'
whichthe Americanpublic saysit Itnrctitioners of current American capitalism do not
reller'l Adam Smith s eighteenth-centuryimage of an all-out
t lvrrlry in which merchants competeby keepingprices lower
Free Markets or Free Lunches? nrrrlrlrrality higher than their fellow merchants. That classi-
are almost synony- cal rrr.ythologywould create a final battlefield with one vic-
Corporate life and capitalist philosophy lnr rrnd four companies reduced to leftovers or worse. No
is competition' o1 the
mous, and at the heai of ctpitali'-
'1h" f'"" market'" ff the domi- rftrnrinantmedia fi.rm, given its size and wealth, wishes to
contemporary incantation' r igk sucha loss.The Ford Motor Company and General Mo-
in accordancewith classi-
nant media corporations behaved lors rkr not competeto the death becauseeachhas too much
experiment to create its
cal capitalist dogma, each would lr r k rscin an all-or-nothing rivalry. Similarly, the major media
world' product means
o* ot iqrr" product' In the media rrrrrirrlaintheir cartel-like relationships with only marginal
programs' It would mean
news, entertainment, and political rlillirrcncesamong them, a relationship that leaves all of
that reflect the widely
ofiering difiering tti"a' ofp'ograrns llrr,rrralive and well-but leavesthe majority of Americans
activities ofthe American
difierent tastes, backgrounds' and rr,illr artificially narrowed choices in their media. It is the
population. fo outright-wo1]d mean unique prod-
"o*p""t" victory' Instead' the arrrrrllneighborhood stores and restaurants that truly com-
ucts and the goal oi u *i"""t-take-all pr,lc in products, price, and qualrty and are willing to risk
share investments in the
Big Five indulge in mutual aid and lrrilrrrein the process.
jointly conlorm to the periodic
same media products' They 'l'he
narrow choices the dominant firms offer the coun-
kinds of programs have
ratings that presume to show what I ry irre not the result of a conspiracy.Dominant media mem-
which "the competitors"
fractionally larger audiences' after lx'r's do not sit around a table parceling out market shares,
sliglrtly varying shares of
then imitate the winners and take
lrlit:cs, and products, as is done literally by OPEC. The five
the total Profits' rhrrninantmedia firms dont need to. They sharetoo many
oneresultofthisconstrictedcompetitionisthatthe ,rl' the same methods and goals. But if a new firm will
duplicative content'
thousands of media outlets carryhiglrly

6
 (JOMMON MEDIA FOR AN UNCOMMON NATION
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY

companies they al- rllrer'lors.An interlock existswhen the sameboard member

strengthen their ability to promote the
to add it to cllForr thc board ofmore than one corporation (this is illegal
,"-u-aio*, they will compete with each other
orrly il'the interlocked firms would form a monopoly if
their collections.
among all their lllev trrcrged).According to a study by Aaron Moore in the
The possibilities for mutual promotion
Big Five have become M nrtlr/April zoo3Columbialournalism Review,News Cor-
various media is the basic reason the
For example' actors and pol'rrlion,Disney, Viacom, and Time Warner have forty-five
;;j"t owners of allkinds ofmedia'
studio ItrIt'r'krckingdirectors.
in a conglomerate'swholly owned movie
"ct "rr", and cable net- ll is a more significant cooperation that closely inter-
can appear on the same company's television
can I w irursa]l five into a mutual aid combine.The dominant five
;;tk;, photographs of the newly minted celebrities
owned magazines' rrrt'rI iir conglomerates have a total of r4r j oint ventures, which
dominate the covers of the firm's wholly
on the firrn s wholly ltrultrrsthem businesspartners with each other. To cite only
and those celebrities can be interviewed
The conglomerate orrr trxample,News Corporation sharesa financial interest
owned radio and television talk shows'
ownedbookpub- wilh its 'tompetitors" in 63 cable systems, magazines,
can commissionan authorfrom its wholly
purported autobiogra- ler,ording companies, and satellite channels in the United
lishing firm to write a biography or
promoted on the firms' Slrrlcsand abroad.AIlfive joinforces in one ofWashington's
phy of the new stars, which in turn is
rrroslpowerfirl lobbies, the National Association of Broad-
othermedia.
points in broadcast utslcrs, to achieve the laws and regulations that increase
In addition to jousting for fractional
shares on the stock llrcir collectivepower over consumers.In zooo, for example,
ratings, each of the nig five wants its
also increasesthe value tlrrr National Association of Broadcastersspent $2.5million
madJethiglrer than the others (which
top executives)'AI- lolrbying on communicationsissues,using z4 of its own lob-
of shares and stock options owned by
it is tol- lryists plus four independent lobbying firms, and that year
il;gh, if one conglomerate is momentarily ahead'
momentary "loser" still rrrrrde64 percent of its campaign contributions to Republi-
erable for the others becausebeing a
stations' for example' lrrns and 36 percent to Democrats.This is in addition to the
allows prodigious profits' Television'1ow"
(being a "loser") k rlrlryingand campaignmoney spentby the major media cor-
regard 30 percent profit a year as
that may be Num- lxrrationson their own.5
because the more successfirlTV stations 'l'he
ayear' As media conglomerates are not the only industry
ber one atthe moment canmake 6opercentprofit
Barry DilIer, once sai-d wlrose owners have become monopolistic in the American
one of the executives in their trade, (,(:onomy.But media products are unique in one vital respect.
if you are a bird-
of TV stations, "This is a business where '
margin' Many good l'lrcy do not manufacture nuts and bolts: they manufacturea
brain you have a thirty-five percent
margin"'a srx:ial and political world.
broadcasters have a forty-to-sixty-percent
the BigFive' in ad- New technology has expanded the commercial mass
Thouglrnot aliteralcartellike OPEC'
when it serves a mu- rrrcdias unprecedentedpower over the knowledge and val-
dition to cooperation with each other
on their boards of rrcsof the country. In less than a generation, the five inter-
tual purpose, have interlocking members
 (I0MMON MEDIA FOR AN UNCOMMON NATION
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY

enlarged their influence in Illltinrrlirrlclementshaveemergedwithinthe lifetimesofthe

twined media corporations have rrI gcncration. The media world - newspapers,maga-
of every citizen' Their con- 1rreree
,fr" no-", school,andworklives :llrr,a.lxxlks, radio, television,movies, and now the Inter-
political and cultural forces
centrated influence exercisbs tr+!l rx'crrpiesa major role in the commerceand private life
monarchsrejectedby the
reminiscent of the royal d""'""' of rrl I lrt't,rrlirc population.
revolutionists of 1776'
players in altering the
The Big Five have become major
able to promote new
politics of the country' Theyhave been Nt,w Media in a New World
and that per-
ir*.,fr* increase their corporate domination
that inhibit their control'
mit them to abolish regula:tions Merlirr rurporations have always possessedthe power to af-
the 1996 Telecommunica-
Their major accomplishment is ls,r'lpolil ics.That is not new in history. But the five dominant
of media firms' along with
tions Act. In the process'power r'ur'1x rnrt ions- Time Warner, Disney, News Corporation,
diminished the place of
all corporate power in geieral' has Vlucorn,and Bertelsmann-have power that media in past
of the United Statesand in
individual citizens' In tile history Irictorydid not, power createdby new technologyand the
to have the sole riglnt
its Constitution, citizens *" p'""'-"d Irnrrlrrniformity of their political goals.The political and so-
But concentrated
to determine the shapeoftheir democracy' rirrI rrrntent projected by thesemedia to the country's popu-
together with
media pov/er in news and commentarJ' 9or-
laliorrhashad real consequences:
in general' have diminished the United Stateshas the
porate political contributions rrr rsl politically constricted voter choicesamongthe world's
issuesand candidates will
the influence of voters over which rIr vrrkrped democracies.That raises fundamental questions
be offered on Election DaY' alrorrl how and by whom the nature of democracy shall be
been preferred
Conservative policies have traditionally rlr.lrrrmined.
the large media con-
by ull large corporations' including 'l'he
magnitude of the changemay be more readily un-
media corporations
gio*"ru,"r' flte country's five dominant rlrrslood by looking back from today's twenty-first century.
corporations in the
a.renow amongthe five hundredlargest I rr rrrlrospect,the awesomepower of the contemporarymass
one of the two
world.6 These five corporations dominate rrrr,rlia has in one generationbeen a major factor in reversing
worlds in which Lod"rn person is destined to live'
"t'"ry face-to-face' flesh-and- I lrr,t:tluntry'sprogressivepolitical, social,and economicmo-
It is still true, of Jourse' thal the nrrllum of the twentieth century. As a result, in the United
be the daily reality for
blood environment continues to Slrrlcs,the twenty-first century inherited a new, more ex-
evolution and if it has
human beings. It is part of human t rr,rnebrand of conservativepolicies.
it is theresult of the millen-
any order and social principles 'lkentieth-century
politics began with a Republican
experiencesof the human
nia of insights, convJntio"'' a"d
;rrrrsident,Theodore Roosevelt(r9or-rgog),at a time when
race. r,vcry city of any size had five or more competing newspa-
began in earnest only
In contrast, the mass media world
of its most dramatic and lrcrs with a broad range of politics, right, center, and left.
two hundred fifty years ago' Many
 ( J ( ) MM 0 N MEDIA FOR AN UNCOMMON NATION
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY

inlluential periodicals and !hclr rr nrlilrility.They had glorified the failed policies that
With the support of a number of
Roosevelt initiated lrtlrlrrm.rI tlrc shamblesof the Wall StreetCrashof r9z9 and
a portion of its newspapers' Theodore
and dismantled ||rp I ir ur| | )cpressionthat followed. By the time that Frank-
historic conservation oi natural resources
then called Iln | | rro,qt,
vc It ran for president in 1932,desperateunemploy-
hrrg" irrt"rtocked corporate conglomerates'
-rrirrr.The
bribing officials, nreuI arrrI rrrrrrmurings of popular revolt were ominous. Fear
control of tirsts in writing laws,
had been exposedmonth Inrl rrrnrrvol'the once-conservativeor neutral newspapers
and damaging the social welfare
leading writers in its erul rrrrrgrrzines to moderatetheir oppositionto the election
after month by some of the country's
Steffens'Owen Wis- nf lL x rsr,vclt.
most influential periodicals-Lincoln
(sixteen yea'rsbefore he llroscvclt created what were, for that period, radical
ter, Ida Tarbell, Louis Brandeis
Court)' Upton Sin- rcftrrrrrs,like the Securitiesand ExchangeCommissionto
became a member of the U'S' Supreme
articles appeared luurrilul corporationsthat sold sharesto the public; Social
clair, and many others' Their investigative
JosephPulitzer' Ba'rrrily lo create old age pensions for much of the popula-
in major media-newspapers publishedbv
Articles asking for lkrn; rrrrrllawsthat preventedbanksfrom speculatingin the
n.W."S-ipps, and the early-gearst'
national maga- rftx'lr nrirrl(etwith their depositors'money.The uninhibited
reform were centerpieces of influential
McClure's' and ftpt, rrrrrrl<et had created the wild euphoria of every-man-a-
zines like Harper's, itlantic' Cosmopolitan'
ttr!lliorurirein the rg2os,which then led to the chaos.This
Century.
the urgent new hnrl rr lrlrnporary chasteningeffect on the main media s nor-
That firndamental period of confronting
P' Morgan and nral plrikrsophyof "leavebusinessalone."
needsof industrial d"'ito"'u"y "ndedwhenJ'
to buy Harper'sxd Atlantic and Irr r:ontrast, the presidencies of Ronald Reagan (rg8r-
rcfr" l. Rockefellerdecided rrndofthe Bushes-George H.W. Bush(r989-r9g3),
to the most skilled t1y'{H) the
other angry financiers paid high salaries
with the vision of ftrl I v lirst president, and his son, GeorgeW. Bush, the forty-
editors to take position-smore compatible
along with World War I' tlrtrrl president,who took office in zooo-again createdan
Wall Street banking houses' That'
irlrrrrpl reversal.After his ascendancyto the presidencyin
ended the Period of reform'z
the chaos created by +loo, lhe younger Bush engagedin a systematicreversal or
A similar period of reform repaired
of the 192os' Franklin r'nrrccllationof earlier natural resource conservation plans,
the wildly uninhibited free markets
established new social rerlrrr:cdwelfare, and adopted economicpolicies that has-
Roosevelt's New Deal (1932-1945')
Great Depression s corpo- lr.rrlrI I he flow of wealth to the most wealthy. The theory es-
and regulatory agenciesafter the
establishedimmediate 1'r'rrsctlby President Reaganhad been that the wealth at the
rate breakdowns' The New Deal also
poor t, r1r would trickle down to createjobs for middle-class and
*a for housing and feeding the country's
i
"Ut "e"ncies Franklin Roosevelt' unlike 1',,r'r'workers. It was along-discrefited theory characteized
and middle-class familie'' Wttit"
media suPPol l,y lohn Kenneth Galbraith: "If you feed the horse with
his cousin Theod'ore, had no overwhelming
which were the only r.rroughoats, sooner or later it \ rill leave something behind
before his election, th" ""*'papers'
time' had lost much of I rr llto sparrows."
medium that really counted ut itt"

r3
t2
 ( I (} M M O N M E D I A FOR AN UNCOMMON NATION
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY

afirl ,'nrrr;lrigrrcdto limit the power ofmassivecorporations.

Ilr ,.lrrlIr corrIrastto the major media that led to Theodore
pklralvr'll's refbrms, the most adversarialmedia in zooo,
lrlllr irr sizc of audienceand political influence, were the
l lglrl rvirrglirlk shows and a major broadcastnetwork, the
tllrhrr'lr Ncws Corporation s Fox network, with its overt
r:unhFr vrrl ism. Murdoch went further and personally created
llrr lli,r,/trlyStandard, the intellectual Bible of contempo-
rrlt1,Anroricanconservatismand of the administration of
Hrr'.lrllrc Younger.Murdochs magazineis delivered each
n'+,r.hlo lop-level White House figures. The office of Vice
Fr+' irkrnI Cheney alone receivesa special delivery of thirty
r , rl l l i t ' s . 1 )
ll is not simply a random artifact in media politics that
llrrnt' ol'the largest broadcastoutlets insistently promote
ofthe rgzos that brought the crash ofr9z9'
of any coun- I rnrrrI xrstic far-right political positions. Murdoch s Fox radio
fhere are multiple reasons for the politics
major media play ,rrr,| |r'Icvision have almost unwavering right-wing cornmen-
try to change,but with growing force the 'l'he
the years after rg8o' lalols. two largest radio groups, Clear Channel and
a central rolu in the United States' In ( lrrrrrrrlus,
"get the government offour whose holdings dwarf the rest of radio, are com-
conservatives began the chant of
of a genuinely rlillcrl to a daily flood of far-right propagandistic program-
backs,,that accelerated the steady elimination
the goal of uninhib- rrrtrrgirlongwith their automatedmusic. TWenty-twopercent
progressive income tax' They adopted
advocating a shrink- ll Arnericanspolled say their main source of news is radio
ited corporate power. Political slogans
that idea filled the talk shows.loIn a little more than a decade, American ra-
ing go.r"'-rnent and arguments involving rI io lrrrsbecomea powerfi.rlorgan of right-wing propaganda.
of most of the coun-
reiJrtorial and commentary agendas 'l'lrr,
the end of rnost widely distributed afternoon talk show is Rush
iry t -":- news outlets' It was the beginning of
and the start of Lir rrbaug;h's,whose opinions are not only right-wing but fre-
government-as-protector-of-the-consumer
And the news rlrrrrrrtly basedon untruths.1l
lorr"t t-"nt-as-ihe-protector-of-big-business' l)ominant media owners have highly conservativepoli-
corporations'
industry now a part of the five dominant
trcsand choosetheirtalk showhosts accordingly.Efitor Ron
reflected this new direction'
president' I I rrrI riques of the trade magazineRadio U Recordssaid, "I
By the time Bush the Younger had become
longer the powerful^ cirn'l think of a single card-carrying liberal talk show syndi
the most influential media were no ,':rtcd nationwidel'l2 The one clearly liberal talk show per-
national organs of
Harper's, Century, and other influential lorrner,Jim Hightower ofABC, was fired in rgg5bythe head
to exposeabuses
one hundred years earlier that had helped

r5
r4
 (,]OMMON MEDIA FOR AN UNCOMMON NATION
THE NE\]I/ MEDIA MONOPOLY

bouglrt the Irrrrrr,l.yliberal, comparedto 33 percent for the samecate-

of Disney, Michael Eisner, the week after Eisner gli ir,sol:conservatives,with z5 percent saying"Don't know
Disney company,which owns ABC' ,,t ltrrvun'tthought about it."16
of the Big
fh" potitic"l content of the remaining four
Five is hardly a counter to Fox and the ultraconservatism
American televi-
and bad reporting of dominant talk shows'
General l)ollarsversusVotes
sion viewers have a choice of NBC (now ownedby
Big Five' Viacom)'
Electric), CBS (now owned by one of the ( lrrr, lilrce creating the spectrum changehas been, to put it
Five' Disney' Di-
and ABC, now owned by another of the Big
Statesmedia sirrrply,money-the quantities of cash used to gain office.
versity among the tens of thousands of United
the chairman ii;rorrlaneousnational andworld events andthe accidentsof
outlets is no longer a government goal' In zooz'
Michael Pow- lrFw personalities inevitably play a part in determining a
ofthe Federal CommunicationsCommission'
be so bad one
if lrltrrlry's legislation and policies. But in American politics,
ell, expressedthe opinion that it would not
entire metropoli- Irryond anyother singleforce, moneyhas determinedwhich
broadcast giant owned every station in an
lcsrrcsand candidateswill dominate the national discourse
tan area.lS
not a minor llrrrl, in turn, selectsthe issuesand choicesavailable to vot-
The machinery of contemporary media is
served' along r,r'son Election Day.
mechanism. The z8o million Americans are '[he
media' by r'468 largest sourceofpoliticalmoneyhas comefrom cor-
with assortedother small local and national
to'ooo radio lxrlirtions eagerto protect their expandedpower and treas-
daily newspapers,6,ooo different magazines'
rrrc. The country's massive media conglomerates are no
stations, t"l"rrision and cable stations' and s'6oo book
",7oo rlill'crent-with the crucial exception that they are directly
gave birth to a new and still
'unpredictableThe Internet
publishers.la
tclated to voting patterns because their product happens
force, as later portions of this book will
more Americans lo be a social-political one. It is, tragically, a self-feeding
describe. Though today's media reach
the smallest number l)r'ocess: the larger the media corporation, the greater its po-
than ever before, they are controlled by
fiff)' dominant litical influence, which produces a still larger media corpo-
of owners than ever before' In r9B3there were
These five corpo- rrrtion with still greater political power.
media corporations; today there are five'
- not - Iearn'15 The cost of running for office has risen in parallel with
rations decide what most Litizens will or wilI
years of con- t lrc enlargedsizeof American industries and the sizeof their
It may not be coincidental that during these
political lxrlitical contributions to preferred candidates and parties.
solidation of mass media ownership the country's
As noted' what In 1952,the money spentby all candidatesand parties for
spectrum, as reflected in its news' shifted'
rrll federal election campaigns-House, Senate,and presi-
'rrit, on." Iiberal is now depicted as radical and even 'npa-
and social val- rlcncy-was $r4o million (sic).In zooo, the races spent in
triotic. The shift does not reflect the political
recent Harris poll rlxcessof $5 billion. Spendingin the zooo presidential cam-
ues of the American public as a whole' A
are politically lraignalone was gr billion.lT
showed that 42 percent of Americans say they
liberal' or ex- The growth of money in politics is multiplied by what it
moderate, middle-of-the-road, stiglrtly [bera]'

r7
r6
 t I()M MON MEDIA FOR AN UNCOMMON NATION
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY

other I r'ug.reqs,rrrrrkrubtedlyhelpedby PresidentBush,who, two

pays
',hirrgr, for-the growth of consultants skilIed in' among
en- *trrrI Ir.rIx,Iirrcthe election,suddenlydeclaredthatthe coun-
the arts of guile and deception that have been
the tastes It v rtorrLlgo to war againstIraq and that opponentswould
haoced by use ofnew technology in discovering
lie sr','nrrs supportersof SaddamHusseins tyranny. That
and income of the Public'
and ex- chrlp lool( rlomesticeconomictroubles offthe front pages
Television political ads are the most common
single ex- enrI rrrrl ol''l'V news programs.
pensive campaign instrument and the largest
the lrrcrc;rsingly,House and Senatecandidateshave spent
ienditure
^commercials inlmerican political campaigns' Typically'
minutes' llrc.lr owrr money on campaigns,a choice available only to
are brief, from a few seconds to five
slogans and rurrllirrrillionaires. Thus, the moneyboth of the wealthy and
during which most of the content consists of
obligatory)' rrl rlr porirle interests has cometo dominate American poli-
symbols (waving Americans flags are almost
information' Television sta- llcc irr llrc single generation during which the country's po-
uselessas sources of relevant
of most of Itttr+rlslxrctrumhas shiftedfar to the riglrt.
tions and networks are, of course,the recipients
country's po-
the money that buys air time' This is why the
candidate has
Iitical spectrum is heavily influenced by which 'l'lrr,
Viewfrom the Top
the most money'
attracting
Incumbents always have an advantage in
business l lrr. rrrrriornews media overwhelmingly quote the men and
money from all sourcesbecauseeven conservative
to vote for u'l| |r'n who lead hierarchies of power. Powerful officials are
leaders want influence with whoever happens
if one elimi- l legilirnateelement in news becausethe public needs to
legislation, even if it is a liberal' Nevertheless'
alwaysbeen l rrrrrv what leaders in public and private life are saying and
naltesincumbents,the big spendershave almost
spent more rLrirrg. tlut official pronouncementsare only a fraction of the
the winners. Beginning in 1976,candidateswho
Conserva- ieulilics within the population. Complete news requires
than $5oo,ooo were increasingly Republicans'18
of bowing to specialin- iriorr,. l,eaders, whether in public or private life and what-
tives perpetually accuseDemocrats
words for uvrr' lheir personal ethical standards, Iike most human be-
terests.Inthe conservativelexicon, theseare code
for exam- trrpgs, seldom wish to publicize information that discloses
labor unions. And, indeed, labor unions in zooo'
only $5 I lrr.ir rnistakesor issuesthey wish to keep in the background
ple, gave Democrats $9o million and Republicans
po- or rvilh which they disagree.Officials do not always saythe
*illion. But in the r99os,corporate and trade association
as much rr'lrrrkr truth.
Iitical action committees gave Republicans twice ( litizen groups issuing serious contrary studies and pro-
quantities many
money as they gave to Democrats and in
In 1,r'srrls for mending gapsin the socialfabric get only sporadic
*uttlpt", t"tger than labor union political contributions'le
of the Sen- 'rrrrl rninimal attention in the major media. Consequently,
the crucial midterm zooz elections, when control
millon of the country's most pressing problems remain
ate depended on a few votes, Democrats spent $44 ",,nrc
gained control of rrrutcd.Unless powerful official voices press for attention
and Republicans $8o million' Republicans

l9
rB
 ( J ( ) MM O N M E D I A FOR AN UNCOMMON NATION
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY

pressing prob- Nrrls cxucutives claim periodically that no one's really

and remedies for those missing issues' the ltilr=l.rllrl in unmet domesticneeds,or people are tired of
lems remain unresolved. li+rrlirnrvs,or we had a story on that. This is the sameindus-
to com-
It is not rare for speakersand large organizations Ir v tlrrrl is proud of its ability to be artful and ingeniousin
and most
plain publicly that it is shameful for the richest lrrrhlrrg;rrr_y kind of story interesting,in which many of the
world to have increasing ntunbers of
io*"tnn "orrrr,ty in the EE.tlr. r'rlilorspursuethe "lost child story" that, infact, inter-
is the only indus-
ii ir"rrc homeless,that the United States cal,i nrrly part of the audienceand is ignored by the rest.
health care' or
trial country in the world without universal Frsr v t1,ir(lcrof a newspaperor viewer oftelevisionwill pay
to believe that
that its rhetorical support of education seems r,lnqnrrltrrntionand absorb copious detail on an issue that
federal govern-
this requires no additional money from the cflprlq lhirt reader personally,whether it is a joblessbook-
government that re-
mentjeven though it is the federal [c,r'l'rr or the national prospects for the unemployed or a
that the
qot local schools to meet higher standards' Or
"r treaties to pro- furrrllvrrremberdesperatefor possibletreatmentsfor AIz-
Jountrywithdrew unilaterally from previous hplrrrlr"s disease.
agreement
tect the planetary environment' Or that' despite ' 'lrr,
| rnajornews media fail to deal systematicallywith the
nuclear
to restrict existing stocksof Russian and American vrlrlr,ly ol'compelling socialneedsof the entire population.
that he
weapons, President Bush the Younger announced llr,r,.r,rrcedsremain hidden crises, obscured in the daily
initiating
*oia consider military action against countries
announc- flrrnrl ol'other kinds of news.Yetthe weight of most reputable
nuclear weapons research while simultaneously clu vr,ysshows that, in the Iate twentieth and early twenty-
its own nuclear
ing that the^United States would restart ftral r'r'ntury most Americanswere deeply concernedwith
weapons research. svatrrrurtic lack offunds fortheir children s education,access
media'
These issues are not absent from major news ll lrr.irllhcare,the growing crisesin unemployrnent,home-
though na-
They are reported but then they are dropped' lpq',rr,,ss, and steadydeterioration of city and statefinances.
child can con-
tional stories about a distant kidnapped l|rrl theseissuesare not high priorities among the most
weeks' There is
tinue on front pagesand television news for llvi.rlt (:ontributors to political candidatesand parties. Cor-
stories
nothing ftttmn f and often some good in persistent pnrnlions have otherhigh-priorityissues. There is aworld of
national news
about individual human tragedies' But in the rtnrrlllr, stratosphericin its imperial heights, which is so be-
with problems
agenda,there is no such media persistence v,'nr| |he life of most Americans that it is barely imaginable.
,t millions. It is an unrelenting tragedy that more
"t "fiIi"t

WlrcnThereAre No Limits
l'l rorrghnot typical of the averageprofitable corporation, dis-
war as a per- r l, ,srrnls in recent years show excessesthat can be achieved
and the rest of the world. or that preemptive I'v "gol"ting the government off our backs." It was only
manent policy is the law of the jungle'

27
20
 (JOMMON MEDIA FOR AN UNCOMMON NATION
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY

through divorce paper filings that shareholders

of General VrrirrArnbition ProducedNo "Big Six"
limits
gt""; (GE) anJ the public learned about the lack of
quietly
or, that some large corporate leaders 1\'lrr,rrVivcndi,the houseof cardsconcoctedby Frenchcor-
"o*p"tration and 1ruirrlr,rrtlventurer Jean-Marie Messier, came apart, his
C; ,it"rnselves while keeping their stockholders
obscene money and rlt,,rrrrrol'a media empire gaveGE a chanceto join the Big
the public unaware of their almost
l'tvr.llrirl now dominateAmerican media.2zUnder Messier,
perquisites.
and \'lvr,rrrli'sbuying spreehad included the United States'last
The most striking disclosure was the compensation
leader trHjor-irrdependentpublishing house, Houghton Mifflin,
pension
^of benefit, fot JackWelch, the much-celebrated
his wife's divorce I rnqr.rI i rr lloston, which was then sold to an investmentgroup
C"n"r"l Electric, learned only when
still CEO of GE' re- I IrnI o1xrrated it with changesin the company's mix of printed
filing, b""u*e public' Mr' Welch' while
corporate aircraft; rrrrrl onlineservices.
."i.rld $16'7milllon ayear;accessto the
apartment' with its Mcssier's hard-headed successor,Jean-ReneeFourtou,
use of an $8o,ooo-a-month Manhattan
and unlvrrg<rrl
(including wine, food' Iaundry' toiletries' Vivendi by GE's $3.8billion purchaseand assump-
""p"nr", with floor-Ievel l lnrr ol' $ir.6billion in debt, giving GE Bo percent ownership
nJ*rp"p"rr) paid for by the company; along
games' VIP seating at nI Vivrrndi-Universal, which includes Universal studios.This
seatsiJNew-York Knicks basketball
Stadium and l,lrclrirse also gave GE's new chairman, Jefirey Immelt, the
Wimbledon tennis garnes' a box at Yankee
Boston Red Soxffi', four country club fees' security and frrrrrrtlir(ion to convert GE from a large collection of older in-
TV in his four homes' rlrr.,lliirlassets(weaponry,jet engines,etc.)to the new hot
limousine service at all times, satellite
Itrrlrrslry,the media. Immelt has said that the old industries
and dining bills at a favorite restaurant'
most of the rvelr' lraying one-digit profits while the media pay z5-6o
In retirement, Welchjs pension continues
first thirty days of
p"rqrrrrr,", for life, plus $86,SS5for the Irtt;1','ttr."
eachadditional day' lrnmelt foresees an enlarged GE as a vertically inte-
iu"li y""r', consultancy,plus $r7,3o7for
only were hidden gi irIr.tI media firm overshadowingits older products. GE al-
fhesl otherworldly ftiightt of excessnot
vague to share- terr,ly owned the NBC TV network and cable networks
from the average American but also were
footnotes in llllrrrIingthe USANetwork, Sci-Fi,CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo,
holders, thanksto obscure or undecipherable
rurrl'l'r-io.The dealaddedUniversalPictures,UniversalTele-
annual rePorts'20
a $r9 million ti.rirrrr(producerof the high-profit program Law I Order),
Ty"o,'orreof the Enron-like fiascos'forgave
needed it to pay clrrrrts in five theme parks, and Telemundo,the big Spanish-
lorrr to executive Dennis Koslowski' who
and his part- lrilr[uirgenetwork. Barry Diller owns 7 percent of Vivendi.
for an additional home in Florida' Kozlowski
million from their I I.rpite Immelt's vision of GE as a major media conglom-
ners were later charged with looting $6oo
*lrlr', GE was also planning to acquire the London-based
companY.2l
rrr,.rlit:ulfirm Amersham for $g.Sbillion and still promotes
o'rlr.sof GE gas turbines and wind energy,high-tech ovens,

23
 (JOMMON MEDIA FOR AN UNCOMMON NATION
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY

r.r'lInI roration of Kurt Waldheim, former secretary-general

andmedicaldeviceslikemagneticresonanceimaging
rrl tlr. tJnited Nations. He also helped track down Swiss
(MRr).
"the lrrurlir,rswho profited from money once depositedby Jews
Immelt still has to escapewhat Hollywood calls
business rrrrrrrL,rrrdin the Holocaust.2T
Curse of Universalj' a threat based on a long line of
from its
and other failures of former owners of the studio'
Messier'24
founder Carl Laemmle in rgrz to the unfortunate
New names, systems,and services inevitably will'
like A lluilt-in Imbalance
but
GE, emerge;they add an increment to the media scene
truly giant [\|rri| ol'the more conventionallywealthyfamilies are able to
do not approach the magnitude and power of the
in this book' lritv lrrivate servicesthat ordinary families cannot obtain in
all-media conglomeratesdescribed
ri 1rrrlrliclyfi-rndedschoolor other community and national fa-
r,tlilir.sthat sufier from budget cuts made, among other rea-
Errtrs,lo provide tax cuts for the wealthy.
"Humble" Domination 'l'hc
many decadesof only passing consideration of the
in many rrrnjor needs of most people have produced hopelessness
The phrase "humble beginning" is almost obligatory
humble rrlrorrt I he possibility for change.Consequently,massesofpo-
corporate histories. Often it has been even more
of all tsrrlirrlvotershave becomeresignedto the assumptionthat
thal displayed in the company's history' In the case
in Messier's deals' they were' in- tu'lrrrlthe major media tell them is the norm and now un-
-cleed, to the $ro7 billion
parties
r,lrurrgcable.In the first edition of this book, twenty years
if not humble at least not magisterial' Messier'sformer
became a ng(),I observed "media power is political power." The five
company name had been a water company and
began rhrrrri nant media firms, now among the largest in the world,
mu3o,Uoitder of such systemsworldwide' But it really
firm inherited the lrnvrrthat power and use it to enhancethe values preferred
humbly as sewage.The original Vivendi
by con- l,v I lrc corporate world of which they are a part.
bumbling Louis Napoleon s attempt to regain stature 'l'he
target' Seagram' for imbalance between issues important to corporate
structing the Paris sewers. Vivendi's
25 reputa- Irir,r'rrrchies and those most urgent to the population at large
which Merri", paid $S+million in stock, had the
quantities of liquor from ls oIrscuredby the neutralist tone of modern news.The right-
tion ofhumbly shipping impressive
groups ru'irrrlimpact of modern news is not in the celebrated
canada into the united Statesduring Prohibition via
word lrrflrrrned language that once characteized nineteenth-
the tabloids insisted on calling "gangs"' using the
r.nrrI rrry sensationalist headlines and language.Today the im-
"smuggling;' although neither word appeared in Seagram
literature' Seagram was started as a hum- l,llirrrceis in what is chosen-or not chosen-for print or
officiJ"o-pany
lrroirrlcast.Media politics are reflected in the selectionof
ble Canadian saloonby the Bronfrnan family'26
rnrrrnrentatorsand talk show hosts. It is exercisedpower-
There has also been genuine public service by the senior
perse- lrrlly in what their corporations privately lobby for in leg-
Bronfman, who helped rescue European Jews from
the Nazi lELrlionand regulations, and in the contributions they and
cution or worse and was instrumental in exposing

24 25
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY

candidates' It is ilfelr,srrr:has theyare,very naturally seekmonqt or

their leaders make to political parties and
to have a po- .tnd powerbecause it is asgood&smonE).
the inevitable desire of most large corporations tl,ft,cJ,','
llAi,l'l wALDo rIr.lrnsoN,1837

(:IIAPTERTWO

BIGFIVE
THE
Itr rfft.{, the men and women who headed the fi_ftymass
tnerlir corporations that dominated American audiences
t'orrkl lravefit comfortably in a modest hotel ballroom. The
1rurplc heading the twenty dominant newspaper chains
pt oIrrrIrly would form one conversational cluster to complain
alxrrrf newsprint prices; twenty magazinemoguls in a dif-
feterrl t:ircle denounce postal rates; the broadcast network
1uolrkr in another corner,not being in the newspaperor mag-
nairrr, Jrusiness,exchange indignations about government
t nrlir rrrnd television regulations;the book people competein
t|Irlrrrgcover greed of writers' agents;and movie people gos-
rllr rrlxrutsexualachievementsof their stars.
ll.yroo3, five men controlled all thesemedia oncerun by
llre liliy corporations of twenty years earlier. These five,
n\\'ncrs of additional drgrt"l corporations, could fit in a gen-
castle."
unpre-
That question hovers over the extraordinary but etorrs phone booth. Granted, it would be a tight fit, and it
and the trans- n'r,rrlrI be filled with sometensions.
dictable innovations of the electronic media
lrr this imaginary phone booth would be Richard par-
formations that are continuing in our time'
rrrrrs,t:hairmanand chief executiveofficer (CEO) of Time
Wrrrrrrrr,who would be cautious about his job, becausehe
ru'ngrrowchief ofthe world's largestmediafirm onlybecause
Iri,,lormer co-chiefs,SteveCaseand Carl Levin, had been

qn
z6
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
THE BIG FIVE

dethroned. Michael Eisner, chief of Disney, would demand llrrse politicians are depicted to the voting public; the more
his own spacethe way he had after he and his old friend
lxrwerful the leading media, the more powerful their in_
Michael Ovitz engineeredcaptureofthe vast Mickey Mouse lhrenceover politicians and national policy. prudent politi_
empire by promising co-leadership, whereupon Eisner .i'ns treat the desiresof all large coryorations with care.But
dumped his old friend on the principle of One Empire, One lxrliticians treat the country,s most powerful media corpo_
Emperor. The notoriously irascible Sumner Redstone, ruler rnI ions with something approaching reverence.
ofViacom, formerly CBS,wouldbe all elbowsbecauseNews That political awe has permitted the five dominant
Corp s Rupert Murdoch had bought Hughes Electronics' ruurdiafirms to ignore or make laws that let them absorb
satellite-transmitted DirecTV, which gives Murdoch finan- thc lion s share of the 37,ooo difierent media outlets in the
cial and technical power surpassingViacom. Finally, the fifth United States.(The number jumps to 54,ooo if one counts
occupant would be Reinhard Mohn, patriarch of the 168- Hll weeldies,semiweeklies,and advertising weeklies and all
year-old Germanfirm Bertelsmann,as aloofas one canbe in "periodicals," including strictly local ones. The number
be_
a crowded phone booth becausehe is head of, among other (lomesrT8,ooo if one counts all .,information industries.,,)z
things, the world's largest publisher of English{anguage Somewriters' commercial guides claim they can find
77oo
books, but not long before had been caught lying about his krcal book publishers for authors. Whatever the number,
firm's Nazi-erahistory. tl.S. communications systems are formidable. This book
Admittedly, it may be difficult to imagine five of the rlcnlswith the media-daily newspapers,nationally distrib-
world's most influential executives standing in one phone rrtedmagazines,broadcasting,and motion pictures_used
booth, an act usually reserved for college students compet- hy the majority of Americans and their influence on the
ing for a place in the GuinnessBook ofWorld Records(which r:ountry'spolitics and policies.
saysthe record is twenty-five young men at St. Mary's Col- Political leaders hunger for continuous favorable treat_
lege in Moraga, California).l It takes a stretch of imagination rnent in the big media. The Big Five hunger for the $zS6bil_
to think of five corporate executives doing the same thing. lion spent every year for advertising in the massmedia and
Onthe otherhand, itwouldhave been dificult to imagine in lhe approximately $Boo billion that Americans spend on
rg83that the corporations that owned all the country's dom- nrediaproducts themselves.Bfn zooz, for example,the aver-
inant mass media would, in less than twenty years, shrink lrgeconsumerspent$zrzforbasic cable,$roo forbooks. Srro
from fi-fty separate companies to five. lirr home videos, $7r for music recordings, $5g for daily
I{ however, one looks at the properties of the dominant ll(lwspapers,$45for magazines,$+Sfor online fnternet ser-
five, it provides some insight into how it could have hap- vices,and $36on movies.aIt is not surprising that a country
pened. Their steady accumulation of power in the world of with z8o million people living in more than roo million
news, rafio, television, magazines,books, and movies gave lrouseholdsis a marketplace that has led ambitious entre-
them a steady accumulation of power in politics. Political Irreneurs,no longer inhibited by former government rules,
Ieadersand parties know that the news media control how to congealinto a small handfirl of corporations. The fewer

28
29
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY THE BIG FIVE

the owning corporations, the larger each one's share of the tVRr,ul the time, the ultimate holy word on Wall Street,syn-
annual harvest of the billions of consumer dollars. ffiv, i'ivnergy,borrowed from physiology,describeshow the
Who and what are these dominant five media corpora- €Frrlrilurtion of two separate entities produces a power
tions?
tfeeter than the simple addition of the two. The word be-
6lme n mantra with merger specialists,investment bankers,
ffid errlrepreneurs.It seemedinevitable that combining the
Time Warner, The Largest $o corporations would more than double their separate
p6'vnrs in the marketplace.
OnJanuary lo, 2ooo, the American television audiencewas 'fime
A( ) l, Warner was seenas synerry perfected:Time
invited to the most expensive marriage ceremony in history. ilhrtrrtr had by this time a large quantrty of media products
It was a coryorate wedding, so the loving couple were two futtt tturgazinesto movies (an undifferentiated commodity
men, and it was not uncouth to mention money. In the Wall hown on Wall Street as'tontent"), AOL had the best
Street Book of Common Stock, it is mandatory to mention "rrd
'tontent"
plpellnc through which to send this instantly to
the wealth of newly joined couples. That is why the news @ttrltrrcrs'computers.
mentioned that the ritual combined one party worth $16Sbil- A Iist of the properties controlled by AOL Time Warner
lion with its soul mate worth $rzo billion. hkee ttrn typed pages listing zgz separate companies and
The merger joined America Online, headed by Steven lutrslrliaries. Of these, twenty-two are joint ventures with
Case, and Time Warner, headed by Gerald Levin (in corpo- €ther rnajor corporations involved in varying degrees
rate weddings it is not always easyto distinguish which is the ffltlt rrrtrdiaoperations.Thesepartners include 3Com, eBay,
groom and which the bride). Case, forty-two years old, had Hpw lrrI t-Packard, Citigroup, Ticketmaster, American Ex-
built a firm with the most common acronyrn, aol, for the presn,llomestore, Sony,Viva, Bertelsmann, Polgram, and
serversthat lead to sites in the vast universe ofthe Internet. Antazon.com.Someof the more familiar frrlly owned prop-
Earlier, AOL had already merged with competitors Net- ertler ol'Time Warner include Book-oFthe-Month CIub: Lit-
scapeand CompuServe.Levin's Time Warner had been the tle, llrrrwnpublishers;HBO, withits sevenchannels;CNN;
empire Henry Luce had built seventy-seven years earlier :€vetr specializedand foreign{anguagechannels;Road Run-
when Luce had co-founded Time magazine.Long before ner: Wrrner Brothers Studios; Weight Watchers; Popular
the marriage, Luce and his successorsat Time, Inc. had Belettcc:and fifty-two difierent record labels.s
spawned a growing family of magazinesthat includedLife, 'l'lrc
marriage ran into difficulties over, as usual, money.
Fortune, Holiday, Sportslllustrated, andpeople; Time, fnc. 'l'he couple's
wedding required massive debt, but it was a
Iater merged with Warner Brothers, which itseHhad gath- tlttte when debt was considered unimportant. In zooo, the
ered other firms in music, movies, television, and newer tnet'kclplacewas flooded by investors in the digital world
media. enger'firr magical pieces of paper called stockoptions that
In addition to its other headline-making news, the harl rrrrrdesomepeople millionaires overnight. Majorbanks
merger became the most spectacular celebration of what w It Ir Ii rru old nineteenth-century names lent billions without

3o 3r
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY THE BIG FIVE

looking too closely at the arithmetic in the borrowers'bal- empire, was a country boy who became an international
ance sheets(or at their own, it later becameclear).The pub- phenomenon.His creations are everywhere in the world-
Iic was told that this was the "new economy."Dismissed as "'lirpolino" in Italy, "Mi Lao Shu" in China, and "Mikki
hopelesslyobsoletewere notions Iike judging a companyon Maus" in Russia. His Fantasia, a series of color movie epi-
the basis of whether there was some relationship between rodes set to music played by the Philadelphia Symphony Or-
income and outgo or between assetsand liabilities. ehestra,is still presentedperiodically in theatersall over the
The new economy developed, at the very least, birth world.e
pains. By zoo3, Time Warner had a metaphoric yard sale Walt's touch with the tastes of children was genuine. He
on its front lawn. It was trying to sell its book fivisions, the grew up on a Missouri farm, and after his Uncle Mike, a lo-
fifth largest in the country worth more than $3o million. tromotiveengineer on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe,
Steven Case and Gerald Levin had been unseated by lxrught him a box of crayons, Walt drew pictures of tiny an-
unhappy board members, and by zooz the Securities and lmals on everything, including the side of the farm truck.
Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice had When the farm failed, the family moved to Chicago, where,
amounced that they wished to examine how AOL had kept alier his daytime high school classes,Walt went to night
its books before the merger.6 clnssesat the Academy of Fine Arts. After he had becomea
But it was still the biggest media firm in the world. I lollywood success,a legend grew that he had no ability in
art, but it was not true (althouglr,when his artists went on
xtrike shortly after World War II, their picket signs read,
Disney,the MouseThat Roared "Walt Can't Draw";.to When Walt Disney died in 1966 of
Itrngcancer(hehad chain-smokedFrench Gitane cigarettes),
The loveable rodent with big ears, the one called Mickey, rtulio-television commentator Eric Severeid said.'We'll
with the squealry,babylike voice and the innocent charm, is never seehis like again."ll
really more than sevent;r-fiveyears old and makes more than Severeid was right, but the Disney company grew in
$25billion ayear.TTobemore precise,he and his playmates wnys Walt rnight not have imagined. It would become the
really make that money for his corporate parent, the Walt reventy-third largest industry in the United Statesunder a
Disney Company. The firm now controls more subsidiaries leuderwhoseroots couldnotbe more difierent. Michael Eis-
than Walt himseHhad added, like his first Disneyland. The ner, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Comparry,grew
innocence of Mickey and his friends Goofr, Dumbo, and the tup in a fashionable Park Avenue apartment in New York
Seven Dwarfs enchanted generations of children around ( )ily,the son of an affluent lawyer. His parents required him
the world. David Low, the Britishpolitical cartoonist, called Io rlo two hours of homework for every hour he watched tel-
Walt "the most significant figure in graphic arts since evision. Michael beganas a premedical student at Dennison
Leonardo."8 I lrriversity (A.8., Class of 1964)but switched to nnglish lit-
It is true that Walt Disney, the father of the mouse Fnrlure and theater. He then got a job as a clerk in the Fed-

32 33
 THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY THE BIG FIVE

eral CommunicationsCommission.But in sixweekshe went rnovesfor the usual tell-it-all books about any powerfirl na-
to CBS children s progamming, where his job was picking lional figure, and that begana battle. Broadway Books com-
the right spot in which to drop commercials. rrrissionedan Eisner biography,Keltsto theKngdom, by Kim
Eisner was not charmed with the routine, and instantly Masters, a contributor to Vani$t Fair, with a $7oo,ooo ad-
he sent out hundreds of r6sum6s. He received only one vnnce.The publisher's spring cataloglisted it as "brilliantly
response, but that one was crucial. It was from Barry Diller, trrported." But the head of Broadway Books suddenly de-
head of programming at ABC. Diller, who by 1967 had cided that the "brilliantly reported" manuscript was "unac-
produced his own TV special, "Feelin Groovy at Marine r:rrptable."Another publisher, Morrow Books, found it fine
World," becameEisner'smentor.When Diller becamechair- nrrdpickeditup. The suspicionwas that Eisner, increasingly
man of the board, he made Eisner president and CEO. Eis- lxrwerful, had the original contract killed.
ner soon cut costsat Paramount Pictures to $8.5million per In the nature of many celebrity biographies, this became
picture at a time when the industry average was 30 percent n mud fight. The book was said to include Eisner's quarrel
higher. w ith his former prot 6g6JetrreyKatzenberg.Author Masters
Eisnerhad caughtthe merger and acquisitionfever ofthe erridher original editor had received a Disney demand to
tg8os and rggos.In r9B4he was named ABC's chairman and cuncelthe book. There were Hollywood rumors that Broad-
CEO, and ten years later acquired the newspaper-broadcast wrrysBook's parent firm, Bertelsmann,was planning to buy
chain ABC/Cap Cities. It becamethe Walt Disney Company. xomeGerman television stationsfrom Eisner's Disney com-
When Eisner hired Michael Oitz, "the most powerfirl man prrnyand did not wish to displeaseEisner.la
in Hollywood" and head of the dominant Creative Artists Despite the ingredients of a stereofryical Hollywood
Agency, Time magazine ran a firll-color portrait of Ovitz in prrblicity war, a more immediate problem arose. Board
royal robes and a crown.12 !!trrmbers, including Walt's nephew Roy Disney, questioned
The national media coronation of Ovitz may have been llrc Disney company's falling revenues and shareholder
a tactical pitfall. The Walt Disney Company was now a vrrlue.There were pointed queries about Disney accounting
global empire, and empires seldom remain peacefirl with co- arrdabout Eisner personally. The usual rumors questioned
emperors. In a short time, Ovitz "the most powerful man,, whether the directors were about to take back Eisner's "keys
was out. The Los Angeles Times published a satirical ..My lo the kingdom."
Dinner with Ovitz," in which Ovitz blames his fate on Hol- Disney ownership of a hockey team called The Miglrty
Iywood's "gay mafial'in which he seemedto include other l)rrcks of Anaheim does not begin to describe the vastness
big names like David Geffen, Michael Eisner, Barry Dillea ol'the kingdom. Hollywood is still its symbolic heart, with
and many others.l3 eight movie production studios and distributors: Walt Dis-
Eisner, who has a talent for promoting his own enter- rrl.y Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Miramax, Buena Vista
prises, had a reputation for wanting nothing about his per- llorne Video, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Buena
sonallife publicized. If he heard of somepossibility,he made Visla International, Hollywood Pictures, and Caravan
rigorous efforts to suppress it. But inevitably there were Itit:lures.

34 35
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
THE BIG FIVE

The WaIt Disney Company controls eight book house im- 'I'he "magickingdom"
apparentlyhadlost someof its magic,
prints under Walt Disney Company Book publishing and
especially in financial performance of its ABC network and
ABC Publishing Group; seventeen magazines; the ABC
onc of its most profitable divisions, the Disney cruises.l5
Television Network, with ten owned and operated stations 'l'his
encouragedbigcable'sComcastto move toward merger
of its own including in the five top markets; thirty radio
or purchase.
stations,including all the major markets; eleven cablechan_
nels, including Disney, ESPN fiointly), A&E, and the His-
tory Channel; thirteen international broadcast channels
stretching from Australia to Brazil; seven production and
Murdochs News Corp: Hearst Reborn?
sports units aro'ndthe world; and seventeenInternet sites,
When Murdoch s News Corporation acquired Hughes's
including the ABC group, ESpN.sportszone, NFL.com,
l)irecTV satellite system, it not only added $g billion a
NBAZ.com, and NASCAR.com. Its five music groups in-
ycar in annual income but also gave his Fox programs a
clude the Buena Vista, Lyric Street,and Walt Disney labels,
rtcw mefium for reaching millions of homes through small
and live theater productions growing out of the movies The
nxrftop satellite dishes.Though fiberoptic channel,with its
Lion King, Beautyand the Beast,andkngDavid.
lrrrgetransmissioncapacity,has abetterfoothold, Murdoch s
The company has a quarter interest in the Anaheim An-
ttcw acquisition gavehim the power to intimidate bigger sys-
gels baseball team and owns fifteen theme parks and its
lcms like Time Warner and cable systems,by offering home
cruise line. It has its own interactive subsidiaries, with CD-
grrdgetsto record his programs via DirecTV without com-
ROMs for video games,and computer software. Its more
rncrcials.The possibility of eliminating commercialsis a per-
than one hundred retail storessell Disney-relatedproducts.
Almost as an afterthought, it has a part interest in Bass oil lxrtualnig/ntmarefor media industries and their advertisers.
( )onsequently,promisesof adlesscommercialtelevision and
and gasproduction.
urble programs have a short haH-life: once adlesscable pro-
Like all other dominant media corporations, Disney
grums have accumulated a large enough audience, grateful
takes on cartel-Iike character through twenty-six joint ven-
lirr the absenceof commercial intermptions, the program
tures with other corporations, most of them media compa-
(fwners seemunable to resist selling their audiencesto eager
nies that constitute Disney'smain.tompetitors.,, Someofthe
rurlvertisers.
joint ventures are with General Electric (whose NBC com_
Furthermore, Murdoch realnedhe could use DirecTV
petes head to head with ABC, Hearst, ESPN, Comcast.and
lo put himself on both sides of bargaining tables. He is a
LibertyMedia).
l ough and patient negotiator and can use earlier acquisitions
By late zoo3, Eisner's leadership of the Disney empire
ol'his cluster of Fox sports channels plus DirecTV to get
was seriously threatened. Disney stock was faling in value
lris ownprice for carrying schedulesofbig sports teams and
and Roy Disney, nephew ofWalt Disney and vice chairman
alxrcialevents. Other network outlets, like Disney's ESPN,
ofthe board, resigned along with another board member. He
l,lSPNz, and ESPNRegional (someheld jointly with Hearst)
issued a highly publicized demand that Eisner resign aswell.
rrrrryhave to deal with DirecTV as will cable companies

36
37
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY THE BIG FIVE

for householdsdesiring Fox-originated sports. Professional Vallnrn(again, a parallel with the transformation of young
teams use broadcast rights as a major source of their income, rrx'hrlist Hearst, who soon became the adult reactionary
but Murdoch can make them sell him their broadcast rights Hpurst).
for less becausehis acquisitions have firrther reduced the M urdoch became iln unrelenting builder of international
number ofbidders. nrerlin empires. He left his Australian papers for England,
In bargaining between owners of sports teams selling wlrtrrc he soon owned two of Great Britain's largest papers,
broadcast rights and the broadcasters bidding for them, nn nliernoon sleazy tabloid and a Sunday paper full of
Murdoch found a way to be both buyer and seller. Like other overllowing female bodies and sensationalgossip.
media companies,he wanted broadcast tightr for popular Wanting direct political power beyond his sensationalist
sports events.Sohe bought the teams.At one time he owned Hrorroymakers, he moved to acquire two more newspapers
the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Knicks, and part in- thal happened to be among the world's most influential,
terest in four others, plus Fox Sports Radio Network. Gene lhe SundayTimesand the (daily) Times.Becausehe already
Kimmelman of Consumers Union said, "Hold on to your herl ucquired two national newspaperswith circulations in
wallets. Prices will go through the roof." The rising prices the rnillions, his acquisition of the Sunday and daily Times
will, of course,result in higher payments by the public. was lirrbidden by England's Monopoly Commission.But he
Those who possessthat kind of power seldom permit it elrtrrinedstock pending official approval and used his media
to remain idle. The massmedia, especiallythe news media, to lurIp ConservativecandidateMargaret Thatcher win elec-
have used their power to obtain special governmental fa- tlott rrsprime minister. With Thatcher's cooperation, Mur-
vors for themselvesand their properties. Rupert Murdoch, drx'lr broke the Minority Commission rules and acquired
brazen in his methods, makes clear what other major media 'I'imes
ltoth newspapers.16TheEconomistmagazinereported
owners achieve by more conventional methods, like cam- thal Murdoch s British holdings in zooo had $z.r billion in
paign contributions and lobbying in Washington. ptrrlits, but by creative bookkeeping and political influence
Brazen or not, two impulses seem to drive Murdochs he rlid not pay a shilling in British taxes. This would not be
businesslife-the accumulation of as much media power as thn lirst time Murdoch would use his media power to evade
possible and the use of that power to promote his deep- lawrl rrnd regulations that might interfere with his acquiring
seatedconservativepolitics. rtlll inore media power.
Born Keith Rupert Murdoch in r93r, he soon dropped the ll'Murdoch wants something su-frciently valuable, he
Keith and, at the age of twenty-three, was given control of a rlannlomentarily suspendhis personalpolitics. When China
faltering paper in Adelaide, a tiny part of his father's Aus- rllnrrpprovedof Murdochs satellite news carrying British
tralian news empire (an echo of the original William Ran- Htrlrt|castingCompany(BBC)items critical of Communist
dolph Hearst, whose rich father gave him a present of his ( lhirrt, he immediately dropped the BBC from his Asian
first paper, the San FranciscoExaminer). At Oxford, Mur- ralr'llile programs.When he decidedto establisha U.S.em-
doch had been a wild Ma"r:rist, nicknamed "Red Rupert," a lrlrt,, he bought the once-liberal tabloid, the New York Post,
youthful fling with leftism that settled into ultraconser- nrrrl with the support of New Yorks Democratic mayor

3B 39
THE NEIM MEDIA MONOPOLY
THE BIG FIVE

(whom he had wooed with pleasing stories in the Posf),he werr ulsoMurdoch s)ledthe rg94 RepublicansweepofCon-
gained approval. When he decided to create his own U.S. grens,he was consideredthe most powerfi;l politician in the
radio and television network, Fox, he was confronted by Urritud States. Murdoch, through his wholly owned book
an American law no broadcaster had ever circumvented, huusc, HarperCollins, offered Gingrich g4.5 million for an
though many had tried. The law requires that no foreign Fr -,yot-unwritten book.17
entrty may own more than 24.g percent of a U.S. radio or Murdoch now has the Fox television network, the most
television station. Murdoch changed his citizenship from vlolunt and conservativein U.S.broadcasting.Beyond that,
Australian to United States,but that gesturewas not enough. he lrrrscreateda vast global network of properties and com-
He still tailed to comply with the broadcast law that requires plex media partnerships. As he ages,he remains in com-
the broadcaster'sparent corporation to be basedwithin the Farrd of the huge operations. His two sons could inherit
United States. learlcrship if they can avoid ruinous sibling rivalries that
Murdoch refused to move the companybecausehe had hevoalllicted other media empires whose children, Iike King
specialtax advantagesin Australia. fnstead,he usedhis new t eur's, quarreled over their inheritance with disastrous
American power base of four newspapers and two maga- feFults.18
zines as levers for his legendarypolitical behind-the-scenes Murdoch s empire is one to whet the appetite of a pos-
navigating to obtain special favors. It was a shock to other rlbkr heir. In book publishing alone, the parent firm, News
foreign firms, which had attempted but never succeededin flrrrporation, owns HarperCollins Publishers,with twenty-
entering U.S.broadcasting,when Murdochwas granted the rh imprints that include HarperCollins (once Harper and
first waiver of that United States-only ownership law that Row), William Morrow, and Avon, vrith $l billion annual
had ever been granted. It still has never been granted to any- rFvonues.19
one else. In due course,one station at a time, small group by small
Still dedicated to his right-wing politics but willing to grr)up,Murdoch s Fox Network has emerged as the fourth
make tempo ary suspensionsfor corporate advantages,in TV network, joining what had been the old-line triumvirate
r98o he applied for a taxpayer-subsidized loan from the of A l lC, CB S,and NBC. Fox has twenty-three wholly owned
Bport-Import Bank of the United States.The bank staff or rrlliliated network stations in the United States; is the
rejected the application. Murdoch had lunch in the White prllne broadcaster of sports, with twenty difierent sports-
House with PresidentJimmy Carter, a Democrat, and with lrr xrdcastingfranchises aror;nd the country; and has a repu-
the president of the Export-Import Bank. Two days later telion for the network with the most violent shows on TV, a
Murdoch s New York Posf endorsed Carter in a bitterly rtrlxrr:lativethat in U.S.television requires a truly prodigious
fought New York presidential primary. Six days later the lilrw of blood on the screen.
Export-Import Bankgave Murdochhis loanfor $z9o million 'l'he
man famous forthe most open display of supporting
for his airline, a loan underwritten by American taxpayers rrlrlv f'ar-right commentators, many of them shouters of in-
for a foreign airline. rt tII s about broadcastersconsideredinsuft ciently conserva-
After Newt Gingrich (whose ultraconservative politics tlve, seemsto have a certain lack of seH-awareness.When

4o 4r
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
THE BIG FIVE

satirical author Al Franken issued a book called ,Lies, and the Zpalrrnrlnewspaper chain. He is the largest broadcaster in
Lying Liars Who TeIl Them:A Fair and BalancedLook at the Arla, with forty channelsin eight languages,covering fifty-
Rigftt,lawyers for Murdochfiled alawsuit claimingthe theft thl'nt,rrruntries.
of a trademark, namely, the title of Murdoch's news cover- llis partnerships include major competitors in the
age, "Fair and Balanced," which an outside observer might Urrltcrl States,such as General Electric (NBC) and para-
consider cleverly self-satirical except that Murdoch uses it lllounl (Viacom).
in dead, literal earnest. His lawyers told the court that Mr. M r. Murdoch is a man of many parts. He still publishes
Franken s book would "blur and tarnish' Murdoch s news.Z0 the srrx-and-sensationNews of the World, which has the
larg,'stcirculation in the United Kingdom, and, as noted by
Bibles,Bottomsand Bosoms RtrrlrrndAlma Holmgren inOutrageousFortune,zzMurdoch
hcElxrencalled "buccaneer,fcoon, octopus,gamblea union
With Murdoch s acquisition of DirecTV, the number of tele- Iriont'ge,and pirate." But he is also the owner of Vondervan,
vision and data channelshe owns runs into the hundreds. the rrrmpany that publishes the largest number of commer-
He has thirty cable and satellite properties, including a elall.yprinted Bibles in America. One wonders whether
haH-interest in the National Geographic cable channel, lrrrrrrwhere a publishing deity grants Murdoch absolution
in which he shares ownership with not only National Geo- hccrrrrsehis "bottoms-and-breasts"News of theWorlilhas 4
graphic but also his broadcast 'tompetitor," General Elec- tillllion circulation, but his Vondervan sells Tmillion Bibles
tric, which owns NBC. Outside the United States,Murdoch 6 yt,rrr.23
owns twenty-eight broadcast channels in the United King-
dom, eight of them shared ownership with Paramount,
Nickelodeon, and other British broadcasters.He owns two Viucom
services in Germany, sixteen inAustralia, one in Canada, six
in Infia, a minority stake in an Italian station, two in Indo- Wlurl is now the fourth largest media conglomerate in the
nesia, two inJapan, and eight in Latin America. torrrrlrybeganin the backroom of ahousein Chicago,where
Murdoch owns eiglrt magazinesin the United States,one lerrrily members of a Russian immigrant spent their days
of which is a conservative weekly edited by Wiliam Kristol rolling cigars. An uncle took each day's production to find
and is the political primer for George W. Bush s White urrokeshopsthat would sell them. The businessprospered,
House policymakers.2l nrrrlSam Paley, the cigar maker, opened first a small plant
Motion pictures are also in the collection of the News ntrrI t hen a dozenfactories;finally he created a pize brand,
Corporation, with eight subsidiaries, including Twentieth I,u l)alina, as in "Paley'' Sam took his young son, WilIiam,
Century Fox. The total empire includes media in North and |lr|o Ihe businessand sent him to the University of Chicago
South America, Asia, and Austra-Iia. Murdoch owns thirty- nrrr| | he Wharton Schoolof Business,by which time the fam-
one newspapersin Australia, three in Fiji-one in English, llv lrad moved to Philadelphia. Today'sgiant, Viacom, might
one in Fijian, and one in Hindi-and ahalf-interest in a New tro| cxist ifyoung Wiliam had not taken advantageof a wild

42
43
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY THE BIG FIVE

idea when he was left in charge while the rest of the family wer spread and America's role expanded, so did CBS re-
took a European vacation. He spent fifty dollars a week of porling, and soon the tall, Iean man from North Carolina,
companymoney to buy air time to put on what he called "The Erlwnrd R. Murrow, had gathered around him the reporters
La Palina Hour" (it ran only thirty minutes). eellnd "Murrow's Boys." For decadesthereafter, they were
A family friend bought a group of scattered rafio stations thtr voicesof CBS News-voices like those of Walter Cron-
that he called the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), klte, Howard K. Smith, Charles Collingwood, Marvin KaIb,
though they were separate operations and not a system or cnd Charles Kuralt. Murrow's producer was a man born
network. In any case,they were dwarfed by the giant NBC. Ferdinand Friendly Wachheimer in Providence, R.L A lo-
Soon, the CBS stations approached bankruptcy. purely out cel l)rovidence station hired him, and the first day his boss
of friendship, Sam Paley bought out his debt{oaded friend cnnounced bluntly, "From now on your name is 'Fred
and, as much to be rid of a friendly burden as anything else, friendly."'
'fhe
turned the stations over to his son WilIiam. Sam told a Murrow-Friendly team lasted until Murrow, whose
friend, "I just bought the Columbia Broadcasting Systemfor ehnin-smokingwas almost his trademark, died of cancer in
my son. I paid a quarter of a million for it." Sam added that lft{JF.25
he doubted that it would amolmt to much. l.br fifty years CBS was the gold standard of American
CBS had no afiliates like those of NBC, which were re- rarlio and television news. It had the best documentary unit
quired to take some programs from network headquarters End the best news sta-ffin American radio and television.
on condition that they paid NBC, gave some time from their When something big happened in the world, sophisticated
local schedules,and let NBC keep the money from its com- Americans turned to CBS because when they suddenly
mercials.A real network was the only way the scatteredCBS hertrd,"We intermpt this program . . ." they knew that, if it
stations could hope to become a real systemwith a chance wns truly important, CBS would put it on the air at once and
to compete with NBC. But CBS afrliates werent willing to tftr it with trusted reporters. (CNN's twenty-fourhour news
sacrifice any of their own moneymaking time for an un- wus not createduntil r98o by Ted Turner.)
proven upstart. So William told his distant stations that he If the rggos was the decade of the dot.com boom and
would produce shows himseHand, unlike NBC, let the a.ffi_li- llrst, the r98os was the decade of the hostile takeover. In-
ates have them free of charge if they would give him spots vcstors looking for a killing would watch balance sheetsof
during their schedule for a few of his CBS-made programs hig corporations to see if they were putting some of their
and commercials.CBS thus becamea real network.2a rrlmfortable profits into more quality, giving some to share-
With the start of World War II in Europe, CBS knew it holders, and putting some into reserves for a rainy day.
needed correspondentsin what was becoming the Battle of Spotting that kind of prudent financial management, the
Britain against German air bombardments. In London. a Inlceoverspecialistswould begin buying blocks of stock,thus
tall, lean man from North Carolina was assignedto the job. rrrisingprofits to push share prices even higher. This would
For American listeners, his deep, resonant voice becamea nntice shareholdersto sell their stock while prices were ris-
linkto the sound of Germanbombs fallingin London. As the lng. Then, at the right moment, the hostile takeover opera-

44 45
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
THE BIG FIVE

tor would sell it a]l offto make instant miilions and billions.
wrrrker. Starting as a smalltime worker in an ad agency,Kar-
Often, these operators left behind weakened or wrecked
rrrrrzinworked with demonic zeal selling ads and becamea
companies.
plxrnomenon.He took a job at the new Infinity station group
In 1986,CBS knew it was a target. General Electric had
orr condition that he get r percent of ownership, $rz5,ooo
just paid $g6 billion for RCA with its subsidiary NBC.26
atrrrtingsalary,and a red Mercedes.After NBC fired "shock
CBS feared a similar fate and, like some other traditional jor:k" Howard Stern and raunchy talk radio star Don Imus,
corporations facing hostile takeovers, they looked for a
Klrmazin hired them for CBS on condition that their broad-
"white knight," a sympathetic firm they could trust
to buy crrstrants would never mention the name Mel Karmazin.
enough controlling stock to rebuffthe marauders. The paleys
llis old boss, John Kluge of Metromedia, says that Kar-
believed they had found one in Lawrence Tisch, whose
tnruin's stakein CBS is worth g4oo million, but in his ambi-
Leow's Investment Company owned billions in Manhattan
lious and frogrl way (exceptfor the red Mercedes)"he acts
real estate. Tisch agreed to be the white knight who would
likc it's $4o,ooo."
saveCBS. In 1998,"White Knight" Tisch sold CBS to West_
Redstoneand Karmazin maybe an odd couple,but after
inghouse,which beganselling off CBS subsidiariesfor fabu-
l period of public battle over the negotiations,they renewed
lous profits; Sony,for example,paid Tisch $z billion for CBS
thc partnership in zoo3, making peace only in a subtly
Music Group alone.2TIn 1999,Viacom, headed by Sumner
worded pressrelease.Together,feuding or not, they rule one
Redstone,who had becomerich as the head of a film distri-
ol'the largest media conglomeratesin the world.
bution firm, bought CBS for $5o billion. The CBS network
came with its boss, Mel Karmazin. Three years earlier Kar_
mazin had sold his radio group, Infinity Broadcasting, to
llertelsmannand Its Ghost
WestinghouseElectric.2sKarmazin had hoped to buy CBS
himself. It was inevitable that Karmazin, with a tough and
ll'one drives southwest from Hanover, Germany, and is
hard-driving personality, and Redstone would clash. Red-
r:rrrefulto remain on Berliner Strassefor about rz5 kilome-
stone won by conceding that Karmazin would have a three_
lrrrs, one will come to Gutersloh, a pleasant town of sculp-
year contract, to 2oo3, and that whenever Redstone,then
Irrred tulip gardens, high-spired churches, and tree-lined
eighty years old, ceasedto be CEO, Karmazin would get the
sl reams and lakes. It is a town of thirfy-six thousand that lists
job.zs
rrsan honorary citizen,among others, Reinhard Mohn. This
The two sparring leaders ofthe fourth largest mefia con_
is the ancestral home of the Mohn family, who happen to
glomerate in the country and one ofthe two hundred largest
own the privately owned firm of BertelsmannA.G., the ffih
in the world are an odd couple:Redstone,a New Englander,
lrrrgestmedia corporation in the United Statesand, among
Boston Latin, Harvard'44, Harvard Law School'47, and,a
oIher things, the largestprinter of English-languagebooks in
familiar among high federal court judges, the Masons and
the world. Yet,Gutersloh is so obscurethat it isn't evenmen-
the Harvard Club; Kartnazin, born in a Long Island City
lioned in American travel guide books on Germany,includ-
housing project, his father a cab driver, his mother a factorv
ing the ones Bertelsmann owns, Fodor's Travel Guides.

46
47
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
THE BIG FIVE

The picturesque town gives little hint that Bertelsmann snti-Nazism." Postwar records seemed to confirm this be-
is one ofthe world's largestbroadcasters,maga"inepublish- cruusein 1944there was a temporary closure of the Bertels-
ers, and record companies,as well as a massivebook pub- ntunn plant in Gutersloh. But as postwar German archives
Iishing business. Like the other members of the Big Five that lx.'cameavailable, German sociologist Hersch Fischler dis-
dominate the American media world, Bertelsmann s Iist of urvered that, during the war, Bertelsmann had, in fact, been
media companies is lengthy. It requires nine typed pages. lhe largest publisher under Hitler. Among its r9 million
Thirty percent of its holdings are in the United States,bring- books,ithadlarge contractsfromthe Nazi PropagandaMin-
ing from this sourcealone $63billion annually. Intry,including anti-Semitic tracts supporting Hitler's insis-
Most of Bertelsmann's eighty-two book subsidiaries loncethat Germans neededto take over central and western
were once freestanding, independent publishing houses, l{urope. One book echoed Hitler's propaganda claim. Ber-
some of them household words not so many years ago- telsmann s anti-Semitic tracts were standard literature for
Alfred hopt Pantheon, Random House, Ballantine, Ban- l I itler's Brown Shirts.
tam, Crown, Doubleday, and Modern Library. Its magazine In Germany, as eveqrwhere else, media power is politi-
groupsinclude familiar nameslike FamilyCircle artdparents cul power, so even in postwar anti-Nazi Germany, profes-
(joint ventures).The twenty different record labels issuedby aur Fischler's findings were not printed in any German
Bertelsmann include RCA, RCA Victor, and Windham Hill. newspapers or magazines. They appeared first only in
Like others in the Big Five, Bertelsmann has shared enter- Switzerland and later tnThe Nation in the United States.
prises with its'tompetitors," including a 5o-So ownership liertelsmann apologized and appointed a commission of four
with Disney of a German TV operation, Super RTL.sO historians to study the entire wartime history of the com-
With all its power, Bertelsmann is haunted by a ghost. puny.As it had said, the company did stop publishing during
Of dl the new coryorations that dominate the American the war but not becauseof its alleged anti-Nazism. The de-
scene,none can trace unintermpted lineage as far back as lcriorating Nazi regime had simply run out of paper. pre-
Bertelsmann. In 1835,Carl Bertelsmann set up a print shop eumably,by now the Nazi-era ghost has been exorcized, and
in Gutersloh to publish Lutheran hymn books. The company the Bertelsmann empire continuesto expand.3l
printed German-language editions of Lord Byron and the In late zoo3, Bertelsmann experienced the Lear-hke
fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. By the early rgoos, the rluestion of family-run empires that was also true when Ru-
company was a major publishing house with growing inter-
1rcrtMurdoch was forced to decide which of two sonswould
national subsidiaries. nomedaybecome the new leader. In the caseof Bertelsmann,
With the advent of Hitler and Nazism in the r93os and the leader was Reinhard Mohn, at eighty-six, an age that
the aftermath horrors of the Holocaust in World War II, inevitably creates a senseof urgency over succession.His
questions were asked how the company had emerged from rnuchyounger wife, Elisabeth, sixty-six, is head of the trust
the war ready to resume its growth around the world. To lhat controls a majority of Bertelsmann stock and sits on the
queries hke "What did you do under Hitler?" the Bertels- lirur-member committee within the board of directors that
mann official ztr1swerwas, in effect, "We su-ffered for our solectstop executives.Someboardmembers and executives

48
49
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY THE BIG FIVE

have been restive over Mrs. Mohn's increasingpower in re- eprlxrintto do their duty to stockholders.In actuality, some-
placing three executives and her appointing two of her three llrirrg else usually exists. It is not unusual for strong execu-
sons to operating fufluence within the giant firm. The Ger- tlvcs to select the directors who are supposed to monitor
man magazine Der Spiegelquoted one unhappy Bertelsmann tltern, which guarantees sympathy and permissiveness.In
executive as fearing "a matriarchal dynasty;'az Iuosl cases,the directors are identical as a class:they are,
Thoug;lnunrelated to family members, the chieftains of tltomselves,top executivesof other large firms and conform
the other three of the Big Five had their own leadership tu the culture typical of men and women who run large
stresses.Case and Levin were unseated at Time Warner; ntirllinational corporations. Someare top men and women
Eisner was in trouble at Disney; and Redstone and Kar- firrrn the largest banks, directors who can facilitate credit
mazin eyed each other warily on successionto the Viacom cnrl money for benefit ofboth their borrowing firm and their
throne. Despite skirmishesover top leadership,the Big Five lerrrlingbank.
media conglomerates possesssuch commanding size and 'fhough
the Big Five are multinational corporations with
power in the marketplace that boardroom rivalries leave un- eotnplexfinancial and operational structures, family mem-
touched their corporate domination of the country's mass lx'rs of each firm's president sit on the board. Or the di-
media. Rivalries for top titles are merely part of personal in- rRr:lorsare friends who are also corporate executives.In a
trigues typical ofall hierarchies, described by Shakespeare, tttrrrginal public relations gesture, from time to time the
"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."33 horrrdincludes someonewhose name is associatedwith a
1xrpularly known philanthropy.
It is illegal to have directors who interlock directorates
wilh competing firms, but most board members have such
As mentioned earlier, there might have been a sixth giant complexinterrelations that the law is seldom applied.
firm, Vivendi, of France, if its leader, Jean-Marie Messier, The News Corporation is headed by Rupert Murdoch,
had not been too eagerto join the club.3a wfro became a U.S. citizen because he wanted to build a
lrroadcast network and his American citizenship might
lirrcssethe law that no foreign entrty may own more than
Directors without Direction 'J4.9percent of a U.S.broadcastlicense.It was a transparent
li ncssebecausehe kept his parent firm basedin Australia for
The dominant media conglomerates are theoretically led trrxpurposes.His board members include eleven interlock-
by boards of directors who select the executives who run lrrg directors, though ostensibly not in competitive firms.
their enterprises. The theory in capitalist history and U.S. 'l'hey
include directors of British Airways, Compaq Com-
corporate law is that the boards are solely obligated to the IrrI[ers, Rothschild Investment Trust, a media company,and
stockholders of their company, who are owners of the firm. YrrnkeeNets,a professional hockey team. Murdoch family
Stockholdersby law elect the board of directors, who theo- rrrcmberssit on the News Corporation board: Rupert is
retically use their expertise to overseethe executivesthey clririrman and chief executive, son Lachlan is deputy chief

5o 5r
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY THE BIG FIVE

operating officer, and his younger brother, James,is chair- llombardier, GlaxoSmithKline, Petrofina, Princeton Re-
man and CEO of the firm's major subsidiary, BskyB.ae view; Random House Mondadori, BMW and Hapag-Lloyd.
Disney's board is heavy with executivesfrom familiar big A separate supervisory board includes Reinhard Mohn,
firms, and the ' public" member is the internationally known, chairman emeritus of the firm; Gerd Schulte-Hillen, chair-
former U.S. senator George Mitchell (who has six other big man; Rolf-E Breuer, chairman of Deutsche Bank; Liz Mohn,
firm directorships). It also includes three officers of the com- unother family member; and an officer from IBM, plus
pany, chairman and CEO Michael Eisner, president and others.se
chief operating officer Robert Iger, and vice chairman Roy It became clear during the boom, bust, and thievery by
Disney. Other directors include those from Boeing, City high officers during the r99os and the early twenty-first
National Bank, Hospital Corporation of American (Colum- centuqr that boards of directors of some of the largest cor-
bia/HCA Healthcare Co.p.), Edison International, two from porations in the United Stateshad little knowledge of or
FedEx, Northwest Airlines, Sotheby,s, Starwood Hotels, influence over their top executives.A high degree ofincu-
Sun Microsystems,Xerox, and the media firm yahoo. Ten of riosity and indifference permitted officers to make basic
the sixteen directors have interlocks.Bo decisionswithout discussionor even notification of their di-
Viacom's sixteen board members are from Avon prod- rectors. Balance sheets with unorthodox, illegal, or even
ucts, ChewonTexaco,Coca-Cola,Federal Reserve Bank of nonexistentcategories of assetsand liabilities not only led to
NewYork, GrupoTelevision, Home Depot, Kellogg, Iftright- t he Enron type of illegalities and total breakdown but also il-
Riddernews company,Marriott, Newyork StockExchange, luminated the distance so many boards of directors kept
Ogilvy & Mather, TIAA-CREF, and Sun Microsystems lrom what should have been their responsibilities. As a
(whose director also sits on the Disney board). Also among result, new regulations called for directors to sign offper-
the directors are members of the family: Sumner Redstone, sonally on public financial reports of the firms, causing dis-
chairman and CEO; Brent Redstone;and Shari Redstone.B7 lnay in more than one board member who had little real
Time Warner includes former philip Morris CEO knowledge of what he or she was supposedto 'direct" and
Michael Miles, who holds seven other directorships, and "approve."
American Express, Cendant, ChewonTexaco, Citigroup, It is ironic that some of the greatest American corpora-
Dell Computer, Estee Lauder Companies, Fannie Mae, lions seem periodically to confi.rm the unhappy insight of
FedEx, HiltonHotels, Morgan Stanley,pearsonplc (amajor Karl Manr that, left to its own devices, capitalism held
media firm), PepsiCola,and Sun Microsystems.Bs within it the seedsof its own destruction.ao
Bertelsmannhas a variety of boards and members,some More immediately, the epidemic of greed and fraud grew
honora4y and titled, others members of the Mohn owning out of the new doctrine of "the free market," which was taken
family and the Bertelsmann Foundation. Directors who sit rrsfreedom from all responsibility, a misreading of a truly
on boards offirms familiar to Americans are those sitting on l'ree market, in which firms with suftcient size and inde-
directorships of Mobilcom, Ernst &young, Deutsche Bank,
lxrndencecan truly competeamong themselves.
Lufthansa, Siemens,the newspaper NeueZijricher Zeitung, There has been a high human cost to the failure of rigor-

52 53
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY

ous governmental oversight and antitrust suits in casesof WhuthathGodwrougftt?

market domination bymajor corporations withlinks to each BAMUEL F. B. MoRSE onhis
other. By the turn of the twenty-first centuqr, hundreds of hrvcntion of telegraphy
thousands of employees had lost their jobs and pensions,
and ordinary stockholdershad been shockedby the sudden
lossesof large corporations whose executivesoperated fast
and loose without independent, informed, and responsible (;HAPTERTHREE
boards ofdirectors.
Beyond that, there is a basic lack of logic in a free market
without serious governnental regulation. Every business in
the world, whether it is a corner mom-andpop candy store
THE
INTERNET
or a multinational conglomerate, is eager to dominate its
market. The mom-and?op store wants more of the commu- Millions of computer users around the world may feel
nity candy business than the store a block away. The global nrnpathy-or even mean satisfaction-to learn that the first
coryoration, like the small corner store, wants the biggest rccorded victims of a computer crash on October zo, 1969,
available market share. Unfortunately, the perfect market wcre two of the most sophisticatedcomputer people in the
share that all so eagerly aim for is roo percent, which is a mo- world. A small group of the scientists at the University of
nopoly. That is why the not-so-hidden meaning behind the ( hlifornia at Los Angeles (UCLA) were excitedly trying a
slogan "get government off our backs" eventually is ..let us ttovel notion with a novel machine. They were attempting to
have either a monopoly or cooperative arrangements with a gct their computer to talk to another computer three hun-
small number of our companiesin the samebusiness.,, rfred miles away, atlhe Stanford ResearchInstitute in Palo
Adam Smith, the Scottish philosopher-prophet of capi- Alto, California.
talism so often cited asjustification for monopolists, said his "We had a guy sitting at the computer console at UCLA
brilliant idea of capitalism instead of feudalism would fail wearing a telephone headset and a microphone, talking to
ifthere were monopolies. He also wrote, in his historic trea- rrnotherguy at Stanford," Frofessor Leonard Kleinrock told
tise An Inquiry into the Nature and Causesof the Wealth of rrn interviewer from the Toronto Star."When everything was
Nations,that he did not trust businessmen.4For whatever sct up he was going to type the 'L-O-G' and the Stanford
significanceone wishes to invest in the coincidence, Smith computer would automatically add 'IN' to complete the
published his book in1776, a date of more than minor sig- word, 'LOGIN.' Soour guy typed the 'Li and askedhis coun-
nificance in the history of the United States. Iurpart at Stanford, 'Did you get the 'L?' Then they fid the
sumething for'O'and the whole systemcrashed."l
Today millions of computers crash periodically, usually
with more provocation than someone typing the letter "O."
llut in 1969,most people did not know the meaning of 'tom-

54
55
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY rHE INTERNET

puter crash." First, they would have to be told that there is l,irw newspapersofnormal size,for example,lack a web site
an electronic machine called the computer that creates and with briefs of their most important or popular stories. In
transmits words, images,music, and data and from time to H()rnecases,with a subscription one can receive not only In-
time, this experimental device has a nervous breakdown. It Irrrnetcopiesofthe newspaper'sentire printed storybut ad-
goes into a catatonic fit, becoming motionless and sullenly rlitional information on the same subject beyond what was
unresponsive,making no sounds.The only symptom is the lrrinted.
too-familiar image of a nonfunctioning hourglass or arrow Magazines have their Internet versions in the form of
meaning, "f'm in a coma." "zi nes." Magazine-like articles and advertisements appear
The Internet remains ambiguous as a "mass,,medium on their own web sites. Books appear in digital form, which
becauseof its multiple functions and individualistic usage. Irrrsraised questions about the future viability of centrally
On one hand, it does not fit the usual definition of a mass produced books printed on paper, as we have known them
medium becauseit has no centra)nedcontrol deciding what lirr centuries.
shall be disseminated to the general public. On the other Consequently,the history and subsequentemergenceof
hand, it is a medium that has demonstrated its mass effects llru computer into the modern media sceneis as significant
in news, in general information, and in its growing impact on rrsthe invention ofhigh-speedpresseswas to the history and
a large portion ofthe population. socialeffectsof newspapersand magazines.
The Internet is important in this book becauseit has had Professor Kleinrock's experience with computer-to-
a significant influence on the traditional massmedia. Samuel computer communication, despite its crash, was infinitely
Morse's telegraph shrank geographyas a factor in commu- rrroresophisticatedthan the original computer at the Univer
nications. For all practical purposes, when he sent his his- sity of Pennsylvaniainrg44. That was an electronic monster
toric messageby an actual wire to Congressto demonstrate crrlled Eniac (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Com-
the invention, Baltimore and Washington might have been grrrter)that weighed thirty tons, was the size of a modest
as closeas two people talking on the sidewalk. Among other Irouse, contained nineteen thousand vacuum tubes, and,
things, the telegraph also changed the nature of news and when it was finally working, could multiply g by g.2
newspapers.The Internet holds still greater capacities for It all began in 1939,when it became clear that there
shrinking not only distance in the communication of mes- would be war in Europe. President Franklin Roosevelt real-
sages,but it has also eliminated the wire connection. thus izcd that if Britain and France fell, Hitler planned to isolate
spreading instant transmission to all parts of the world. It lhc United States.He also knew that the United States,its
has made available an almost unimaginable mass of the rnilitary still traumatizedby the carnage of World War I's
world's information. Like the telegraph, it has changed the hrndbattles and by the Great Depression,had only skeletal
operations of all the mass media and in addition has in- rnilitary technology to face the formidable, advanced Nazi
vented original forms of news and other media. rrir force and its state-oFthe-art land weapons. Roosevelt,
The Internet has already become both a competitor lirced with a strong antiwar movement at home, was pri-
against the printed news industry and also an adjunct to it. vately convinced that a European-Asian general war would

56 57
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
THE INTERNET

inevitably involve the United states. He took euphemistic

rrrleratedthe rate of social changearound the globe, and in-
measureslike aid "to our British cousins,,'and at home. he
l nrduced a new political battleground over a range ofissues
initiated what was then arcane technology of no interest to
lium obscenityto copyright law.
the general public.
Withinthirty-twoyears, inthe United Statesalone,zmil-
lion more people a month would be using the Internet for the
lirst time, and more than 9o percent of children between the
rrgesof five and seventeenwould already use computers at
home or in school. By zoo3, more than 16omillion Ameri-
(:answere using the Internet. The advancewas so rapid that
enemy high-tech weaponry could wipe out the American
young people have grown up with almost instinctual famil-
cannon and aircraft. The need was for calculatingmachines
iarity with the machine and its complex programs, while
that would instantly calculateand correct artillery and aer_
many older men and women still take coursesin basic com-
ial bomb trajectories.
puter skills. More than one parent has had to ask an adoles-
The Army commissioned a laboratory at the University
cent child how to solve a computer problem.D
of Pennsylvaniato come up with an electronic method. The
By zoo3, an fnternet shop was established atthe r7,4oo-
I lbot level of Mount Everest, at z5 degreesbelow zero. The
chilled entrepreneurs assumed that the twenty thousand
people a year who get to at least that level of the world,s
tallest mountain would not resist sending an instant e-mail
Eniac'ssuccessorseventually developedbillions of times
announcement of their feat to friends in other parts of the
more speed, and only then could the Internet be created.
world.6
Fifiy years later, the thirty-ton monster at the Universrty of
Pennsylvaniahad becomea popular, hand-held device small
enough to be slipped into a pocket or purse and with a bil_
A Machine with Its Own Language
lion times greater capacityand speed.a
The Internet has its own language and grammar, also as
familiar to millie6 as addressingan envelopeto be sent by
The Internet: Liberator or Big Brother? the post office. Like postal mail, whose zip codes are used
without necessarilyunderstanding mechanismswithin the
In a stunningly short time, the computer,s fnternet has be_
zip code system, the Internet has exotic addresses with
comeamovingforce thathas transformedthe world ofcom_
terms used every day by people who neither know nor
m'nications and the massmedia. It has raised conflicts with
care to know their literal meanings. Computer users see
existing laws, createdtegal struggleswith the media ohgop_
"http://www," for example, read it or t5pe it without concern
oly, becomean instrument for mobilizing massprotests, ac_
for its literal meaning. The beginning, "http,', is ..HyperText

5B
59
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY THE INTERNET

Markup Language" that permits displays of material possi- slreet and city addresses and phone numbers, more fre-
bly related or relevant to the precise item for which the user rlucntly now show only their Internet dot.com address.
asked, while "www" is "World Wide Web," which extends Like Gutenberg'smovable type and printing, the Inter-
any computer to any other computer in the world. A com- ttct has introduced social and legal complications. It has al-
mon part of an e-mail address is "dot.com," the 'tornl' in- Iured many parent-child patterns. Parents who think their
dicating an address for a business or coryoration. Other children are playing computer games may ask, 'Are you
common addressterms are 'dot.gor/'for governmentalunits rIoing your homework?" and the child may turn to the home-
and'dot.edu" for collegesand universities.T work-using the same computer. The traditional "separa-
Like the systemitse[ the growth of Internet and com- lion" that late adolescentsnormally experienceasthey enter
puter languageshas been phenomenal, and many Internet curly adulthood in distant colleges is altered, typically by
citations are used in this book and its notes. In zoo3, one rluily or weekly'thats" with parents by way of portable lap-
Internet publisher claimed a 33,ooo-word glossa4'.By that Iop computers that maintain the earlier household parent-
year, there were already35o dictionaries of computer terms r:hild familiarity.lo
published in the United States.s During the growth of the economy and of computer use
World use of the Internet for e-mail is now a major com- in the r99os,the "dot-com boom," it becamepossibleto play
petitor with governmental postal systems,including in the lhe stock market by home computer. There was always
United States.The first postal service in the country was n stock market open somewhere in the world. Thousands
started one hundred years before there was an independent olinewcomers to the stock market spent days or nights in
United States.Althoughthe U.S.Post Office continuestobe rrtrading. As in any casino, some made fortunes and most
an effectiveand massivesystem,since the computer and In- went broke when they discovered that stocks do not end-
ternet e-mail entered the scene,the historic servicehasbeen lcsslyand universally rise in value.
given the humiliating Internet term snail mail. FromrgSo, Nevertheless, in 2oo3, a Pew Foundation study found
before the computer was a common household device, to lhat among family members and close friends of those who
lggo, the postal service enjoyed a 57 percent increase in rrsedthe fnternet, 42percent of adults chose not to. They
pieces of mail handled, but during the rggos, it had slowed preferred handwritten letters or feared the computer's no-
to a z6 percent increase.e lorious seductiveability to make users forget the passageof
As the Internet grew in size and versatility, a wide vari- lime. Thesedeliberate nonusersdid not want to reducetheir
ety of usersgrew in parallel- individuals; commercialfirms; normal face-to-faceactivities.ll (The hours of unnoticed time
advertisers; governments of cities, counties, and states;na- one can spend on the Internet has its own jargon, a time
tional executivesand their clerks; ad agencies;political par- swamp.)
ties; protest movements; and philanthropic organizations. Personal and organizational e-mail grows at a sometimes
The Internet is widely used to play games on the monitor appalling rate, much of it welcomed but much of it un-
screenor to look for possiblematesor dates.Many company wanted. More than one commercial or personal user has
trucks and vans that once carried large numerals of their turned on the Internet to find fifW or one hundred new

6o 6r
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY THE INTERNET

incoming messagesto be answered or quickly canceled licular concernto commercialfirms, whose correspondence
(zapped n computer slang).12 rrnd work often constitute a major part of their enterprise.
Despite the spectacularrise of Internet use, a2oo2}Jar- Many industrial and financial firms routinely encode much
ris PoII on the use of leisure time found that reading headed rl I' their communicaticln.
the list, with z8 percent of those polled. Next came TV Computer hacking has given birth to new categories of
watching, with zo percent. Gallup and Pew polls showed ltws and penalties, especiallyif the hacker stealscredit card
similar results-in the last twenty years reading has re- ttumbers,valuable computer files, or software designs,or if
mained the most common use of leisure time.l3 hc usesthe new knowledge to engagea computer user in a
At the same time, the Pew Internet and American Life lraudulent financial scheme. Penalties for malicious com-
Project reports that nonusersofthe Internet include dispro- puter intrusion range from a $Soo fine to fifteen years in
portionate numbers ofminority, rural, and low-income fam- llrison or, if criminal activity crossesstate lines, a Sz5o,ooo
ilies with members who did not attend college. When the line and ayear in prison for each offense.ls
desire is great enough, many of those without home com- Historic civil liberties have been altered because the
puters go to public libraries, in which computers are now samesecret intrusion can now be accomplishedby govern-
standard fixtures, or to homes of friends who do have com- ment agencies.A major changein privacy occurred after the
puters so they can communicate with fistant sons or daugh- attacks against the United Stateson Septemberrr, 2oor. fn
ters; this was particularly noticeable during the U.S. war in the shock ofthe devastatingcatastrophethat destroyed the
Iraq in 2oo3.14 1wo World Trade Center buildings and part of the Pentagon,
Privacy, a constitutional protection under the Fourth President Bush proposed and Congress acquiescedin the
Amendment, has become more complex with widespread USA Patriot Act, which gave the federal government sweep-
use of computers and the Internet. Every computer in the ing powers to override the Fourth Amendment and, among
world has a unique, usually unseen,identification number. other things, make unzlnnouncedand secret intrusions into
Becausethe computer is sensitive to outside signals, secret private homes and computers without obtaining a warrant
intrusions can implant a destructive "virus" or "worm" with from the normal court system.That was not legal prior to 9/rr
a messageto destroythe computer's contents.Antivirus pro- (national shorthand for the date of the al Qaeda attacks and
grams are a substantial commercial product. its many consequences).The Patriot Act expires in zoo5,but
The intrusion can come from sophisticated individuals, there is no e:piration date for the "sneak and peek" provi-
usually under the age of thirty, variously known as hackers, sions that permit the FBI and CIA to make secret visits to
crackers, sneakers, cyberpunks, and phreaks. They learn homes and offices without informing their owners.16The
how to fiscover computer addressesand decodepasswords new government power is a major contradiction of central
and coded messages.Some do it for the sheer egotistical provisions of the Bill of Rights.
demonstration of computer skill, others out of malice and Private and commercial computers have proliferated as
mischief. Secretelectronic intrusion can also be for theft or free or fee-based.Close to universal in public libraries, they
examination of private correspondence,"break-ins" of par- have become a common device in commercial centers and

6z 63
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
THE INTERNET

computer shopsand are often atwin enterprise with a coffee lheir media products bring in such high revenues that they
caf6. They followed the earlier path of copying centers cre- light the use of home computers to reproduce commercial
ated by the predecessortechnolog' of high-quality, fast copy- nrcordings and other copyrighted digital material. Media
ing machines. It is now cornmon to find a copying machine lirms' copyrighted properties include music in various
as an adjunct to small town's supermarket or drugstore. lirrms, and they have createda continuing battle centeredon
Here, for varying fees, the public can copy printed texts or rnusiccompact disks (CDs). As computer sound improved,
items like illustrated wedding and birth announcements. rugeneration adept at computer skills and devoted to popu-
Despite common placards warning that some copied mate- lar music found itself in the center of legal battles.
rial may be subject to copyright restrictions, quantities of Compact disks represent a substantial commercial en-
privately duplicated documentsare,knowingly ornot, copy- lorprise that some time ago replaced the older phonograph
righted material. Duplicators of copyrighted documents may records(althoughthey are sold in what are still calledrecord
do so legally without paying a fee under an exception. The stores).Phonograph records required banks of expensive
exception, calledfair use,is to use only a brief portion of the materials:recording equipment, studios,and manufacturing
document - typically a paragraph or two - that does not sub- plants.But most personal computersallow the user to insert
stitute for a paid purchase of the whole copyrighted work. inexpensiveblank compact disks that cost a dollar or less,
and record ('download") musical numbers. Commercial
music CDs in the familiar jewel box casescost an averageof
The Ownership of Words seventeendollars and contain the manufacturer's own se-
lection of performers and songs, but a CD can be copied
The Internet has added to the complexities of copyright. f'rom the Internet for $9.99.17
Copyright, historically, was enacted to protect the creators Younger users found that they could select their own
of literature, art, and other personal works and their pub- fbvorite individual musical numbers, often with the best-
lishers. But as creative work has quickly become the prop- known perfonners and the most popular songs,put them all
erty of the dominant media conglomerates,copyright has on one CD of their own. and do it for the cost of the blank
become a public and legislative battle. On one side the media CD. They could also send it by computer to friends. Often
industry has used its considerable political power to gain that informal network is in homes and on campusesacross
unprecedented extension of copyright protection of their the country. In the usual geometric progression,where each
media products. On the other side are scholars, scientists, number is multiplied by the preceding number, as in r3-9-
and civil libertarians who fear "perpetual copyright,', in z7-Br-249... , os one student sent a seH-madeCD recording
which more and more of national and world culture disap- to six friends and each of the six friends sent it to six other
pears from the free public domain and becomes available friends, and so on, it was not long before the number of pri-
only after paying a license or usagefee to one of the domi- vately reproduced CDs could reach a million. One firm,
nant media corporations. Napster, even provided a large collection of popular num-
Media conglomeratescontrol so much information and bers free to computer users. Napster, like most of the free

64 65
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY THE INTERNET

computer services,made its profits from advertisers whose rvr,r'cin 5o million homes. Though downloading an entire
product promotions ran alongside the computer message. rrrolion picture is more complex and far more time consum-
Almost all the copied songswere copyrighted. Irrg (requiring several hours), the Motion Picture Association
The recording industry faced with tracking down and r'hrinrsthat as many as 6o0,000 films are copied a day. The
suing a seeminglyinfinite number ofyoung people, brought rrssrrciation has worked with manufacturers to create devices
suit against Napster and won. Though Napster in its old form | |rrrl will manufacture DVDs that cannot be copied, has sent
disappeared,other firms like KaZaA took its place,and they ng(rntswith night-vision glassesinto theaters to catch indi-
too becameinvolved in industry lawsuits. The record indus- virlrralswith recording equipment in their laps, and plans
try most of them subsidiaries of the Big Five media giants, llrcirterpreviews with noticeswarningthat the movies about
has been resignedto easycopying and reactedby permitting lo lrc shown are copyrighted, with criminal penalties for
downloading legally if one paid a monthly fee or purchased rrrrrruthorized copying. One firm experimentswith DVDs
special computer programs from record companies. The llrrrl will seH-destructafter being used twice. The industry
music industry permits listeners to have accessto a pool of Irrrssucceededin amending laws in some statesto make it a
about r5o,ooo songsonline for nine or ten dollars a month crime to copy cable and TV output.20
and ninety-nine cents per download of one copy on one CD Another action by the largest media corporations has
that can serve no more than two computers and is not sent rrhrrmedscholarlyusersofjournals andbooks.This is a cam-
outside the home or ofice.18 prrignto extend even further the years ofcopyright control.
Illegal recording of copyrighted material is hardly lim-
ited to college students in the United States.It is a world-
wide phenomenon.In Peru, for example,98 percent of CDs
are said to be pirated in this way, the highest rate in the
Spam- Digital Telemarketing
world but indicative of unlicensed copying globally.leSince rrnde-BankRobberv
rgg9, the sales ofrecording firms have dropped 4 percent.
Thesefirms place much of the blame on pirated disks. What Yct another problem created by the rapid penetration of
is offered tourists and pedestrians on city street corners by f lrc Internet has been spam, the unwanted intrusion into
nervous men keeping an eye out for the police are usually pcrsonal computers using e-mail of commercial advertise-
pirated CDs. They are the digital counterparts of cheapim- rrtcnts, some of which have bombastic graphic explosions
itations of highariced branded items, like 'genuine" Gucci rrrrd other eye-catching advertising (named for the brand
handbagsand Rolexwatches soldbythe samekind offurtive rrirmeof a canned spicedham,for which World War II sol-
sidewalk vendors. rliers had a less reverent term). The attraction for advertis-
Pirated CDs have been joined by privately and usually crs is obvious: a captive audience at the lowest price per
secretlymade copiesof motion pictures. Theseinvolve opti- r:irpitaof any medium, five hundred dollars to intrude on a
cal disks, digital (DVD) blank disks, and videocassettes.By rrrillion e-mail messages.Somemembers of Congresshave
zooz, DVD players, quickly superceding vid.eocassettes, rrskedfor legislation that would require spam advertisers to

66 67
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
THE INTERNET

Iist valid e-mail addresses,which would make it easyfor ir-

rrwrrrds).Horses and automobiles,for example,remained in
ritated computer users to demand that their computers be
rrsrrtogetherfor decades.
removed from the spammer'slist. A zoo3 law created a na-
Consequently,Internet and postal spamhave continued
tional do-not-call Iist that forbids commercial telephone tele-
Io cxist together. Mass marketers of printed material select
marketers to call those numbers. The law imposes heavy
zip codescovering neighborhoods shown by censusdata to
dollar penalties for firms that ignore each request to cease
Irrrveafiluent residents,and many homesfind that their daily
their unwanted calls. (Telemarketersfor philanthropic or-
rrrrrildelivery is mostly printed spam-unasked-for cata-
ganizationsand political campaignsare exempted from the
hrguesand supermarketand wholesaleoutlet flyers, many of
newlaw.)
llrcm addressedmerely to "Resident." Like Internet spam-
Nevertheless,by 2oo2,AOL, one ofthe most popular In-
rrrt:rs, printed spammers, whether philanthrop ic orgariza-
ternet serviceproviders, with 35million customers,said that
lions sending continual appeals for funds or commercial
7o percent of its nearly z billion messageswere spam. It is lirms inviting new business,have learned to use misleading
still a low-cost, legal way to reach customers,costing $boo to
onvelopesmarked "URGENT" or "time-sensitive material
$z,ooo dollars to reacha million e-mail recipients,compared
ilrside." Their mass addressing machines frequently use
to a minimum of $z3o,ooo to do it by the post office,sbulk
what appears to be handwritten personal addresses and
mail.21Another popular Internet accessprovider, Earttrlink,
virgue return addresses.Even though most weary house-
had to deal with one illegal spammer who sent gz5 million
lrolders whose mail is more spam than personal messages
e-mails using 343credit cards and bank accounlsths grrlprit
Iravelearned the telltale signs of printed spam and send it
had gained by breaching the usual safeguardsin the sys-
rrnopenedfrom mailbox to wastebasket,enoughgetsopened
tem.22Eventually, after a lengthy and costly investigation,
rrndread-as little as3 or 4 percent-that it is still profitable
the spammerwas caught.
lirr print spzrmmers.
It is a measure of the speed and eftciency of Internet
If Internet spamhas any redeeming social value, it does
communication that it overshadows a printed and mailed
not require denudingthe landscapeofmaterials fromwhich
version of spam-the daily delivery to personal mailboxes
lo makepaper for print spammers.Internet spamis an elec-
by the U.S. Postal Service.
lrclnic pattern on a computer screen and denudes only the
While Internet spam and postal delivery of spam are
patience of the home or office user having to navigate the in-
clearly different in sheernumbers,they both display a meas-
rrndation of electronic junk mail among genuine personal In-
ure ofthe endurance ofa historic pattern oftechnology. A
lcrnet e-mail and information services.
new technology widely adopted by society seldom causes
The magnitude of spam, nevertheless, is massive. Mi-
its older competitor to disappear at once. The usual result
t:rosoft, the largest provider of Internet mail accounts, in
is that both continue for significant periods, sometimes
roo3 brought a series of lawsuits against a known group of
for decadesand even centuries. Books and scrolls were in
spammers who, according to Microsoft, sent e-mail users
simultaneous use for thirteen centuries (scrolls stin exist
rnorethan zo billion e-mail messagesthat were commercial
as honorifi.c documents, like graduation certificates and 's
1rromotions not requestedby the computer user.Microsoft

68
69
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY THE INTERNET

e-mail server is "hotmail," and in its lawsuit Microsoft claims ( lrpyright law is in the U.S.Constitution. "The Congress
that it has r4o million usersof hotmail who receivea total of rlrrrll havePower. . . . Topromote the progressof scienceand
2.5 billion e-mail messagesa day,8o percent of which is Irrr,lirl arts, by securing for limited times to Authorized
spam. Other major Internet e-mail providers say they have Irrvcntors the exclusive Right to their own Writings and
similarproblems with spam.Microsoft and otherfirms ofier | )lsrrlveries."za
filters to weed out spam,but it remains uncertain whether 'l'he
first copyright lasted r4-r4, or fourteen years from
filters can alter the massivespreadingof spam. Sendingout r,rr,rrtionplus one renewal for another fourteenyea-rs.In rgog
spam messagesis so inexpensive per one thousand recipi- llrr, lurm increasedto zB-28.A 1976revision e>rpanded the
ents that, even if most of it is zappedout unread, enoughwill lulvright term to the life of the author plus fifty years. In
pique a receiver'scuriosity to result in profitable sales.With tl4lo it was expanded to include computer software and in
every mailbox, computer e-mail service, or message,the t1111r to include audio and video recordings.The Digital Mil-
odds are that the visitor is a salespitch.23 llrrnium Copytight Act of rg98 was optimistically thought to
Lost in the universal new culture of the Internet is the rolvc any problems created by the digital revolution. It did
fact that the cannedmeat from which the Internet teffn spdm i l r ) 1.
descendedis still alive and angry.The SanFranciscoChron- 'l'he
massivecollection of media material by a few pow-
icle reported on July 3, zoo3,that the Hormel Meat Company rr'lir I conglomeratesin the last thirty years createda historic
had brought suit against a firm selling antispam computer rlrili from the original focus on individual authors and the
software, alleging that it was damaging the reputation of the hrrgenumber ofindependent publishersto the modern drive
meat product that is still sold in markets. lry large national and international media conglomeratesto
prrrLectmasses of material and their billions of revenues
rrntlertheir control for as long as possible.
Mickey MouseMeetsBarbieDoll '['he
most publicized (and lobbied) reopening and ex-
llrldin* of copyright law was the terri$ring prospect for the
Copyriglrt complexities created by computers have extended l)isney Company that the copyright on Mickey Mouse
far beyond collegiansor Peruvians exchangingsong collec- would e:rpire in zoo3. This expiration endangerednot only
tions. Media firms now own most of the money-making I Irc fbrtunes of the movie rodent but profits from salesof mil-
media of all kinds, and copyright law is essential to their lions of T-shirts, toys, and other emblemsof the mouse.This,
large annual revenues. Ordinarily, copyrighted material has with the help of other media coryorate lobbying, led to the
a definite halFlife. When the copyright runs out, the mate- Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act (the full and legal
rial goesinto the public domain, free for use by anyone; if the rrrrmeof the law, named for the late singer and member of
product is sold, the price is not automaticallyhigher because ( )ongress).It extended copyright by twenty years, to the life
a license fee charged by the copyright holder has no longer oI'lhe author or creator plus seventyyears. Thus, control of
been added to the retail price. Thus, copyright is a monop- M ickey Mouse is e><panded to 2o2g,Pluto to 2o2b,Goo$r to
oly for whoever owns the copyright. '.1()29,and Donald Duck to zozg-ninety-five years after the

To 7r
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
THE INTERNET

duck first appeared in a fitm. The new law provides a tertn rprrcrrof cute dolls for little girls, could be a "bimbo.") The
of life of the author plus seventJryears for work for hire and Hr11 rrrrrneCourt rejected the suit, sayingthat satire of a com-
for anonymous works taken over by some entifr to a total of tttrrrrl.yknown object is not violation of copyright.26
t2o years.25 l)cspite the new laws, computer web sites still offer
Symbolic of the new interest in copyright, which once rupvright-dodging computer programs for a price. These
was an arcane corner of law limited to specialists, is the tunyor may not be legal and may or not work, but they typ-
realization that the homely song..Happy Birthday,, is copy. llv thc still-growing place of the computer in the media
righted. The song was written in rg93 by a kindergarten wurkl and the growing conflict between private ownership
teacher in Louisville, KI., as "Good Morning to you', for nrrrluninhibitedpublic access.
greeting the teacher.When Western Union telegraph deliv-
ered telegrams by uniformed young men riding bicycles,
among the messagesthat could be purchased at a premium
rate was "Happy Birthd"y" sungby the bicycle messengerat
the recipient's front door.
The copyright to "Happy Birthday',nowbelongs toTime
Warner, which earns about $z million ayear from the song,s
license fees. There is no attempt to prevent the song being
sung in private homes or hole-in-the-wall restaurants, but a
copyright fee is applied to large, highly frequented restau-
rants and other public places.some fashionablerestaurants
have stopped their staffs from singing it for birthday-
celebrating patrons and instead use improvised tunes
and words of their own. University film-making classesare
warned not to have sceneswhere people sing..Happy Birth-
day."But broadcastersand other users in public placeswith
paying audiences are supposedto pay a royalty eachtime the
songis used.
There are limits on what violates copyright.A Danish
group recorded a satirical song including the lyrics ..I,m a
blondebimboin afantasyworld/ Dressme up, make ittight,
I'm your doll." Mattel, toymakers who own the copyright
on the Barbie doll, sued the song group becausethe lyrics
could be interpreted to refer to Barbie. (Apparently, Mattel
was willing to assumein court that ..Barbie,,'the quintes-

Fl (,

73
 (NOT) ALL THE NEWS THAT,S FIT To PRINT

Wereit left up to me to decidewhetherwe shouldhavea tion. He calls in a noted political propagandist to cover up
governmentwithout newspapersor newspaperswithout the presidential r,'ulnerability. The spin doctor, played by
government,I shouldnot hesitatea momenttoprefer the latter. Robert DeNiro, has a bold idea: divert public attention from
THoMAS JEFFERSoN , vTBT,beforehe becamepresident the president's domestic problems by starting a war. The
movie was called WagtheDog.r
Nothing can now be believedwhich is seenin a newspaper. In real life, as midterm elections approachedin Septem-
THoMAS JEFFERSoN , r8o7, while he was president ber zooz, the Bush White House had mounting problems.
The headlines meant troubles for the Republicans, who
controlled the presidency and both houses ofCongress but
the Senateonly barely, within two votes. National trends fa-
CHAPTER FOUR vored Democrats. Front pagesof major papers and TV net-
work news almost daily reported rising unemployment and

(NOT)
ALLTHENEWS more masslayoffs,2thenational economywas in trouble, the
stock market was sinking, and new scandals of corporate
fraud and theft were reported day after day.3Executives

THAT'S
FITTOPRINT and other corporate insiders, knowing that their com-
panieswould soon suffer lossesor face fraud investigations,
were further destabilizing the economy by dumping their
own stocks at mammoth profits before warning other share-
In the autumnof 2ooz,themajornews mediafaced ahistoric holders that their shares might be worthless, possibly by
test of their place in American democracy.The crucial test bankruptcy.
has always been that, when faced with government coercion President Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney had
or distortion of reality, the news media, protected by the entered office having just sold personal stocks in compa-
First Amendment of the Constitution. would tell the Amer- nies they controlled under circumstances similar enough
ican people the closestapproachto the truth that is possible to raise eyebrows.aThe powerful SenateRepublicanmajor-
for a human institution. ity leader, Trent Lott, had to resign after revelations that he
In zooz, the main body of the American news media had delivered a racist-tainted speechand maintained racist
failed that test. membership in a Mississippi group.sIf Democrats took the
Senate,there would be bruising queries into Republican
embarrassmentsinvolving both the White House and the
Congress.
In January t998, New Line Pictures of Hollywood released But it was not to be. After Labor Day, when seriouselec-
a Barry Levinson movie with a moderately interesting plot. tion campaignswere building, President Bush, speakingin
A U.S.president is facing problems in his hopes for re-elec- front of the Statue of Liberty, announced that he would go to

74 75
 THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY (NoT) ALL THE NEwS THAT,S FIT To PRINT

war AgainstIraq and its dictator SaddamHussein. Hussein, lrigh office, and the Republicans swept the midterm elec-
the president said,possessed"weapons ofmass destructiort', lions, winning control of both House and Senate.
that created an imminent threat to the United States.When The sudden turn of events had a remarkable similarity to
some dubious Democrats asked for details before going to lhc fourTear-old movie Wagthe Dog. If the president had
war, President Bush accusedthem of unconcern for the se- "wagged the dog," unfortunately, the bulk of the country's
curity of their country.That silencedthe Democratic leader- rrr,.wsmedia waggedits tail in happy agreement.
ship, and American troops gathered on Irads borders aswax
fever escalated.
Later, in his State of the Union speech,president Bush 'I-he
ObedientTail That Wagged
announced that "intelligence sources" had found that Iraq
had 3o,ooo munitions capableof delivering chemicalagents, It has been the proud boast of the U.S.news media that, un-
Sootons of chemical weapons, 2b,ooo liters of anthrax, and like the puppet press of dictatorial governments, the Ameri-
38,oooliters ofbotulism toxin. Iraq, he said,harbored major can news takes particular pleasure in finding high officials
al Qaeda cells determined to destroy the United Statesand
who are lying or straying from the truth by exaggeration. But
was importing uranium for nuclear bombs.6 in plans for the 2oo2 war in Iraq, they had failed their duty.
The president said the danger was such an imminent Months later, with Iraq in rubble after heavy U.S. air
threat to the United Statesthat he would not wait for results
bombardment and tank attacks, American troops took con-
from inspectors from the United Nations and the Interna-
trol of the shattered country. But no one could find the
tional Atomic EnergyCommission,who alreadywere comb- weaponsof mass destruction President Bush had said were
ing Iraq. He said he had "lost patience" with the United an imminent threat to the United States.Several thousand
Nations. With z6o,ooo U.S. troops waiting on the Kuwait people, presumably civilian Iraqis, had been killed. Ameri-
border of Iraq, the president made clear that he would in- can casualties,while far smaller, mounted with each day of
vade Iraq at once. occupation, as did massive sabotageof American military
From that moment on, the domestic issuesof the United equipment.
Statesdisappearedof front pagesand network prime news.
One Iraqi battle episode dramatized the penalty when
Despite worsening domesticproblems, what dominated the journalists becomeuncritical partners of government. Once
news was the country's preparation for war with flags flying,
President Bush s invasion had swept into Iraq with little or
photographs of Marines preparing for the invasion, and
no organized resistance,there emerged the caseof Private
video scenesoffighter planes catapulting from decksofair-
JessicaLynch, an American woman soldier whose convoy
craft carriers. Though the economy at home sank even took a wrong turn into an ambush. Private Llnch was in-
deeper, it was now relegated to minor news as the White jured when her vehicle collided with a truck. Shewas found
House intensified its pronouncements of imminent war.
by Iraqi doctors, who took her to what remained of a nearby
Wars and approaching wars always benefit incumbents in Iraqi hospital.

76 Fln
t l
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY (Nor) ALL THE NEws rHAT's Frr ro pRrNT

That night, at U.S.Armyheadquarters, American corre- I'alseas soon as Iraqi doctors returned Private Lynch to her
spondents were awakened for what was assumed to be a "rescuers."After the false story had gonethrough a complete
"hot story." Thinking that the unusual call in the middle of news cycle as a sadistic horror, the army eventually cor-
the night for an urgent press releasemeant that perhaps Hus- rected its fairy story. But only after the known falsity was
sein had been captured,the sleepycorrespondentsgathered permitted to spreadthroughout the world.
and were told "the JessicaLynch story." The significance is not that an incorrect initial story had
Correspondents were told that Lynch had emptied her beentold. In the confusionofwar thesecan occur innocently.
rifle fighting offattackers. Left without ammunition, she had But the incident demonstratedtwo significant conse'quences
been captured, sustainedbullet and stab wounds, and been of the entire invasion. What the president's critics eventually
taken to an Iraqi hospital where Iraqi doctors slapped and called "a big lie" was his assertionof imminent danger to the
interrogated her as shelay in bed with broken legs and arms United Statesfrom Iraq's readinessto use its huge stocksof
and body burns. Shortly after midnight, a special U.S. unit weapons of mass destruction and its preparations for nu-
with night vision glassesstormed the hospital with guns clear bombs aimed at the United States.That "big lie" pre-
firing and special video cameras to record it all. private ordained the almost inevitable, namely, the little "lies" to
Lynch was rescuedfrom her Iraqi doctors,taken to a nearby support it.
helicopter, and flown to safekeepingfor treatment by Amer- After the false version of the JessicaLynch story was
ican physicians. Later, the army announced that she could vividly displayedon world television, it is possiblethat many
not be interviewed because she had su_fferedtotal loss of viewers believe to this day the legend of sadistic Iraqi doc-
memory. The official video record and army story ofher res- tors abusinga wounded American woman soldier, who was
cue was shown on U.S. television, rousing horror and fury savedonly by a heroic rescueby American specialforces.
among viewers at the brutal Iraqi treatment of a wounded More than ayear after President Bush s call to war, de-
American woman soldier. spite total control of Iraq and the seizure and interrogation
The story was false.The "rescuing" units did chargeinto oflraqi nuclear,biological, and toxic gasexperts,none ofthe
the Iraqi hospital and retrieve Lynch, and shewas part of the massiveweapons ofmass destructionhadbeen found. No al
convoythat had lost its way and been ambushed.But private
Qaeda cells were unearthed. The charge that Hussein was
Lynch had no bullet wounds or knife stabs;she had needed importing uranium had been known to be based on a forged
the usual treatment for broken bones and other injuries, document exposedmonths earlier by the CIA and a former
which the Iraqi medical staff handled with kindness and pro- U.S.ambassadoras a forgery.8
priety. They were attempting to find U.S. troops to whom Three months after President Bush declared the inva-
they could return Private Llmch when the special units of the sion "Mission Accomplished," angry Iraqi crowds, now
U.S. Army stormed into the hospital. Later, her father was without water, electricity, or food in the ruined cities, yelled
indignant at the claim that she had any loss of memory. He angnly at American patrols, and American troops were
said shehad a clear mind about it all.7 killed and wounded by shadowy Iraqi and other Islamic
The U.S. Army, of course, knew their original story was guerrilla forces working to undermine U.S.control.

78 79
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
(NoT) ALL THE NEWS THAT,S FIT To PRINT

The Middle East had been destabrlized,,and many for-

troops, a minimal force so they could move fast, as insisted
eign populations and governments saw the invasion as a
upon by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, met no organized
pretext for U.S. control of Iraqi oil and persian Gulf petro-
resistance.Embedded television crews did transmit to the
leum channels.A substantial portion of the world's billion
American television audience that the only real difficulty
Muslims regarded the United Stateswith fear, suspicion,or
was the weather, with footage of masked special forces push-
active hatred. Two of the country's important allies, France
ing through swirling sandstorms.e
and Germany, felt they had been misled and referred to with
Although President Bush could strut acrossthe deck of
contempt when they declined to join in president Bush s dis-
the carrierAbraham Lincolnto proclaim, on national televi-
missal of U.N. inspectors and invasion of Iraq. Thereafter,
sion, "Mission Accomplished,"apparently neither he nor the
both countries dealt with visiting high American officials
American public was prepared for the postinvasion period
with coolnessand gesturesthat in diplomatic protocol are
oftotal chaos, guerrilla attacks by Iraqi groups in civilian
recognized as deliberately insulting (like having a foreign
dress,and crowds of Iraqis screaming"Go home" to Amer-
official of obviously lower rank officially greet a high Amer-
ican troops. The frrll impact ofthe postwar situation emerged
ican ofrcial).
from Iraq only slowly and painfully, an impact worsened by
One of the peculiarities of the GuHWar was an innova-
the avoidable flaws in the major news media.
tion of the Bush Pentagon.More than five hundred Ameri-
The Legend of Private Lynch in microcosm reflects the
can journalists were "embedded" with particular fighting
more lasting corrosive effects of widespread deceptions
units of the military. This implied unimpeded accessto the
aboutpowerfiil events.Fundamentaldeceptionsdamagethe
actuality of fighting, uninhibited by the restrictions and cen-
public's ability to maintain a rational view of the real world.
sorship of the first Iraq war under Bush the Elder in rggr. In
Once a basic untruth is rooted, it blurs a society'sperception
actuality, it produced much firsthand video and reporting of
of reality and, consequently,the intelligence with which so-
individual movementsin the invasion, but it was also a tech-
cietSrreacts to events.
nique that produced less than a full view of the war.
Most of the embedded journalists were inexperienced
and forbidden accessto the commanders who had the full "Later" Is Too Late
picture. George Wilson, one of the country,s most experi-
enced and respected military correspondents, reported in
Six months later, on lttne zz, zoo3, by which time the basic
issuesof the Naffonal lournal that the television images of
grounds used for the preemptive invasion of Iraq were
ferocious and bitter fighting in the invasion were misleading.
shown to be clearly untrue, the New York Times Sunday
By his own observation during the invasion, the coalition
Week in Review ran a remarkably sweeping display that oc-
forces found almost none of the standard minimum defenses
cupied the entire top half of the section'scover page.Over a
of a country expecting an invasion-no tank traps, no
color photograph of President Bush, a bold headline in large
earthen protective embanknents, no serious minefields, and
letters read: "Bush May Have Exaggeratedbut Did He Lie?"
scarcelyany evidenceofuniformed military opposition. U.S.
Surrounding the presidential photograph in familiar pose

8o
Br
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY (Nor) ALL THE NEws rHAT's Frr ro pRrNT

before microphones were boxed quotations of the president the United Stateslooked the other way. This was the same
sincefound to be either exaggerationsor lies. SaddamHussein who then, as in 2ooo, was a t5rrantsubject-
It was, at long last, a clear examination ofwhat President ing dissenters in his regime to unspeakable tortures and
Bush had said and what appeared to be the contrary reality. committing genocideagainsthis Kurdish minorities.
ft was also a melodramatic statement for the most In some ways even more disturbing was the failure of
influential newspaper in the country to contribute to the his- the major media to make clear to the public the meaning
tory of the entire war. But it was too late to prevent the dam- of crucial news reported by the news media themselvesbut
age.That information had been known but not used at the treated as an interesting but ordinary news item. It was ad-
time the president had announced he would go to war. That mitted by White House aides that the timing of the war an-
was whenthe country's news audiencehadbeen gluedto the nouncement was calculated for maximum political effect on
unfolding news. the approachingmidterm elections.Andrew H. Card Jr.,the
In October 2oo2, five months before the preinvasion White House chief of staffcoordinating the effort, was asked
bombing of Iraq, Senator Robert Byrd, a Democrat from why, if the White House knew during the summer that it
West Virginia, had publicized this past history of the "weap- would go to war in the fall, it had waited until the Septem-
ons ofmass destruction" and placed the firll details into that ber election campaign season.Card replied, "You don't in-
day's CongressionalRecord.loThese details were never re- troduce new products in August."ll
ported by the main print or broadcastmedia. Instead, there Soonerorlater, important contrarynews maybe printed
were snippets of Senator Byrd uttering brief, melancholic and broadcast, but in this and in too many other cases,
phrases, the video news giving the impression merely of "Iatef is "too late" to serve the country.
an aging and somewhat pitiable old orator doing his sixty- Hussein s dictatorship had committed horrors against
secondturn in the well of the Senate. dissentersamonghis own people,but he had been doing this
Independent documentedinformation is most neededat for years with Washington s knowledge. Iraq, however, was
the time when officialdom announces a crucial decision. unrelated to the Septemberrr attacks on the United States.
That is when the audienceis paying firll and anxious atten- All the attackers had been Saudis, and their mastermind,
tion to conflicting views being debated in Congress.In the Osamabin Laden, was a Saudimultimillionaire Islamic fun-
prelude to the Iraqi invasion, the grounds used by President damentalist who despisedHussein'ssecularism.
Bush to justifr an immediate invasion were not new. They The Iraqi invasion Ieft the country in shambles. The
had been known foryears in voluminous detail. American occupying troops found no weapons of mass de-
In the r98os and afterward, the United States under- struction, no nuclear bombs, no biological or poison gas
wrote twent;z-fourAmerican corporations so they could sell supplies, and only a few missiles incapable of reaching
to SaddamHussein weapons of mass destruction, which he beyond Iraq s immediate neighbors. Apparently, the catch
used against fran, at that time the prime Middle Eastern phrase "weapons of mass destruction" was merely an ex-
enemyof the United States.Husseinused U.S.-suppliedpoi- cuse. and an invalid one. at that. Later. a chiefarchitect of
son gas against the Iranis and his Kurdish minorities while the war plans, Deputy Secretaryof DefensePaul WoHowitz,

Bz 83
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY (NoT) ALL THE NEwS THAT,S FIT To PRINT

told an interviewer for the magazine Vanity Fair: ,,For might have given pause to the hand of Bush the Youngerin
bureaucratic reasons,we settled on one issue, ,weaponsof ordering the reduction of Iraq to rubble.
mass destruction,'becauseit was the one everyone could But most of the country's major media, constitutionally
agree on."12Theimmediate real reason, WoHowitz told the and popularly expected to be the nation's primary truth
interviewer, was to make it easier to remove U.S. troops tellers, became the first casualty.And while the proposed
from Saudi Arabia becausethe Saudi ruling family feared in- war was not yet a military engagement,the main media
ternal dangerfrom Osamabin Laden s al eaeda. Bin Laden demonstrated that they could still be coerced, even at that
is, or was (he had not been accountedfor by late zoo3),from crucial stage,into abandonment oftheir democratic duty and
a rich Saudi family journalistic integrity when high officials challengetheir pa-
The most important media were unusually accepting of triotism and wave the American flag at them.
official briefings at face value. There is little record of corre- There havebeen too many past failures. They suggestnot
spondents of major news orgardzationsasking the authorities so much the inevitable imperfections of any human endeavor
publicly to e;rplain the record disclosed by Senator Byr.dor to but a systemicflaw. The major news media present the pub-
answer questionsraised by Slate(a Microsoft Internet mag- lic with unnecessarilyincomplete news because,with rare
azne) arrd by a Se;rmour Hersh article in The Newyorker. In exceptions, they tal<etheir news from governmental and pri-
the major news on which most Americans depend, such vate power centers and shun important contrary informa-
questions were, at best, a minor footnote overwhelmed by tion becauseit is considered "too liberal" or "left."
war drums in the headlines and on major TV network news. Fiftyyears ago,the most crucial media, with the excep-
tion of only a handful of newspapers,failed to examine the
available truth during SenatorJosephMcCarthy's six years
The First Casualtv of national hysteria that destroyed individuals and damaged
institutions and important agencies of government. His
The main news media once again had succumbedto what bombastic accusationsof communist spies in government
many had hoped was a relic of the past. In a democracy,it agenciesexposed not one subversive who had not already
should no longer be the casethat "when war comesthe first been identified and dealt with by government agencies.
casualty is truth."l3 It is even worse that, when war is pro- An end to the McCarthyist rampage came with the help
posed but not yet begun, the news media fail to clariS, the of a historic incident in American journalistic history. In
known facts and limit their main information source to the 1953,Edward R. Murrow broadcastanother brutal televised
government, which is not, of course, going to display infor- destruction of an innocent. Murrow ended his damning re-
mation and argue publicly against what it wishes to do. view by con-fronting the entire American population with
If the country had taken the time to learn the details of Shakespeare'sline, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our
Senator Byrd's fi-rll statement and if the main news media stars, but in ourselves."laIn the aftermath, CBS cancelled
had examined their own files about the earlier Iraqi war of Murrorn/s program and from then on had him do relatively
Bush the Elder and made the facts clear to the countrv. that uncontroversial interviews with celebrities.

B+ 85
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY (Nor) ALL THE NEws rHAT's Frr ro pRrNT

For more that a decade,from 1954to the early r96os,the timidates opponents.That is why it is even more important
main mediafailed to report the futile tragedy of the Vietnam for the news media in a democracy to provide the balance
War; the war news seenby most of the public was based aI- that best servesrational decisionmaking among the popula-
most entirely on official military and governmental briefings. tion at large.
Not until thirteen years after the United Statesoftcially en- The inherent stupidity of war is peculiar to the human
tered the war in Vietnam did the truth about that tragic war race. Somewars have started becauseenemieshave thrust
come to most Americans when The Newyorker beganpub- this pathology upon eachother or have lusted for it on their
Iishing articles by independent American observers,a strik- own. Throughout the 8oo,ooo words of his War and Peace,
ing new voice among its best-known peers. The Newyorker Tolstoy keeps asking why ro million men would march to-
continued to report the truth about the war even though the ward the west to meet to million men marching toward the
magazine,for the first time in its history lost its place among east for the sole purpose of slaughtering as many perfect
the top publications in advertising revenue. Angered or strangersas possible.He concludesthat the questfor power
frightened corporations stopped buying ads in what had is unquenchable.lo
oncebeen the most profitable and most elite of popular mag- The American Revolution began thanks to the stupidity
azines.l5TheNewYorker stoneswere a dashof coldwater on of the British Crown, heedless that the colonists valued
years of official illusion and the refusal of presidents to ac- being English subjectsand simply wanted to be treated like
cept the political penalty risked by admitting that they knew English citizens.The British underestimatedthe greatriches
that the entire Indochinese military campaign was a tragic in the North American continent and preferred to fight
mistake. The mistake caused 2u2,oooU.S.casualtiesand the France, an old obsession,so they could continue to make
deathsof more than z million Indochinese. money from East Indian spices.lTIt helped that they under-
estimated George Washington s stature and his deliberate
avoidance of every possible engagementbetween the higtrly
War: Inevitable Lies. visible red-coated troops of the king and his own army of
near-naked, starving men on the constant edge of mutiny.
Deceptions,and Amnesia Washington knew the British were slow learners about not
marching in rigid formation. He could hide the wretched
The Iraqi invasion was not the first war in history including condition of his army becausethe news media of the period
U.S.history, to be started as a matter of official convenience were more interested in politics and the splendid British
or vanity of power rather than the necessity of repulsing balls in Philadelphia than in accompanying Washington's
invaders or ending cruel occupation. Wars are particularly army and reporting the miserable conditions it endured.
vulnerable to one-sided reporting because war and ap- There was opposition in the English Parliament and
proaching war arouse patriotism and support of the coun- some of the press. But there, too, opposition was over-
try's armed forces. Governments know this and use it to whelmed by those friendly with the Crown and its foreign
maintain a war fever that supports the authorities and in- trade.

86 B7
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY (Nor) ALL THE NEws rHAT's Frr ro pRrNT

If real people and places had not been hurt, the War of pretty much an invention of William Randolph Hearst, aided
l8rz agsins,lBritain would have made a comic movie with and abetted by JosephPulitzer. Spain considered Cuba part
Peter Sellers.ft was a classiccaseofthe double-edgedsword of her Latin American possessions.periodic rebellions by
of speedor lack of it in communication. It also reflected the natives had been put down, some with savagerythat was
split between the North and its antiwar press and the South covered vividly by American daily papers, particularly the
with its pro-war press.President Madison was a southerner expansionist Hearst paper the lournal and the paper of
and could not resist declaring war against the more pow- Hearst's rival, Joseph Pulitzer's World. Any real brutality
erful British, who had been seizing American vessels and was embroidered by florid details added by the Hearst and
crews. (Madison had a tiny navy of six ships,and the British Pulitzer writers.
had more than one hundred.) In London, the British had an- The newspapers had a free hand for two reasons. The
nounced that they would no longer seizeAmerican ships, but multiple rebellions on the island endangeredhear.yAmeri-
by the time the sailing vesselcarried that news acrossthe At- can corporate investments there, and President Theodore
lantic, the war had begun - the British had burned the White Roosevelt had an interest in keeping Spain out of the
House, the Capitol, and other public buildings and had bom- hemisphere and was under pressureto protect endangered
barded Baltimore and its harbor's Fort McHenry. British American firms in Cuba. The island was in such turmoil that
and Americans meeting in Ghent, Belgium, signed a peace it was difficult to obtain clear, systematic information. In the
treaty, ending the war on December z4,btt, again,the sail- void, Hearst and Pulitzer becamethe U.S.sourceofreal and
ing ship carrying the news reached the United Statestoo imagined events, specializing in gory and sexual details of
late. real and imagined atrocities. Hearst had what he called
The biggest engagementofthe war, the Battle of New Or- 'tommissioners"
on the island, a stableofartists and writers
leans,was fought a week later, on Januaryr, with the Amer- sendingback what they guessedmight be happening.Hea$t
ican army under Stonewall Jackson shooting from behind finally decided to get the better of pulitzer and send some
bales of cotton at the splendidly red-coated English troops. big-name'tommissioners" to Cuba. Richard Harding Davis
Jacksonwon a great victory that made him famous enough was the best-known correspondentin the United Statesand
to becomethe seventhpresident of the United States.l8Dur- was sent to Cuba at three thousand dollars a month (at the
ing that war, the Americans lost their governmentbuildings, time a fortune for reporters anywhere). He wrote stories like
but a young Maryland poet named Francis Scott Key com- one about Spanish officials taking all the clothes off three
posed a poem inspired by seeingthe tattered U.S. flag still Cuban girls preparing to board an American steamer for
flying over Fort McHenry in the glare of bombs bursting in New York. The Spanish said they were simply looking for
air. Key's poem was set to the tune of an English drinking smuggled documents under the girls' clothing. The Hearst
song, and the new country got its national anthem, ..The front page headline was "DOES OUR FLAG PROTECT
Star-Spangled Banner." WOMEN?"
The clearest case of a media-inspired war-the rggg Raisingthe level ofvivid storiesled to Hearst adding one
Spanish-AmericanWar to get the Spanishout of Cuba-was of the best-known artists of the time, Frederic Remington, to

88 B9
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY

join Davis. For the "three naked girls" story, Remington Fellowcitizens,we cannotescapehistory.
drew an imagined sceneof the three girls being undressed ABRAHAM T,TUCOT,U,TB6Z
by men. Davis felt it necessaryto statethat he had never said
that men undressedthe young women. Female Spanishin-
spectorsdid the search.
Hearst askedfor more pictures of the war from Reming- CHAPTER F'IVE
ton. By this time, Remington seemedto have had enough
and sent Hearst a cable: "Everything is quiet. There is no
trouble here. There will be no war. I wish to return."
Hearst immediately cabled back: "Please remain. You
ALLTHENEWS
furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."le
Few publishers today would allow the Spanish-American
THATFITS?
War antics of Hearst and Pulitzer. That kind of journalism
survives only in a few tabloids with little respect. Instead,
the distortions and omissionsare less crude, but they are far The horrors committed by the Saudi aI Qaeda hijackers
from absent. They come instead from the standard opera- againstthe United Stateson Septemberll, 2oor, changedthe
tions of the most widely absorbed,serious print and broad- history of our era. Thoseacts shookthe American view of it-
castnews outlets, which are still wedded to the declarations self as a laudable democracy safein its power, protected by
of authority figures for their news. two oceanseastward and westward and friendly neighbors
President Bush was not the first president to say,as he on its borders north and south. After that day, for the first
did about lraq, that "those who are not with us are against time since the American Civil War, there was no longer se-
us." The best performance of the news has often been when curity from a devastatingattack that shed the blood ofthou-
it seesthat "us" at all times meansthe people of the country. sands on their own American soil
It is the ordinary citizens who depend on credible informa- The attack shook something else in the national mental-
tion in their news.Whenever the news media have forgotten ity: a stunned American population slowly became aware
that the "us" is not just the leadership of government, it has that many of the massesof the world, especially within the
been the "us" of the citizenry who have suffered the conse- Islamic world, viewed the United Stateswith cynicism or
quencesof official deception or errors. hatred. The Muslim masseshad never loomed large in the
popular American consciousness.But now national maga-
zines ran large sections with titles like "Why do they hate
us?"To this day, only dimly do most Americans seeany pos-
sible reasonwhy the United Stateswould be the recipient of
anything but gratitude or awe from foreign populations.
Why would there be anything but thanks from impover-

9o 9r
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY ALL THE NEWS TTTET PTTS?

ished foreigners for decades of copious U.S. foreign aid? government and with marauding American corporations ex-
Most Americans do not follow the annual complexities ploiting weaker foreign countries.
of foreign aid budgets in the Congress and had taken for Among nations, the United States is hardly alone in
granted that "foreign aid" meant that we were providing the concealing its unsavory acts or seeing them as an ultimate
destitute people of the world with unending food, education, necessityfor the world. During the decadesof the cold war,
and other necessitiesleading to a better life. both the Soviet Union and the United Statesused sabotage,
Years after the g/rr attack, many Americans still look for spying,lying, and elimination of democratically electedgov-
explanations of the malice and cynicism of those we had ernments that did not serve their purpose in the deadly
treated with unending benevolence. Explanations will be rivalry of the nuclear supe{powers. Earlier, the British im-
diftcult for most Americans because the news media on perial monarchy committed similar acts with seH-righteous
which they have depended for decades have obscured or justifications during its domination of the world. From the
simply ignored the realities. sixteenth to the nineteenth century every global power did
For all the genuine good the United Stateshas done for so, including, at times, the Roman Catholic Church. It ex-
decades,both officially and by nongovernmental organiza- erted its power to dominate by dubious means,including, in
tions working to reduce global misery, there is a subtle but somecountries, the Inquisition, and did it in the name of re-
fundamental flaw when it comes to official behavior in the ligious purity.
real world. The Christian Crusadesto redeem the Middle Eastern
It is a psychologicaltruism that if a powerful individual "holy places" were initiated in part becauseby the eleventh
commits a crime or acts contrary to common ethical behav- century Rome feared that, with Western Europe finally
ior, one reaction is to rationalize the act as necessaryand securefor the church, there was a dangerous combination
justified. The individual assumesthat since the act was nec- of impoverished peasants and fully armed, unemployed
essary and therefore good, reasonablepeople will agree.If knights. Pope Urban determined that a prudent solution
some do not, they are either ignorant and can be ignored or would be to send the eagerknights and the unsettled peas-
hostile and can be consideredan enemy. antry to Palestinein a seriesof international masscrusades
Every American knew that in the old Soviet Union the to redeem control of what the Europeans called'bur Holy
Communist Party controlled the pressand frequently lied or Places"related to the birth and early life of Christ. The re-
looked the other way. Americans either sneeredor laughed sulting Crusadeswere often fiascos.But they were depicted
at the Soviet Press,and with good reason. to the massesas the holiest of missions.l
But no powerfirl nation is without a dark side to its his- Christian countries have seldom realized that the Islamic
tory. The United Statesis no exception. Within the United world has never forgiven the West. Most Christians still cel-
States,the country's media are permitted by the Constitu- ebrate the Crusades, ignoring that the ta-rgetswere also Is-
tion to disagree,but too often they should have disagreed Iamic holy places and that the great Islamic leader, Saladin,
and didnot. During crucial eras sinceWorldWar II, the ma- had defeatedthe Crusaders.Tnrical of continuing Christian
jority of the media behavedas obedient partners with their misperceptions was President George W. Bush's 2oo2 ar'-

92 93
 THE NE\^/ MEDIA MONOPOLY
ALL THE NEWSTTrEr prrs?

nouncement that he would defeat America,s enemiesin the

countries, march in aggressiveprotest and are fired upon
Middle East in a great'trusade.,, Informed of the immediate
by their police and militias, most of the time it is with U.S.-
anger at the word from Muslims, the president eliminated
supplied weapons. Whatever most Americans may think
the word crusadefrom his invasion arrnouncements.2That
about the nature of their country's aid to other nations, most
the United Stateshas not been alone in selFjusti$,ing delu-
ofthe unhappypopulations ofthose countries seethe United
sionsis little comfort. The superpowerthat still sincerelybe-
Statesas the sourceofthe tear gas,water cannons,and bul-
lieves it is "the last best hope of earth,,'asAbraham Lincoln
lets that knock them down or kill them.a
said,3has more to lose by evading the standard of honesty
The American population sufiers another grave disad-
with its own people
vantage.Over the years, within the United States,accurate,
U.S. citizens generally are at a disadvantagein under_ eyewitness,and documentedaccountsof dubious American
standing foreign policy. Someis due to indifference because
involvement in the suppression of foreign leftist or anti-
of its two protective oceans.Somearises from the extraor-
American protest movements have appearedalmost exclu-
dinary fact that the United States,the world,s only super-
sively in smaller periodicals like The Nation, The Progressive,
power, has fewer correspondentspermanently stationed in
The New Republic,Extra!, the late I. F. Stone's LF. Stone
foreign capitals than any other major Western nation. The
Weekly,orthe late GeorgeSeldes'fnFacf. Broadcastnewsof
result for U.S.media is a remarkably small pool of expertise
repressiveor subversiveAmerican actsabroad is seldomre-
on foreign culture and politics within their own organiza- ported by the major networks but instead by minor outlets
tions. Britain, France, Germany, and Japan, for example,
like Pacificaradio stations and David Barsamian'sAlterna-
have far more foreign correspondentswith depth of service
tive Radio. These smaller media use native nongovernmental
in important global locations. Becauseof this, many other
sourceswithin the a-ffectedcountries,previously unreported
governmentsunderstand the impressionsthe United States
testimony before congressionalcommittees,or the research
makes on the leaders and populations of other countries far
of American scholars like Noam Chomsky and other aca-
more readily than do U.S.news servicesand, consequently,
demics who are not significant sourcesfor the main media
the American generalpublic.
becausethey are seen either as leftist or merely antiestab-
Even Americans'impression of our largessto the down_ lishment professors.
trodden of the world is faulty. U.S.foreign aid is large in dol-
The late f. F. Stone, who was dismissed or ignored as
a leftist, was famous for unearthing the government's own
documentsto prove when the government was either lying
or in a state ofdenial. (Sincehis death, Stonehas been occa-
sionally lionized as a brave naysayer in accounts by major
and that go percent of all American foreign aid has gone to media that ignored his research when he was living. The
the Middle East, with most of that to Israel or regimes like
NewYork Times obituary said he was "a pugnacious advocate
Egypt's, which keep their restive Islamic massesunder con_
of civil liberties, peace and truth," adding that his integyity
trol. When groups in foreign countries, including the Islamic
was conceded even by his detractors.)5Similarly, George

94
95
 THE NEIM MEDIA MONOPOLY
ALL THE NEWS TTTET T TS?

Seldes' In Fact regularly caught the main media ignoring

a rebellion that took over what would be the canal area and
their own files on newly relevant past events. After his
ca]Ied it a new nation, "Panama."7
death, a documentary by Rick Goldsmith on Seldes,life
In the rg5os,the United Statessupported the overthrow
received national attention. But minor voices telling anti-
of the democratically elected, pro-communist president of
establishment truths cannot overcome the lack of wider
Guatemala,JacaboArbenz, when he proposed expropriation
recognition among averageAmericans.
of United Fruitplantations. The United Statesreplacedhim
A pernicious aftermath of any faulty or false journalistic
with a compliant leader, who then killed supporters of the
reporting is that the flawed information remains in a news
former regime. In rg73,when SalvadorAllende was elected
organization's memory bank-the libraries all organizations
the socialist president of Chile and proposed nationalizing
keep of their past news by subject matter. When the major
American-owned copper mines and other industries, the
U.S.news organizationscommit errors of omissionand com-
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), with help from agentsof
mission in their original reports, these errors are perpetu-
American corporate executives and upper-class Chileans,
ated into the future.
deliberately destabilized the Chilean economy. In the en-
During the cold war between the United Statesand the
suing unrest, Allende was assassinated.He was replaced
SovietUnion, major U.S.news media ignored or reported in-
by the U.S.-selectedAugusto Pinochet, who proceeded to
accurately ugly episodesperpetrated by the United States
kill uncounted thousands of Chileans who simply 'disap-
or its subsidized indigenous groups in Central and South
peared."SIn Nicaragua,the United Statescreatedthe "Con-
America. In the major news, inhumane acts either were not
tras" to overthrowthe socialist government. In rg75,similar
reported at all or were depicted as necessaryfor the world's
acts were repeated in East Timor and elsewhere.
benefit.
At the time of these events, the accounts read by most
For decadesafter the r88os,for example, the American
Americans were the propagandisticreports issuedby Wash-
firm United Fruit Company behaved like a portable sover-
ington and its foreign embassies,giving ordinary readers
eign nation, transferring its huge Chiquita banana planta-
and viewers the impression that these moves were either
tions wherever it wished. If a nation was an unwilling host,
spontaneousor beneficent actions by the United Statesto
United Fruit simply overthrew it and installed its own com-
opposecommunism,further socialjustice, or prevent threats
pliant leaders (the origin of the term banana republic).6
to the security of the United States.e
When the United Statesbecameinvolved in the tangled
Though the United Stateswas not alone in committing
attempts to shortcut the voyage from Atlantic to pacific,
unsavory foreign acts, it had something more precious at
rather than sailing around the treacherous tip of South
risk. The USSRwas a communist dictatorship. The United
America, it finally took over the project to build a canal in
States is a democracy. The Soviet Union ruthlessly con-
Colombia, the narrowest strip of land separating the two
trolled its news media. The United Statestakes pride in the
oceans.When Colombia declined an American offer to pay
First Amendment of the Constitution that forbids such con-
to build and operate the canal, the United Statessupported
trol. In the cold war, both the Soviet Union and the United

96
9T
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY ALL THE NEWSrHAr rrrs?

Statesused lies as weapons (their intelligence agenciescre- Soviet domestic and foreign policies. But U.S. news agen-
ated the now standard euphemism,'disinformation,,). But a cies, reflecting the passions of the time, reported any do-
democracy cannot lie to another nation without telling that mestic or foreign activity that was labeled "Marxist,' in
lie to its own people. Democraciesaren't supposedto lie to hostile and seH-censoringnews. This weakened democratic
their citizens. exposureto diversity in political news, and Americans would
If one overlooks the damageto a nation,s standards of pay a penalty long after the end of the cold war.
truthfirlness with its own population, what remains is the re- As noted, examplesinclude Soviet-American clashesin
sulting inability of most citizens of the only surviving super- Guatemala, East Timor, and Chile, where there were seri-
power to understand the attitude of suspicion and hostility ous atrocities. fn Guatemala,the United Statesfelt the most
with which so much of the world's unhappy populations need to worry about the suspicions of surrounding Latin
view the United States.Even after one takes into account American countries regarding U.S.intervention. Guatemala
ma-liciousmisinformation about the United Statesthat peri- had the most publicizedpresenceofAmerican coryorations,
odically appearsin foreign countries, the intelligentsia and mainly the United Fruit Company, the railroad system used
many foreign populations have more accurate information to ship out American products produced in the country
about undemocraticand often cruel actsby the United States and the country's largest electricity-generating system.The
than does the averageAmerican. The main U.S. news ser- Guatemalan intervention was a long-drawn-out process
vices generally have reported the official Washington ver- over several years. It was in the early days of the cold war
sion of events without independent investigations in the and was opposedby JacoboArben z Gtzman,who had Com-
field, so most Americans assumethat their country did not munist Party participation in his regime and open Soviet
condonethe use oftorture or subversiverevolutions in other support; the USSR shipped weaponry to Arbenz. These
countries. They believe that all official behavior abroad has highly publicized actions,reported prominently in American
been fighting for freedom and democracyin the world. This newspapers,most importantly the New YorkTimes, created
is a major reason for puzzlementafter g/rr, when the ques- nervous worry among other Latin American countries con-
tion was asked,'Why do they hate us?" taining large American corporations; these governments
worried that the samebig power interventions would come
their way.Arbenz becamepresident in rg5r and immediately
The Sinsof the PastRevisited announced the expropriation of United Fruit and the sus-
pension of constitutional civil liberties.lo It was rg54 before
Many ofthe lapsesin coveragebythe main news media date the U.S.-supportedmiJitary overthrew Arbenz by support-
from the forty years of the cold war, during which the U.S. ing a general who created periodic public relations em-
news itself becamedoctrinaire in its support of U.S.official barrassments in the United States,with his thousands of
foreign policy. It did not match the control of Moscow over "disappearances"and murders of individual American citi-
every item of news that failed to adhere to and promote all zens,including religious missionaries.

9B 99
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
ALL THE NEWSTrrEr prrs?

Almost twenty-five years later, rebels fighting for East

bers of the village without further mention of who had paid
Timorese independencewere undercut by clandestineU.S.
for their tragedies.ls
activity, and by then this was standard cold war news. The
As late as Janua-qr4, 2oo3, in a long story about the
New York Times itself implied but did not speci$zthe clan-
international competition for possessionof the former dic-
destine role of American agencies.For example, a Decem-
tator of Chile, President Pinochet, to try him for his long
ber 7, tg75,page r story in the New YorkTimes simply noted
record of torture and crimes against thousands from 1973
that the invasion by Indonesian troops 'tame little more than
to rggo, the New YorkTimes referred to him only as having
twelve hours after President Ford left Indonesia following a
manageda "milita4' coup" againstPresidentAllende. In the
rg-hour state visit." Another story by Times correspondent
prolonged episode of Pinochet's resistance to extradition
Bill Kovach said, "President Ford has proposed military aid
from England,the Times and other American major news
for fiscal 1976of $++.0million for Indonesia, more than dou-
media repeatedly failed to mention that Pinochet had been
ble the current $2o.9million," and an increasein strictly eco-
directed in his crimes by U.S.agentsand had been supported
nomic aid.1l
by Washington during his long, bloody regime.
In the case of Chile, there was still a degree of self-
Today,the entries in standard encyclopediason modern
consciousnessin U.S.news reports of complicity in the over-
Chile and President Salvador Allende refer to those past
throw of President SalvadorAllende in rg73.One news story
eventsof U.S.involvement. TheColumbiaEncyclopedia,fifth
reported that "the White House and the State Department
edition (rggg),for example,prints that Allende fell after eco-
both soughtto counter a view widely held in Latin America
nomic disarray and violent opposition 'taused in part by the
that the United Statesknew in advancethe plans for Tues-
U.S.economicblockadeand undercover activitie s of the U.S.
day's coup, which resulted in Dr. Allende,s death.,,12
Central Intelligence Agency''If reliable reference books at
That is now past history. What is relevant is how those
the time and later record a correct history it is even less ex-
former sins of omission and evasionsfrowned upon in good
cusablethat important segmentsof the country's most pow-
journalism have been visited upon the future. For example,
erful newspapers and television network news programs
in August zooz the New York Times printed a long, heart-
have chosennot to.
rending story of women excavating graves in a Guatemalan
American citizens have been afiected by the sameselec-
village looking for eight hundred villagers killed and buried
tive amnesiaabout similar episodeselsewhere.In 1975,pres-
during Guatemalds civil war. In the thirteenth paragraph,
ident Suharto sent his militia into East Timor when that large
the Times mentioned vaguely, as it had not at the time the
island on the archipelago moved for independence.Henry
events occurred, that "the American government gener-
Kissinger, secretary of state under President Gerald Ford in
ally supported the Guatemalan government" and that the
rg7b, sent a secret messageto President Suharto that the
Guatemalan "military and its allies in death squads . . .
[had] United Stateswould have no objection if Suharto took "rapid
singled out leftist guerillas." The Times story a halFcentury
or drastic action" in East Timor, but "it is important that
after the fact, continued the painful aftermath for the mem-
whatever you do succeedsquickly . . . We understand your

roo
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY ALL THE NEWS TTTAT T'TTS?

problem." "Whateveryou do" turned out to be the massmur-

;rrrtheticto similar profit maximizationby whatever means
derby Suharto'smilitary ofabout 2oo,ooo EastTimorese.As irrnongcorporations in general.That s1'rnpathyand empathy
late as 1998,the New York Times Sunday Week in Review would aid and assist in one of the most spectacularethical
wrote that "Suharto is no Saddam."Today,when East Timor lrlotsin U.S.private enterprise.
is in the news it is seldom mentioned outside the alternative In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the
media that the United Statessupported the Suharto military public heard seemingly endless accounts of dishonest and
in his ethnic cleansingof the Chineseand Timorese.la rrriminal behavior at the top levels of some of the cormtry's
The average citizen depends on printed and broadcast largestcorporations.It was the suddenappearanceofnames
news and should not have to run to the reference section of like Enron, Tyco,andWorldCom; ofthe country's largestac-
a library every time he or she reads or watches the daily counting firms, whose supposedincorruptibility is a foun-
news. The amnesiaof the major media on theseepisodesin- dation of proper capitalism, like the auditing firm Arthur
creasesthe cynical view of U.S.foreign policy among some Andersen; of major brokerage firms, whose legal goal is
of our allies. Their leadersand most of their public have seen to work for the benefit of their clients, like Merrill Lynch;
or suffered from U.S. subversiveundermining of their past and of the country's most prestigiousbanks,like J. P.Morgan
regimes. Most Americans have not seenthe sameaccounts and Citibank-all had been corrupted by committing fraud
in their own news media. Consequently,most U.S.tourists or outright theft. By early zoo3, investigators were consid-
to Latin America are prnzledwhen they see South Ameri- ering criminal charges of fraud against at least r3o major
can cartoonists depict what they label "The Octopus from corporations.ls
the North ' or when foreign leadersand news servicesin Eu- The chief watchdog of American corporate Iife on which
rope and Asia refer to incidents as "another" aggressionby capitalism depends for its own protection is the Securities
the United States. and Exchange Commission. But it had become a toothless
watchdog unable or unwilling to bark at large corporations,
thanks to conservativeswho had cut its budget.
Tendingto Business Almost worse, most of the major media also were turn-
ing a blind eye to it all. Every metropolitan newspaper in the
Whatever their amnesia about past foreign acts by the country has a daily special section specializing in business
United States,the most persistent absenceof relevant news and corporate afiairs. But for decadesthey devoted most of
in the major media is what the major media know with ex- their spaceand energiesto the celebration oftop corporate
quisite detail: important information about the major media executivesas heroes or geniuses,lgnoring evidenceprinted
themselves. Control of public information by a handful of in what they saw as left-oFcenter publications and Naderite
powerful global firms weakens democracy by omission of watchdog groups that tookpleasure in investigating and pub-
news that might interfere with media s maximizing their licizing sins of corporations.This has not been the daily stu-ff
own profits. The sametendencymakesthe news media s1-rn- of most big-media businessreporters.

to2 103
JF

THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY ALL THE NEWS TTTET T'TTS?

The Flag and the DowJones Mark Willes was hired as president and CEO by the major-
ity shareholdersto raise the stock price of the Times Com-
Industrial Average pany. Willes introduced what sounded like a revolutionary
move: news would no longer be selectedby the editors but
Oncemedia conglomeratesbecameamajor enterprise in the by co-editors, one to be from the paper's business depart-
American economy,WaIl Street took an intense interest in ment. Willes said that whenever anyonein the news depart-
the media industry. But Wall Streetwas not content to be an ment tried to raise the "Wall of separation of Church and
observant spectator.It beganto dictate the policies of media State,"he would "get abazooka . . . to blow it down."16Wall
companies,with a goal of ever-rising profits. Streetwas delighted and the paper's shareprices rose.
All publicly traded industries, including media conglom- Willes had come from General Mills, whose chief prod-
erates, depend on accessto banking and credit to expand ucts were breakfast cereals.Whatever his expertise in mer-
and to manage debt. When Wall Street analystsfind a cor- chandising Cheerios and Chex, he was yet another example
poration's share prices rising insufficiently, they no longer of an executive taking over a newspaper and assuming that
recommend the company'sstock as a good buy, thereby af- news is "just another business."It isn't. The news sta-ffre-
fecting easy accessto their lenders and stockholders. Con- belled and lost some of its best reporters. A particularly
sequently,the indicator Wall Street takes most seriously is gross instance of the paper pandering to an advertiser dis-
rising shareprices becauseof higher profits. WaIl Streetthus gusted Otis Chandler, the leader of the Chandler family,
found easyentry into the control of policies of many media which had owned the Times since r8gz, and the man who
organizations that had already begun to shrink their news had converted the paper from its drab conservatismto one
budgets to raise share prices. Most often these economies of the most respectedpapers in the country. Chandler sold
were made at the expenseof proper news. his stock, and the paper was sold to the Chicago Tribune
The trend became a dramatic and destructive symbol at Company.lT
the LosAngelesTimes,one of the most highly reputed daily Most of the more reputable papers have at least publicly
papers in the country. A prominent professional standard rejected Willes's crass form of combining news and adver-
journalists have tried to uphold is to maintain the ..Wall of tising, but today most news is a subsidiary in large multi-
Separation between Church and State."This is universally media conglomeratesthat are traded on the stock market.
understood within the profession to mean that the news re- Media conglomeratesare under demands from Wall Street
ported by professionaljournalists (the Church) should in no to show ever higher stock profits, and the pressure is wel-
way be influenced by the business interests of the paper,s comed by many media top executives,whose high compen-
businessdepartment and advertisers (the State).The ,.Wall" sation is buttressed or in the form of company sharesor stock
was always porous, but the concept and implicit acceptance options.
by managementstrengthenedreporters'arguments for eth- To meet the profit pressures,newspapershave been cut-
ical news. ting reportorial costsby reducing staff size and news space,
As described in an earlier edition of this book, in r9g7 and broadcastmedia have cut serious air time on radio and

ro4 lo5
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY ALL THE NEWS TTTET TTTS?

television. As a result, many newspapershave lost some of u company from owning both a newspaper and a broadcast
their bestjournalists, and the public has lost daily accessto outlet in the same community."le
theirreporting. At least one paperlost its publisher.JayHar- If it had not been for the Iraqi war, the biggest story of
ris, publisher of the well-regarded San JoseMercury News zooz would have been the epidemic of greed and fraud that
from rg94 to 2ool, resigned when the Knight-Ridder man- brought down some of the largest corporations in the coun-
agementordered him to increasethe paper's profits by cut- try. It seemedalmost impossiblethat so much cheatingofthis
ting his budget, which would include the budget for news and magnitude remained secret, that no one detected that so
staff. He went on to form the Center for Study ofJournalism many huge corporations were quietly creating novel book-
and Democracy atthe University of Southern California.Is keepingto make losseslook like profits. Yearin and year out,
Someof the country's best editors have left their papers daily tonnage ofnewsprint has been devoted to financial and
forthe samereasonbut, unlike Harris, didnotpublicize that corporate news and hours of air time on network programs
they resigned rather than follow orders. When most top ex- have focused on corporate investments and finance.
ecutives of major journalistic organizations are appointed, Businessreporting, Iike real estateand automotivenews,
they must sign an agreement that their pension benefits, has a morbid past. For most of the twentieth century the
keyed to issuesof highlyprofitable stock options, depend on business pagesof daily papers and the financial programs on
their never making any public criticism of the news organi- television treated businessleaders as heroic captains of in-
zation, even after they have Ieft the company. This explains dustry. Businessreporters of the past, for example,dealt ei-
why the public reason given usually is something like ,,to ther with press releasesfrom the publicity departments of
spend more time with my family." corporations, or, if the news medium was important enoug!,
its reporter was periodically permitted to enter the inner
sanctum of "the man himselt," the head of the company,
PerpetuatingNews Amnesia about whom the reporterwould write a story.This tended to
produce either sycophants or the illusion of having been ad-
A centuries-old hole in news media treatment is reporting mitted to the most accuratepossible news that existed.
on internal financesof the media themselves.The Newyork In the aftermath of the rude awakening of zoor, with vast
Tfmespublished many usefrrlstories in zooz and zoo3 about fraud and theft among some of the largest corporations and
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman banks,attention turned to the fast-growing ranks ofbusiness
Michael Powell's desireto lift restrictions on abroadcaststa- reporters in American journalism. Where were they when
tion's ownership of a newspaper in the samecommunity. But dishonesty and irrationality became the national financial
accordingto Jeff Chesterof Democratic Media, it did not re- culture?
port that'bn Dec. 3, 2ool, the New York Times Company, Not all businessreporters were at fault. In 1997,theWall
along with other major newspaper and broadcasting com- Streetlournal beganan e)iposureof security firms allocating
panies,filed voluminous documents. . . [that] urged the FCC new stocks at artificially low prices to favored corporate ex-
to abandon the quarter-century old safeguard that prevents ecutives,a]l behind the scenes.The Wall StreetJournal said

ro6 ro7
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY ALL THE NEWS TUET T'TTS?

it had the earmarks of bribing the best clients of security Among the continuing casesof failure of the major news
firms as a way of keeping their business.In 1998,before the media to use readily available information to explain a
scandalsburst, BusinessWeekprtnteda cover story with the shocking development within U.S. cities has been its treat-
blazing line: "Corporate Earnings: Who Can you Trust?,' If ment of homelessness.Local news media were generally
one ignores grammar on the cover of a national magazine, sympathetic, though retail stores complained that homeless-
what the story said was predictive. It said that there was a nesswas bad for business.But aII seemedto think this sud-
"gnawing sensethat companies. . . are regularlypushingthe den phenomenon of the otherwise prosperous r98oswas an
limits, accountants are AWOL, and analysts are too en- act of God. It wasnt. It was an act of Congress.
meshed with their investment-banking brethren to provide The new phenomenon of homelessnesswas a human
objective advice."2o tragedy, but it also had a deeper significance that would
But all was forgotten in the tide of easymillions. Most extend beyond homeless people in the street and have a
business reporting trumpeted the "new economy', and the significance that in the long run involved both domestic and
coming of the era of unintemrpted wealth. The majority of foreign problems. There were causesfor homelessnessitself
business reporters in print and in the "investing,, programs that were ignored or treated only superficially by the major
on television issued stories that in retrospect seemchildlike media and by political leaders of the country.
in their innocenceand joy at the new economy. In 1985,according to a study of governmental expendi-
Three years earlier Business Week warned that many tures by the Department of Housing and Urban Develop-
company auditors finding undocumented profits among ment (HUD) and a study on Housing Related Expenditures
large corporations did not report them in hopes that they by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition,z2the fed-
would be rehired to do audits in the future.2l If widely read eral government, in one way or another, subsidized $42
businessjournals, read routinely by reporters on business billion (measuredin zooz dollars) for low-cost housing,usu-
and finance, made these assertions three years before the ally paying landlords the difference between costs and
collapse, apparently the staffs of hundreds of papers and normal profits. In 1986,during the Reagan administration,
broadcast networks were too excited by the booming stock that amount was cut in half. By zooz the annual expen-
market to notice. ditures were averaging about $3o billion ayea\ a drop of
almost 30 percent from 1985.During that sameperiod, rg85
to 2oo2,the number of householdsin the United Stateshad
The Dead Canarv No One Noticed risen from 88 million to to6 million.2sThus, as the number
of households needing housing rose more than zo percent,
Coal miners used to carry a cagedcanary into the depths of subsidiesfor low-cost housing dropped Sopercent.
the mine becausecanariesare more sensitive than humans By zoo3, partly obscured by war and plans for future
to the fatalmethane gasthat miners dread. Whenthe canary wars, explosive crises were beginning to shake cities and
died, the miners knew they were in danger. states all over the country. A growing number of cities and

ro8 to9
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
ALL THE NEWS TTTAT T'TTS?

counties faced bankruptcy. School fimding, which had begun week, 5z weeks a year, can afford only $268 monthly for rent
to improve student performance by reducing class size and and utilities. Housing costs are higher than this in every
repairing decrepit buildings, began to shrink again. Local county in the country.
civic serrriceswere being cut, some with endangerment to
health and family cohesion.
But, with all the fluctuations over the years in the na- Su-fferThe Little Children . . .
tional economy and changesin the American population, the
one indicator of fundamental, dangerous instability that was Another shameful and unnecessaryconsequenceof home-
visible, dramatic, and an alarming synptom of social and lessness, for which the news media have provided only
economic breakdown was a growing number of homelessin- minor or misleading causes,is its effect on children. The
dividuals and families sleepingin streets,abandonedcaves, bipartisan Millennial Housing Commission, appointed by
and old cars. Their numbers steadily increasedin a process Congressin 2oo2, issued a report on May 3o, zooz, that
that Americans began to take for granted, but the situation stated that the severe housing shortage affects "family sta-
shockedforeigners whose own cities had not seenthe same bility, the environment for children, and the familiar dis-
phenomenon.
rupting of children s lives by having to move constantly in
No developed democratic country can depend on the pri- search [for jobs and] for housing." The problem, the com-
vate home-building and real estate industries to provide mission found, cascadesdown to the revenue for cities and
low-cost, afiordable housing for lowerincome families.
statesbecausehousing and jobs have been "the mainstay of
trrivate builders and banks that finance them prefer middle- the national economy."The major media gave little serious
class and upper-class housing. Homes for poor or low- attention to the commission's report and almost no atten-
income families are less profitable and less stable. In other tion to the origins of the homeless phenomenon since the
developed countries, subsidized housing for low-income mid-r98os.
families is considereda necessity,as is universal health care For the mentally ill who are among the homeless, the
and other standard social programs in which private entre- root cause of their homelessnessis a cruel act of oppor-
preneurs prefer not to deal.
tunism by statesand counties. In the years after World War
The news media, whether sympathetic with or angry at II, psychiatric studies showed that the majority of people in
the unsightly groups, seemedto behave as though their ap- mental institutions would recover or reach stabiJitysooner
pearance was a mystery explainable mainly by addiction, if they were treated in community mental clinics. As a result,
mental illness, or "preferencefor the streets."There are ad- most mental hospitals were emptied, with the promise that
dicts and the mentally ill amongthe homeless,but the stereo- the savedmoney would go into less expensivelocal clinics.
t;rpesrepresentnational escapismfromthe realities.2aThere But few local clinics were created. Federal and state gov-
are at least 6 million low-income households that are either ernments used the savedmoney for unrelated purposes.As
homelessor pay half their income for housing. A household a result, thousands of mentally ill men and women were
with one person working at minimum wage for 4o hours a abandonedto U.S.city streets,without treatment.

110
lu
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY ALL THE NEWS TTTET TTTS?

The Love of Money is the Root . . . srrggestthat the earlier cutbacks in the IRS contributed to the
corporate scandals.zs
The most-read newspapers and the largest audience for President GeorgeW. Bush entered office with the slogan
broadcast news have been easily lured to the "widows and "Leave No Child Behind," but more children live in poverty
orphans" approach oftax-cutters that resulted in unfair shift- today than twentyyears ago,"arrd 42million people,most of
ing of financial burdens from corporations and the wealthy them working but still poor, do not have health insurance,"
to ordinary taxpayers. Beginning with the Reagan adminis- according to a report inthe OrangeCounty Register.26
tration of the r98os, tax-cutting members of Congressand Together with the increasing maldistribution of income
many state legislatures campaigned to cut income taxes, in the United States, in which national wealth has been
claiming that they causedoutrageousharassmentof people flowing to the richest households,most of the domestic ills
I
like poor widows and small-businesspeople, who were in- of the country in the early years of the twenty-first century
timidated by ruthless auditors of the Internal RevenueSer- are not total mysteries. Growing homelessnesswas simply
vice (IRS). Yearafter year, the caseswere highly publicized, an early warning that something was going wrong in the
a]l overblown. As a result, drastic cuts were made in the economy and the social machinery of American democracy.
stafing and appropriations of the IRS. The campaign was The homelessdid not causethe new extremesof maldis-
successfirl.It crippled the operation ofthe most efficient and tributed national income or the epidemic of greed that pro-
fairest tax, the income tax. (AIl other methods, like sales duced the historic magnitude of r99os corporate crimes or a
taxes, ask the least affluent of the public to pay the highest war that distracted attention from problems at home. The
percentageoftheir disposableincome.)In zooz, the IRS said homeless were one of the most obvious victims, but they
it lacked auditors to review complex accountsof large cor- were more than that. Their early appearancein the rg8os and
porations, so they had to limit their audits to the returns of their high visibility was a loud alarm. That strange occur-
middle-class and low-income people. The largest corpora- rence seeminglyout of nowhere meant that, underneath this
tions had won the battle to get away with their riches and let new surface disruption, something deeper and more funda-
working people pay their bills. The media shareresponsibil- mental was going wrong in the American social and eco-
ity in the resulting gross unfairness by reporting uncritically nomic system.
the tax-cutters'horror stories. The "widows and orphans" Among the institutions on which the public dependsto
technique had worked again with the major media, who probe for explanations of a visible disorder in the commu-
seemuneducableon the issue oftaxes. nity are the country's major news media. Sadly,in this case
By zooz, workers, shareholders,and the national econ- these media were satisfied with what were clearly super-
omy were shaken by the dozens of firms like Enron and ficial and basically irrelevant explanations. The major news
major banks that collapsed or were weakened when their media are a democracy's early warning system. Once again
undetected use offraudulent practices and theft shook the in the twenty-first century as too often happened in the
economy and left workers unemployed. Some study groups twentieth, they failed to report that the canary was dead.

tl2 rl3
 PAPER IN THE DIGITAL AGE

The reportsofmy death are greatly exaggerated.

MARK TWAIN Next to the Scaffold:
The Daily Newspaper?

Daily newspapers,now mostly a minor subsidiary among

CHAPTER SIX the multitude of other media owned by large conglomerates,
have been regarded as cumbersome properties with an un-

PAPER
INTHE promising future. On the surface,there was causefor con-
cern. For more than thirtyyears, daily circulation of printed

DIGITAL
AGE
papers has been falling, as have the number of daily papers
in the country. In many ways, the newspaper is the most
troublesomemedium the conglomeratesown. And of all the
printed media, it was the first for which most of the end-of-
print predictors assumedan early death.
The birth and spectacular growth of the Internet have been
Death €urnouncementsof a city daily seem to come with
accompaniedby the last rites pronounced over the impend- regularity. This deepenedWall Street'spoor opinion of news-
ing death of words printed on paper. One inventor, Ray papers, whose annual profits, compared to those ofbroad-
Kurzweil, who works with devicesfor the blind, haswritten
casting, were merely in the zo-z1 percent range (a healthy
that by zo3o molecule-sizebrain implants receiving images profit for any company), while broadcasting profits were
and words will eliminate the need for texts. More typical
3o-6o percent.
was the zoor prediction of Ted padover, CEO of Image
Big conglomerates are prejudiced for another reason.
Source Company: "Personally . .. I believe that most of us
Multimedia firms prefer properties that are easily converted
will seenear extinction of printed works in our lifetime.,,r for reuse among their other media, Iike novels into movies
The predictions continue to grow. Computers are reach- into videos. Daily news cannot be recycled. An original news
ing ever greater capacities for storing information, acceler-
item is dead the day it is printed, while a popular sitcom
ating speed, and improving the clarity of text and images on
or detective series can have an impressive Me span. The
monitor screens.Computer sizesshrink even as their fimc_
TV show I Love Lucy began in rg5r, and although its
tions multiply and theirprices drop. prototypes ofmagazine_
star, Lucille Ball, died in 1989, the original show is still
sizedigital screennewspapershavearticles that are scanned
being rerun in the twenty-first century and making money
and pagesthat are turned by push buttons. There are maga-
worldwide.2
zines re-createdon cell phone screensas well as on firll-size
It is true that the bare statistics appear ominous, and
computers.And in the rggosit becamepossibleto buy hand_
WaIl Street and other financial students,being dedicated to
held computers capableof holding ten novels, each e-book
numbers,are understandablypessimistic.In r97o,6z million
selectedwith a click and its "pages',turned with a button.
papers were sold eachweekday, when there were 63 million

LI4
r15
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY PAPER IN THE DIGITAL AGE

households, suggestingthat almost every home bought a multiplying TV channels.These social changeswere fatal for
daily paper.In 2ooz, 56 million paperswere sold when there big-city afternoon papers.By zoo3,barely half of U.S.house-
were ro6 million households. Apparently, close to half the holds had a daily paper in the house.6
householdsin the United Statesno longer have a daily paper
regularly in the home.8
AnUnfulfilledDream
The enduranceof dailypapers seemspuzzlingwhenpeople,
Deathin theAfternoon
faced with the pace of modern urban life, constantly com-
One statistic in particular has fueled predictions of the de- plain that "no one has enouglr time." And in today's minia-
mise of newspapers. Within the last generation almost half turized, portable society, the newspaper seems to have a
the afternoon dailiss in large cities have died or mergedwith strangeand even ridiculous form. Opened wide, it is a men-
a morning paper. Where once there were an almost equal ace on a crowded commuter train. Read outdoors, a sudden
number of morning and afternoon dailies, by zooz there breeze can create a comic sceneof frantic indignity.
were 47 million morning papers sold each day but only 9 mil- For decades, newspaper publishers themselves have
lion afternoon papers, most of them in smaller cities and complained about their need to support a large brick-and-
towns.a mortar building filled with heavy, extrrensivemachinery and
Curiously, a contribution to the shrinkage of newspaper to employ a group of unorthodox professional workers, the
circulation was the r95os creation of the interstate high- reportorial staff, with whom publishers maintain a love-hate
way system,which led to a major growth of suburbs.sUntil relationship. The factory part of the newspaper has been
the r96os, most breadwinners still took trolleys, buses, or simplified because computers eliminated much of the com-
trains to centralized, downtown factories and offi.ces,often plex mdchinery. Since the r97os,reporters have composed
buying two papers, one for home and for reading on the way their stories on computers, whose keyboards simultaneously
to work on mass transit, and an afternoon paper to read transmit them to editors' screensand thence to production
on the way home and then share with the family for the units, where a printing machine converts each edited story
evening. and headline into a column-wide strip of paper. Relatively
Newspaper circulation grew or remained steady from unskilled workers paste up the stories to form fi-rll pagesthat
that time to rg7o,when commercialoffices,factories,and de- then are transformed into steel plates for the higlr-speed au-
partment stores moved to malls in the suburbs, where there tomated presses.At the end, the firll papers emergein rapid
was cheapland and ample parking. Increased car ownership successionneatly folded and bundled for delivery.
and shrinking mass transit led to highways jammed with Publishers are further galled that distribution to the
commuting drivers, most of them listening to the latest ra- home of each subscribermust still be done one by one. Men
dio news (including trafic reports). When car commuters and women driving vans or cars up the street hurl a paper
reached home, they usually turned on their TV sets and out the window onto the lawn or rose bushes of each sub-
spent the hours after dinner watching offerings from the scriber or, in big cities, deliver them to newsstands or apart-

rr6 rr7
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY PAPER IN THE DIGITAL AGE

ment doors. For a century publishers have dreamed of elec- The huge expanse of the newspaper page is the result of
tronic transmission of the paper into each home, thereby a seventeenth-century tax dodge. When the British Crown
ending pressesand hand deliveries. The dream was so ob- lost patience with upprty London newspapers and placed
sessivethat it produced more than one comical experiment. a ruinous tax on each page, the publishers displayed their
Shortly after World War II, many owners bought FM sta- historic ability to escapetaxes by simply expanding the size
tions, not yet a profitable medium, whose frequencies in- of each page so much that the tax-per-pagedidnt put them
cluded the portion usable for remote printing, which could out of business.Becausethe British were the world's source
end the labor-intensive delivery system.But even if the idea of technology and machinery during the period, ever since,
worked, it was soon clear that it required subscribers to own newspaper presses have been built to issue the largest
the primitive fax machines of that day, and the result would printed page in world publishing.T
be 164 pages of paper-in that era, slimy paper at that- But a more socialfactor keepsthe newspapera common
dumped onto their living room floors every dawn. artifact in the digital age. Newspapers have a unique social
At another time, desperate publishers tried an experi- firnction that their media competitors do not. They are cru-
mental device in a delivery van that contained a computer- cial to American local civic life, which, in turn, is a unique
ized cannon programmed to shoot the rolled newspaper part of the U.S. political system. No other industrial de-
onto the correct street and housenumber of eachsubscriber. mocracy leaves to each community the control of its local
But cannon being cannon, after too many projectiles went schools,police, Iand use, and most taxes. In other countries
through living room windows or knocked little boys off their these are national functions. Thus, every American city and
tricycles, the experiment was abandoned. town has voters involved in the performance of the school
systemin which their children are educated, in the taxes they
pay on their property, and in the behavior of their police
Stopthe Presses?
Not Yet.
force.They vote on these,city by city on election day,and the
Newspapers have not yet disappeared, nor are they likely only medium that informs them of these matters in any de-
to in the near future. The newspaper suryives for reasons tail is the printed newspaper.
that have little to do with clever technology. Its endurance Becausesocial characteristicsare dfficult to quantifr on
depends, in part, precisely on the reader's need to open the charts of Wall Street analysts (on Wall Street, numbers
with arms outstretched a double page that covers more than are Holy Scripture),predictions of an early demisefor news-
l,ooo square inches of columns and stories, 48 inches wide papers will continue.
and zz inches deep. What sounds like a ridiculous expanse Though there are an increasing number of U.S. cities
ofprint is, in fact, an advantage.Each reader's eye can scan without their own daily papea weekly papers take their
and select from the expanse the one or two stories of in- place. In villages the gap is filled with copy-machine sheets
terest to that particular reader and do it more rapidly than that post civic and political items in stores and post offices.
scrolling even the sharpest presentation on a computer These social functions are Iikely to extend the life and
screen. solvency of the printed newspaper and keep it a substantial

rrB rr9
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
PAPER IN THE DIGITAL AGE

presence in the media scenefor many years. Readers can Iittle reason to buy a daily paper. As a result, the daily news-
quickly scan forty or one hundred social and political stories paper has become the medium for the middle and upper
and accountsofdozens ofcultural events, all capableofde- classes.Ironically, the dailypaper's long, detailed storiesare
tail andbackground. the basis for most reporting in rafio and television, which
Broadcasting can transmit only one item at atime. A cur- specielizein brief items. In Washington, D.C., almost every
rent television news item that is rzo secondsis considered high government executive,member of Congress,and head
"long," a similar news item on the radio even more so. The of a government agency begins the day by reading the New
items over the air must be brief becausebroadcasters are York Times,fhe Wall StreetJournal, and the WashingtonPost.
terrified by something even more fearsome than a poor A similarpractice existsin statehousesand cityhalls around
Nielsen rating: the viewer's hand-held remote control with the country. The newspaper might provide within its details
channel buttons. If confronted with one moment of bore- the tidbits used by broadcasters.Using the newspapersas
dom, uncounted thousands of homes press the dreaded source material permits local station owners to have much
channel button and the broadcaster'sprogram disappears. smaller news staffsthan do newspapers.
Despite their longer and more mrmerous stories, news-
TheNonaffluentNeedNotApply papers share responsibility for the narrow political spectrum
in American electoral politics. Newspapers' relatively de-
Dailynewspapers have refused to die as anational medium, tailed stories are still clustered around the center-right
but it would be romantic to ascribe the survival of newspa- of politics because their news is mainly drawn from corpo-
pers to their unblemished virtue. Too many publishers have rate life and major political leaders. It was not always this
wanted short-rangesuccesswith truncated staffs,shrunken way, and the country's politics showed it. As described in
news space,and unintemrpted growth of profits. There is more detail later in this book, in the late nineteenth century,
still far from universal recognition by owners of newspaper every American city of any size had half a dozen papers
chains that their advantage over competing media is pre- or more, and their politics both in editorials and news em-
cisely the wide selection of subject matter capableof depth phasis ranged from far left to far right and everything in
and detail that cannot be copied by other media. Further- between.
more, most newspapersstill reflect in their sourcesand con- By the early twenty-first century literally 9g.9 percent
tent the world as seen by leaders of corporate and public of contemporary daily papers are a monopoly in their
high offices. Seldom,if ever, do daily sectionsdeal with con- own cities. That is in sharp contrast to the newspaper scene
tinuing needs of ordinary American families, needs that in other industrialized countries. In London, for example,
differ from those of the people with whom publishers have there are twelve daily papers; in Paris, thirty-three; in Tokyo,
lunch. thirty-one.8 The multiple newspapers of all kinds in foreign
People who are not affluent seldom see stories about capitals (whose governments are not decentralized, as in the
their day-to-day pains and pleasures and consequently see United States)expose their citizens to a wide range of po-

r2o
l2l
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY PAPER IN THE DIGITAL AGE

litical and ideological ideas and programs. The U.S. major billion in revenues that year. Time Warner alone owned
media display a constricted political spectrum, which is a magazineswith rz percent of national revenues,followed by
powerfirl factor in the relatively narrow range of choicesthat Hearst, Advance, International Data, Reed Elsevier, and
American voters face each election day. McGraw-Hill.10
That 99.9 percent of morning papers are monopolies in The printed magazine is alive and well, perhaps the
their own cities understatesthe problem. Owners exchange printed form least constricted by the growth of digital media.
papers with each other or buy and sell papers so each can The proliferation of magazines follows the proliferation of
have as many newspapersas possible in a geographicclus- consumer goods. When one kind of product has suftcient
ter. This permits individual owners to have somethingclose sales,it can lead to a new magazinespecializingin whatever
to amonopolyfor dailyprinted advertising in that region and the subjectmay be-from motorcycles to sex.
in many casesto use one regional newsroom to serve all their The circulation of a magazine depends on how it is
papers in that cluster. distributed. Some are among the many inserts in Sunday
The consequencehas been that, even while all newspa- newspapers and have a large distribution, thanks to the
per circulation slowly drops, with big-city afternoon papers newspaper industry having its fattest papers and highest
rare, the remaining morning papers are more securethan in circulations on Sunday,when national circulation hovers
the past and average profits per paper are almost double around 6o million. It is dfficult to know how many of
their levels thirty years earlier. the inserted magazinesin those Sundaypapers survive the
The leading newspapergroups (owners prefer "groups" common Sunday morning ritual that throws out unwanted
to "chains") are Gannett, with 97 dailies with 7 million total sections and inserts unread. 'Ihus, Parade magazinehas a
circulation, followed in order by Knight Ridder, with 34 circulation of 35 million, but it is in a Sunday newspaper in-
papers and 4 million circulation; the Tribune Company (Chi- sert, which a family may or may not immediately throw into
cago),with rr papers and 3.Smillion circulation; Advance the recyclingbin.
Publications (Newhouse),with z7 papers and 3 million cir- Other magazines are issued by organizationsthat dis-
culation; and the New York Times Company, with r7 news- tribute them as an inducement and promotion for the
papers and r7 million circulation.e organization and its goals.The.A-ARP magazineof the Amer-
ican Association of Retired Persons,for example, had zr.5
million circulation in 2oo3 but comes automatically with the
A Medium for Dentists'Offices? very low membership fee, twelve dollars ayear.
The once-mighty national magazines of general circula-
Another printed medium, magazines,did not escapethe ac- tion-Life, Look, and Saturday Evening Post-aJ),died at the
quisitions that swept many different media into each of the height of their circulation, about 7 million each,in the late
leading conglomerates.In 2oor, there were ry,6g4consumer r96os, when high-qualrty color television finally became a
and business magazines published in the United States, common household appliance. Until then, the only reliable
but the ro Iargest ones had z6 percent of the industry's $27 mediafor advertisers who wantedhigh-quality color for na-

t22 r23
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY PAPER IN THE DIGITAL AGE

tional distribution were the slicklaper national magazines TWenty-threeHundred

of general interest. When widespread color television pro-
vided a larger audienceat lesscostper consumer,the former
YearsOld but Still Around:
m2 gazinetriumvirate die d. The Book Printed on Paper
By zoo3, leading magazines by subscription revenues
were TV Guide, PeopleWeekly,Reader'sDigest, Time Mag- The book, printed on paper and bound by cloth or glossy
azine, Sports lllustrated, National Geographic, National heavy paper, was once predicted to be among the first
Enquirer, Better Homes and Garden, Newsweek,and Sfar.ll victims condemned to death by computerized forms. But
Other magazines are simply adjuncts to popular television printed books have been obstinate survivors.
programs that are oriented around celebrities ltke O, The Some early Internet executives and extrlerts,and not a
OprahMagazine,ESPNTheMagazine, alrrdDiscwer. few book people, were among the prophets of doom. They
The r96os sexualrevolution made illustrated sex scenes predicted that in a short time books as we know them would
in periodicalsl*e Playboy,Penthouse,and Playgirl almost, disappear and argued, with some evidence, that the substi-
thoug;hnot quite, coffee-tablehousehold periodicals. Even tute was at hand and had genuine advantages over the
the women s magazines,oncedesignedfor the former home- conventional book. The substitute was the e-book, a single
body looking for decorating schemes and new diets for handheld device with the capacity of a modest home book-
husband and children, now stare out from supermarket sheHand modern, high-speedreproduction techniques.
checkout counters with cover eye-catcherslike "rz Differ- The basic rationale was that readers would no longerpay
ent Ways to Drive Your Man Wild in Bed." It has become twenty to thirry dollars for a book that weighed around two
acceptable that women can also be interested in sex and pounds and was seven inches by ten and contained only
pornography. one novel or nonfiction work. In contrast,a handheld e-book
Another supermarket rack is for the ever-present maga- weighed perhaps eight ounces, could fit comfortably in a
zines of celebrity gossip, well-known actors breaking up shirt pocket or small purse and contain the equivalent of ten
with their fashion model girlfriends, divorcees telling se- fi.rll-length novels. There was every reason to believe that the
crets about former husbands, "The Real Story Behind ..." fire resolution would be as clear and readable in an e-book
and stories of "miraculous" eventsin distant places.The tra- as in a well-printed book, and its "pages" turned conve-
ditional regulars are still displayed, Iike the National En- niently when the reader presseda button.
quirer, but now with fewer stories about a New Zealand wolf Why, it was reasoned, would one have to keep running
giving birth to human twins. Magazine racks in chain and to a bookstore, maintain or build ever larger bookshelves, in-
Iarge independent bookstoresare often a hundred or more crease the burden ofheary carry-on bags dragged onto air-
feet in total length, evidencethat the new specializedmaga- planes, or add to the cruelty of ever heavier textbooks stu-ffed
zines aswell as titles ofpast decadeshave not forsakenprint into the bulging backpacks already distorting the spines of
in favor of their computerized digital forms.tz students?

124 r25
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
PAPER IN THE DIGITAL AGE

But digital books,for all their convenient sizeand versa- money or recommend that their clients buy its stock;as a re-
tility, faced reader preference for the old-fashioned book sult, its shareswill drop on the stock market.
printed on paper and bound in hardcover or heavy paper. In As the corporate disasters of the rggos demonstrated,
2oo2, the estimated highest averageper capita spending on under this pressuremany firms announced"expectedearn-
media by U.S. consumerswas gzrz for basic cable and TV, ings" based on dubious data that in the end failed not only
secondwas $uo for home videos, followed closely by $roo their ordinary shareholders but the national economy.lsDe-
for books. Trailing books by far were records, newspapers, spite the unpredictability, every major publisher hopes a
magazines,movies, and other media.13 new book will be a bestseller,even though every book per-
In 1995,for example, consumers spent $25 million for son knows that only a microscopicpercentageof books ever
books of all kinds and in zooo, g3z million.la There are at make that list, and even somethat do so fail to make aprofit.
least 3So dictionaries of computer terms-all printed on But for both authors and publishers, hope springs eternal in
paper and issued as conventional books. the human breast.
When the largest media conglomerateof them all, Time
TheCapriciousCommodity Warner, had to reduce the $29billion debt it incurred for the
marriage of AOL and Time Warner, it decided to raise the
In the twenty-first century books regularly continue to frus- money by offering its book division for sale at $4oo million
trate major media conglomerates. Books are a capricious but had to lower the price when the high price brought no
commodity. Some of the most lavishly financed and pro- bids.l6When the French conglomerateVivendi beganto suc-
moted books by celebratedmassmarket authors simply fail cumb to its debt, among the first of its media collection sold
to cover their costs,while periodically other books written was Boston's Houghton MiffIin publishing company.lT
by unknowns or printed by small publishers, and even some As Ver\'n Klinkenborg wrote in the New York Times,
books self-producedand paid for by their authors, occasion- "The old assumption of book publishing-that it earned
ally make profits. A few becomebestsellers. modest, steadyprofits built on a respectedstableof authors
Bertelsmann, one of the Big Five media cong;lomerates, and a deep back list-now seemspractically prehistoric."ls
fired a popular editor in the firrn s book division, Random The book as we know it, while not prehistoric, is, in fact,
House,not becauseher book saleshad failed to make a profit twenty-three hundred years old.
but becausethey had failed to achieve predetermined "ex-
pected profits." Large publicly traded conglomerates that
announce "higher expected earnings" are favored by Wall TheUpstar t'sInvention
Street becausethe prospect of merely the announcementit- Though today's leading conglomerates worry about their
seHwill attract investors and thus automatically raise share books making suficient profits, historically the book is the
prices, permitting popular analyststo recommendthe stock. product of a monopoly. In the secondcentury 8.C., Egypt s
If an "expected earnings" statement is insu_frcientlycheer- Ptolemy V was the proud inheritor of the greatest library
firl, investment banks will be less eagerto lend the company in the world, the Too,ooo scrolls in the famous Alexandrian

tzG r27
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY PAPER IN THE DIGITAL AGE

library. The scrolls, containing the learning and histories is a project of the Alexandria ScholarsCollective. The plan
of the recorded world, were made from flattened Nile River calls for a new, modernistic structure in the ancient Egyp-
reeds.When EumenesII, monarch of Pergamum(now Tur- tian city, with its ultimate goal to make a digital record of
key), wanted his own great library equal to the Alexandrian every book in existence.Using modern technolory and the
and tried to import reeds from the Nile, Ptolemy V was enthusiasm ofbook and charitable groups, it hopes to be-
a^ffrontedby the upstart and declared a monopoly on Nile come, among other things, an inexpensiveand rapid source
River reeds. for sending appropriate books to impoverished countries. It
Eumenes was forced to have his scribes write on both hopes also to become a scholarly depository of the world's
sides of animal skins. But squaresof cut hides did not make published works.2o
compact scrolls, not even the finest hides, the skins of The modern digital world is filled with attempts at pri-
unborn lambs. They were also unwieldy as a collection of in- vate monopolies, not so much for the glory of a leader as for
dividual sheets,so Eumeneshad each particular work pre- market power in billion-dollar industries. Modern leaders of
pared for library storage by sewing together one edge to great industries no longer display their high status in their
make a hinge. The book was born. The spirit of Eumenes sur- Iibraries but by their high compensation,stock options, and
vives in the word parchment, derived from his kingdom, lavish pension plans compared with other conglomerate
Pergamum.le presidents. Entrepreneurs,Iike IBM in computers and Bill
The book was what would be called today a "random ac- Gates's Microsoft, which is coming close to monopoly in
cessmedium." Unlike the scroll, which had to be unrolled all computer operating programs, have led to Eumenes-Iike
the way if the desired text was near the end, the book could counter moves, Iike Apple in computers and Unix to com-
be opened at once to any desired section. pete with Windows operating programs.
(A mixed fate unfolded for the Alexandrian scrolls. The At one time, big-chain booksellerslike Barnes & Noble,
library became a lover's gift when Cleopatra gave it to one looking to their future, announcedthat they would soon sell
of her favorite lovers, Marc Antony. Finally, when Christian books-on-demand.Customers asking for a book not on the
conquerors reached Alexandria, they perceived the scrolls shelves of the store could obtain a downloaded digital ver-
as symbols of a pagan religion and burned down the library.) sion when they plugged in their handheld computers.If the
The story of books versus scrolls demonstrates a com- customerinsisted,a specialmachinein eachBarnes& Noble
mon characteristicof new technologiesintruding upon older store would receive the electronic version and, using exist-
ones. Books and scrolls co-existedin common use until the ing techniquesof copying,binding, and paperbackcovering,
thirteenth centu4z.Scrolls are still used today for special cer- hand over a complete book to the customer the next day. A
emonies, Iike graduation exercises and special proclama- few years later, the plan had failed to become a reality for
tions by politicians. A new masstechnologyseldomremoves both technical and economic reasons.But Barnes & Noble
its predecessorat once. Generally, the two survive side by continues to be the country's largest bookseller, with more
side for many years, as did farm horses and tractors. than r,5oo stores, followed closely by Borders Group, with
A twenty-first-century version of the Alexandrian library l,lgo.21

rzB 129
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY

When computersfirst cameinto common useinthe mid- On a discountedcash-flowbasis

rg8os,it was said that they had ushered in the paperlessso- t.heearth simply is not worth saving.
ciety. Fifteen years later, the annual consumption of paper in s. DAVrDFREEMAN,formerchairman, TVA;
the United Stateshad increasedby 67 percent.z2 iruthor of Time to Choose
The double helix of literate civilization seemsto include
a gene that programs an appetite for words on paper.

CHAPTER SEVEN

REBELLION
AND
REMEDIES
There has been much at the turn of the century that is dis-
heartening. The catastrophesvisited on the country by the
hijackers of commercial airliners on Septemberrr, 2oor dev-
astatedthe United States'imageofitseHand ofthe rest ofthe
world. That was followed by the devastation of the country's
belief in the integrity of its economy. The unprecedented
magnitude of corporate fraud, theft, and collusion was not
by fly-by-night sleazy operators but by some of the country's
largest corporations. Gone also in a seeming split second
was the record of trusted auditing firms whose namesat the
end of annual reports had always permitted stockholdersto
breathe easily. Perhapsmore shocking, the country's most
prestigious banks, for more than a century trusted as tem-
ples of fiscal rectitude, had beenknowing conspiratorsin the
squalid tricks.
Government agenciesof the past, like the Federal Com-
munications Commissionmajority in zooo, abandonedtheir
Iegal obligation to protect and promote the diverse interests

130
l3l
THE NE\]\/ MEDIA MONOPOLY REBELLION AND REMEDIES

of the country's media audience. In efiect, the commission Raysof Light

turned over the public's property-the airwaves-to huge
media corporationsthat thenbecamealawunto themselves. Within this gloom there is some light. When the first edition
This was aided and abetted by oversight agencies like of this book was published, it warned, "Each generationhas
the Securitiesand ExchangeCommissionand the Anti-Trust to establish its own priorities and re-invigorate the best prin-
Division of the Department of Justice, both deliberately ciples ofthe society."lThat new generation,now joined with
weakened over the years by a White House and Congress veteran allies in the struggle for freedom of significant in-
dependenton corporate contributions to obtainthe obscene formation, has appearedon the scene.Confronted with the
amounts of money used to run for public office. If all of that arrogance a:rd avarice of the mass media conglomerates,
were insufi.cient as an inauspicious opening of a new cen- older reform groups,hardenedby their experiencewith past
tury the country declared an open-ended war in one of the failures, combined with a new generation seemingly born
most unstable arenasof the globe. with inherent skills in the uses of digital technology, has
It is precisely in these circumstancesthat the perform- risen to the challenge.
ance of the country's mass media is tested. The majority of By zoo3, there were more than one hundred media
Americans depend on the standard news media for full and reform organizations, a few from the Far Right but most of
realistic reporting with relevant background. With few ex- them moderate or progressivealternatives to the rigid and
ceptions the main media failed the challenge. limited spectrum of the major media. Unlike some past re-
As noted previously, the early years of the twenty-first formers, the new onespossessexpertise in not only how the
century found the country's media world controlled not by media operate but also the complexities of how thesemedia
the fifty corporations oftwentyyears earlier, but by all those are linked to the generalpolitical system.Skills in new tech-
past media, plus new ones, compacted into five giant con- nology have been used for creative, progressiveworks that
glomerates. These five conglomerateshad interlocks with are open and surprisingly successfirl.A generationof mostly
eachother. Togetherthey offered only a limited spectrum of youthfirl Internet journalists and anthologistshas bypassed
the political information and commentary appropriate for a the traditional standard media by providing national and
nation of widely difiering regions and needs.Yet these five global news not always found in big-media broadcast and
conglomeratesare the designatedstewards of the absolute printed news.
necessit;rin a democracy:citizens in a democracyneed firll These emerging workers in the digital media have also
information about their government and the state of their so- mobilized substantial national and worldwide nonviolent
ciety in order to be sufficiently informed of their true self- protests, a"Imostentirely through the Internet, against some
interest when they cast ballots on election day.When some of the traditional centers of world economic power like the
of the most pressing domesticproblems and a fair spectrum World Trade Organization and other financial conferences
of ideas and commentary have disappeared from the main of global economic institutions. The bankers,powerfirl con-
media, the American public has lost its real choices. trollers ofbillions and with their counterparts in major gov-

132 r33
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY REBELLION AND REMEDIES

ernments, once flew to the most prominent and pleasant Americans listen to a conservativehost, but 4-5 percent lis-
world capitals, often in their own private jet planes. They ten to a moderate or liberal show.3
now have retreated to obscure and difficult terrain, like It is some comfort for those looking for social uplift in af-
alpine villages and Doha, Qatar,to escapethe newly sophis- ternoon TV showsthat the lead, by far, is Oprah.In addition
ticated opposition of the young. Though hardly the final to her human interest guest interviews, she has become a
victory ofthe Davids over the Goliaths, the multiplication of major influence on serious book reading by regularly rec-
sophisticatedDavids, young and old, has made progressin ommending a particular book. Most of her choicesnot only
creating possibilities for a more democratic media. causeeuphoria among the publishers but notably contribute
to national literacy. Nevertheless,among the top ten after-
noon TV showsare severalwho join Limbaugh asprinces of
Not YetEden darkness.
Among the country's newspapers,most dailies continue
In the new century progressive reform movements still to remain close to the center-right but increasingly include
must deal with a formidable arrnory of broadcast programs occasional details of social problems and some attempt at
from the Far Right. In zoo3, Rush Limbaugh, for example, balance in their op-ed political columnists. The New York
had an audience of zo millionfor his daily diatribes, which Times, long the voice of the political and financial estab-
were largely against anything left of his own ultra-right lishment, has shown more initiative in recent years. Many
policies and stunningly bizarre fantasies.2Daytime radio, of its investigative initiatives have been uniquely useful, if
dominated by the largest owners, has become a right-wing one excludesthe serieson the alleged involvement of Presi-
propagandamachine with crudities and right-wing consis- dent and Hillary Clinton in the Arkansas Whitewater scan-
tency that shock and puzzle observers from other indus- dal, which turned out to be a journalistic indictment without
trial democracies.As noted earlier, the largest radio chain substance.
in the country Clear Channel, has twelve hundred stations Readers will notice that I cite the New York Times fre-
that dwarf all lesser radio broadcasters,with its star talk quently, both as a reliable source and as a failed source. I
show, Limbaugh's, followed by a similar menu of right-wing have used it becauseit is the only national newspaperfor the
commentators specializing in crude diatribes and juvenile generalaudienceand has more than z5o print and broadcast
vocabularies. The remainder is canned syndicated music news organizations that subscribe to its services, most of
censoredofany lyrics that hint ofsocial-conscienceideas. which usenews or syndicatedcolumnistsfromthe NewYork
An analysis by the University of Pennsylvania Annen- Times daily. For these same reasons,when the Times srtc-
berg Public Policy Center found that rBpercent of U.S.adults ceedsor fails it has a disproportionate effect on most of the
listen to at least two political call-in shows a week. About 7 other printed and broadcast news and, of course, on the
percent listened only to Limbaugh, and 4 percent listened American public.
to Limbaugh and others like him. About z3 percent of all -Ihe
Wall Streetlournal and USA Today are nationally

134 135
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY REBELLION AND REMEDIES

distributed but are specialized. The Jburnal news sections past decades,government antitrust actions have responded
carry the most authoritative and detailed reports of corpo- sharply to domesticmonopoliesbut consideredit evenmore
rate life, and USA Today, designed mainly for travelers and egregious when large conglomerates cooperated with each
distributed heavily in airports and hotel rooms, has evolved other by becoming partners in the pattern of cartels. As men-
from its early period of irrelevant novelties to an adulthood tioned earlier, joint ventures are now common among all the
of respectable specialized reporting and balanced op-ed Big Five, even to the extent of swapping properties by way
debates. of lending money to produce mutual profits for the ostensi-
ble "competitors."
The globalization of world economy and communica-
NecessaryRemedies tions has been an excuse for suspending antitrust action
needed to protect the American public from the excesses
The dominant concern is that the five huge media conglom- of their multinational corporations. But monopolies and
erates,for all realistic purposes,now control what the Amer- cartels in foreign countries that make life harder for large
ican public learns-or doesnot learn-about its own world. American corporations are quick to hear protests from
It was oncepossibleto consider excessiveconcentratedcon- Washington. In zoo3, a status report from the Department
trol of the mass media as a distinct entity on its own, a for- of Justice declared, "Since the mid-rggos, the Antitrust Di-
midable force in the national economyand politics. But it is vision of the U.S. Department of Justice has employed a
no longer possible to separatethe media giants from other strategy of concentrating its enforcement resources on in-
major industries. Ownership of media is now so integrated ternational cartels that victimize American businesses and
in political orientation and businessconnectionsw"ith all of consumers."aEven though the report includes the wordcon-
the largest industries in the American economy that they sumers,the context of the statementis clear that, when con-
have become a coalition of power on an international scale. sumers are U.S. corporations, the government is outraged
Consequently, remedies that might return media to their that foreign cartels allegedly victimize them, and the De-
proper role as a source of the information needed to sustain partment ofJustice is quick to act. U.S.monopolies and car-
the American democracy require laws and regulations that tels that merely "victimize" individual American consumers
apply not only to the unique qualities of the mass media but seemnot to be important.
also to the entire political economy, with which the mass
media have dynamic interlocks.
FCC:ObeytheLaw
It is urgent to repeal or totally revise the 1996Telecommu-
AntitrustAction
nications Act, which provided the law and the encourage-
The most obvious remedy for industrial giantism of all kinds ment for the creation of overpowering media giants. The
is antitrust action by the U.S. Department of Justice.There 1996Act was created, according to the WaIl StreetJournal,
is a need to break up the Big Five media conglomerates.In when the "Gingrich class" of rgg4 Republicans privately

r36 r3T
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY REBELLION AND REMEDIES

asked the industry what it wanted and almost literally gave

TheFairnessDoctrine
them the law they askedfor. The indiscriminate passionfor
deregulation of everything by corporate-minded ideologues The first dramatic changein the country's broadcasting came
has produced unmitigated disaster for cities and states in the mid-rg8os,when a concerted campaignwas launched
throughout the United States,in the economy and particu- by the National Associationof Broadcastersand its member
Iarly in the relationship or lack of it between the massmedia stations to repeal the FairnessDoctrine. The FairnessDoc-
and the American public. trine required stations to devote a reasonable time to dis-
Of special concern to the media audience is the recent cussionsof serious public issuesand allowed equal time for
record of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), opposing views to be heard. By the mid-rg8os, there had
which controls broadcasting. It flagrantly abandoned its pri- been years ofbroadcasters' complaints that keeping records
mary Iegal obligations:to protect the consumerof news and was too onerous, thoug;htheir annual profits were among
other media, to guarantee cities' accessto their own local the highest among American industries. The broadcasters
radio and television stations,and to give each communit;r a insisted that the FairnessDoctrine requirement in fact ham-
voice in approving licensesbased on the past performance pered local and national discussion programs from dis-
of their local station. cussing civic issues and that repeal would increase these
For decadespast, FCC regulationsand former broadcast community debates on serious matters. The broadcasters
law awarded licenseson the basisofwhat kinds ofprograms succeededin repealing Fairness;in the next six months, civic
each applicant for a broadcast license committed itself to discussionson the air dropped 3r percent. Sincethen, they
provide for the needsofthe cities covered by its stations.In have almost completely disappearedin major markets.s
contrast,Iicensesare now granted to whichever corporation The impact of conglomeration and loss of diversity is
has the most money, with no obligations except to operate clearly demonstrated in newspaper editorials on the Fair-
"in the public interest," a phrase still in communications law, nessDoctrine. Before newspapersand their conglomerates
which in recent years has meant less than nothing. beganbuying broadcaststations,in 1969when the Supreme
In the past, when a station s license came up for renewal, Court ruled that the Fairness Doctrine was constitutional,
the station was asked to demonstrate, with its broadcast the majority ofnewspapers editorialized in favor ofthe Fair-
schedules,whether it had made at least a nominal effort to ness Doctrine. But by 1984,when newspapershad become
keep its earlier commitments to the communities in its local part of the growing conglomeratesthat owned both news-
market. In addition, arry cltizens with a seriqus complaint papers and broadcast stations, those newspapers had re-
were able to protest a renewal in a formal hearing. versed their positions and editorialized againstthe Fairness
From rg34to rg8o that system,with all its imperfections Doctrine. At least 84 percent of newspaper editorials then
and devious evasionsby station owners, did in fact produce argued that the Fairness Doctrine should no longer be re-
accessby citizens to their own stations and provide a wide quired. Diversity of opinions had begun to shrink and rights
range ofprograms for a variety of agesand aufiences, a range of reply disappearedfrom the U.S.airwaves.6
of quantity and quality that began to disappear in the rg8os. In the past, the Fairness requirement was an incentive

r3B r39
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY REBELLION AND REMEDIES

for stations to offer air time to local groups to avoid a battle Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts,New Hampshire,
when their licenses came up for renewal. During the fifty Rhode Island, andVermont:radio zoo6, TV stations zoog;
years of FairnessDoctrine, the FCC neverrevokedalicense. New Jersey and New York: rafio zoo6,TY zooT;
(Communications law, from the start, has always forbidden Texas:radio zoo5 and zor3,TV zoo6 andzot4;
the FCC from mandating specific content for any station.) If California, radio zoo5 and zor3,TV zoo6 andzor4;
the Fairness Doctrine were reinstated now; there would be Ohio and Michigan, rafio zoo4 and sorz.
no inhibition of the Rush Limbaughs and other wild talk
shows, but individuals now unfairly accusedofbeing insane
or "Nazis"-in this case,the kind of rhetoric used to char- In the Absenceof Law. Lawlessness
acterize equal rights for women-would have a chance to
reply. The FCC retreat from real regulation of broadcasting for the
benefit ofthe general public has resulted in illegal protests,
like pirate, or unlicensed, broadcasts that are transmitted
ThePublicVoicein LicenseRenewal
by individually assembled, portable, low-powered stations
Another remedial action that has produced at least modest that reach a particular community, now without news about
results in the past has been challengesby commumty groups their cities. The most publicized was "Radio Free Berkeley,'
to stations' license renewals. The renewal period was ex- based in a van that moved to difierent locations in the hills
panded from three years to eight by the disastrous 1996 about that city and broadcast news of interest and notice
TelecommunicationsAct, which started the removal of re- of educational events to the community and its minority
strictions on ownership. Even so, protests against renewal groups. Becauseunlicensed broadcastingis a federal crime
are still a citizen right that in the past permitted excluded punishable by fines and imprisonment, one of the earliest pi-
major groups to gain air time. It is still possible to launch rates, Stephen Dunifer, was eventually located by the FCC,
such a challenge as the date for a local station s license re- convicted in court, fined, and placed on probation.T
newal approaches. The FCC combines renewal dates for re- In the meantime, at least one thousand illegal low-pow-
gronalgroups ofstates. Protestersin eachregion would need ered stations appeared around the country. They seem to
to know when to do their recordkeeping as evidence of im- continue in the United States,are common in other coun-
proper or absent concern with serious news programming tries, and are not likely to disappear.Among a generation
on their local stations. They would also havp to be reminded, ofyoung people are youths sophisticated in circuitry and a
regularly, that they own the air waves and, consequently, desire to reach their own neighborhoods and towns. A low-
control the licensesfor its use. powered transmitter, small antenna, and amplifier can be
Each group of stateshas its own eiglrtyear renewal cycle built for about five hundred dollars with parts available at
for both radio and television stations in that region. Someex- Radio Shack.Operators broadcast from their garages,attics,
amples are the following: or their own rooms and generally tend to avoid offensive lan-

r40 141
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
REBELLION AND REMEDIES

guageor capricious comments,presumably fiodittg a neigh- Media monopolies have damaged basic institutions of the
borhood gratefirl for the only source of news about itself.8 country which have been forced to find their own escapes
There are thirty-five hundred applications pending before from both intrusive laws and the absence of laws.
the FCC for permits for low-power neighborhood broad- Libraries, for example, are faced with rising book costs
casting,efeeding the hunger in most communities for local from conglomeratepublishers and increasingly use interli-
news they do not get from their own stations. A great deal of brary loans to sharelesscommonly used books. At the same
chaos,illegal transmissions,and theft oflegal cableand dish time they have had to deal with emergencylaws passedafter
transmissionsare likely to continue as long as the FCC per- 9/rr that permit the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)to
mits such a limited variety of programs and such limited monitor individual usersofbooks and periodicals. Libraries
public accessto its own local stations. have imposed their own internal policies to minimize ofrcial
Another major gapis the U.S.limitation to only one non- snooping into those who take out books. Judith F. Krug, di_
commercial public broadcasting system, unlike the multiple rector of the American Library Association Office for In_
varied ones in Britain, Japan,and other democracies.Until tellectual Freedom, said, "We believe that what you read is
there is the kind of adequate, multichannel television that is nobody's businessbut your own.',10
truly noncommercial and devoted to children, education,
adult entertainment, and the popular and performing arts,
the most technologically advanced and richest country in
the world will continue to have the least capaciousnoncom-
mercial broadcast systemamong its peer nations.
Ever larger conglomerateswill encourage devious es- diately, every day. Enron is not the only organization that
capesunless the U.S. Department ofJustice follows the Eu- knows when and how to keep its shreddersbusy.
ropean Community's antitrust prohibitions, typified by its
blocking of the merger of Elsevier and Wolters Kluwer in ac-
ademic publishing (a European act that, ironically, despite Scholars,Ph.D. versusDoIIars,Inc.
U.S. reluctance to use antitrust against its own media con- There is a quiet corner of U.S. media in which the govern-
glomerates,benefits U.S.researchand development). ment's reluctanceto use antitrust laws has, in an ironic way,
undercut a crucial element in the nation,s continued domi-
nance as the world's most powerfi:l superpower. Central
Rebellionin the Grovesof Academe to U.S.long-term developmentis its abfity to remain a lead_
ing user of basic researchand development. It was crucial a
In far more quiet and less dramatic actions, the most re- century ago in mobilizing its vast continental resources in
spectable of institutions, Iibraries, and universities of the the Industrial Revolution, and it is crucial today as research
country have been forced to create their own (legal) way of and development underlie the country,s industr;r, economic
avoiding the prohibitive pricing ofthe academic monopolies. health, and even its dominance in weaponry. The atomic

r42
r43
THE NE\^/ MEDIA MONOPOLY REBELLION AND REMEDIES

bomb in World War II fid not leap unbidden from a corpo- and the fixture in every bookstore and library of any size,
rate boardroom. the multivolume Boolcsin Print, along with other standard
What appears to the brokers of legislation and fiscal mat- items, librarian and bookseller standard references, pub-
ters in Washington as literally an academic matter resides in IishersWeekly,and Library lournal.l2
a growing crisis in the libraries of U.S. universities. The second dominant academic publisher, Wolters
Access to the most important literature in intellectual Kluwer, also in the Netherlands, has been making acqui-
and scientific journals is increasingly threatened by great sitions since its establishment in 1889.Elsevier was about
leaps in prices demanded by a global triumvirate of media to acquire Wolters Kluwer for $8.8billion in 1998,but when
monopolists in academicjournals. The three dominant com- the European Community Monopoly Commission objected,
panies-Reed Elsevier and Wolters Kluwer in the Nether- the merger did not occur.l3
lands and John Wiley in the United States-can do this The third dominant academic and professional book
becauseeach has the ultimate paradise of a monopoly: a cap- publisherin digital andprintedform is theJohnWiley Com-
tive market. pany in the United States,started in r8o7.Wiley foresaw the
Modern scholars must comply with stringent academic $owth of the Industrial Revolution, shifted emphasis to
requirements before their work is acceptedand published. books about science and technology, and has remained a
They must first have their long and highly researched dis- specialistin that genreever since.In the rgoos,socialscience
sertations reviewed by two presumably neutral scholars in and college- and graduate-level textbooks became major
their field and then be accepted by a reputable academic products and more recently books on medicine and medical
journal. Completion of this process is required before ac- education. In rg97,Wiley acquired Van Nostrand Reinhold
ceptance into the university faculty with lifetime tenure, the and became publisher for the American Cancer Society's
Holy Grail ofyoung scholars. journal CancenThey have since acquired Jossey-Bass,Las-
Professors and would-be professors face the never- ser tax guides, and the Dummies computer series. By zooz
ending crisis: "publish or perish." Granted, in the seven- their revenues exceeded$7oo million.la
teenth century, Galileo Galilei had it harder becausehe faced This great leap in prices for academic and professional
'publish
andpeisH'when sent to the Inquisition for violat- work, along with budget cuts of universities as a whole, has
ing the biblical dogma that the earth is the center of the causeda crisis for researchlibraries. "The . . . crisis is now in
r:niverse.ll But today the burning of heretics at the stake has its fourth decade,"according to Prof. Peter Suber,of EarI-
been succeededbythe more profitable practice ofexorbitant ham College.
prices charged by the three global publishing monopolies.
ReedElsevier, started in 186o,continuesto acquire other We'relongpastthepointof damage controland intotheeraofd.amage.
publishers: in rgg3 The Official Airline Guides;in 1997four Priceslimit access,
andintolerable
priceslimit access intolerably.
Every
researchinstitutionin theworldsuffers
from intolerableaccess limita-
companies and an alliance with Microsoft; in rg98 Matthew
tions,nomatterhowwealthy.Notonlymustlibrarianscopebycanceling
Bender, leading publisher of Iegal cases;in zooo four more subscriptionsandcuttingtheirbookbudgets, butresearchers mustdo
firms; in zoor fourmore, including Harcourt Brace General withoutaccess tosomeof thejournalscriticalto theirresearch.ls

r44 r45
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY REBELLION AND REMEDIES

Subscription prices increase steadily. John Wiley and Iishers have retaliated. The commercial firms have imposed
Sons,for example, publishes three specializedjournals on contractual limitations on digital distribution of their printed
polymer science,all of which raised their annual subscrip- works as a condition for subscribing to even one of their
tion prices by more than 8o percent between r9g7 and zooz. journals.le
Wiley's/ournal of ComparativeNeurolog;lcost $to,o56a year
in rgg7 and $16,995in 2ooz,an almost 7o percent increase.
ADigitalCommons
The price of Elsevier's AtmosphericEnvironmenf increased
67 percent in five years. Elsevier's journal, Brain, costs Another academic-orientedreaction againstmonopolists is
$rg,g7r ayear for a seriesof r3r special sections.lo the Electronic Commons movement, conducted entirely on
By 1986,Dr. Michael Rosenzweig, a sociologist at the the Internet. The word commonsisused metaphorically,not
University of Arizona at Titcson, had had enough. The aca- as the grassy public plots that are typical of the community-
demic journal he had helped createyears before, Evolution- owned expansesin New England towns (for example, the
ary Ecologt, had raised its subscription rate to $8,oooa year. famous Boston Common).The Electronic Commonshasbe-
Rosenzweigand his wife Carol rebelled. His whole board of come a worldwide effort to keep as much intellectual prop-
editors defected with him, and they issued their own jour- erty as possible-articles, books, art, fihn, textbooks,music,
nal,EvolutionaryEcologt Research.The cost,counting all the and other published material-in the public domain, free of
detailed preparation and evaluations, was $353a year. More commercial copyright restrictions. Librarians and others re-
than one hundred university libraries around the country acted to the easy successin recent decadesof commercial
joined the revolt.l7 media corporations using their power in Congressto extend
By zoo3, the Rosenzweigs'revolt had evolved into a copyrights well beyond earlier limits. Copyright extension
worldwide Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources stimulated the fear that corporate control was moving to-
Coalition (SPARC)under the auspicesof the Association of ward what would effectivelybe "perpetual copyright," keep-
ResearchLibraries. SPARC now has members in two hun- ing ever more material the businessproperty of the media
dred universities in North America, Europe, Asia, and Aus- conglomerates.
tralia. Harvard, Yale, the University of California, and other Contributors to the new Commons collection are free to
university groups in the United States and Canada have decide whether their material will be licensed for selected
joined in the worldwide coalition.ls use under conditions of their own choosing.Otherwise, the
Forced to reduce sharply their purchase of new texts material is open to the public for "noncommercial use." If
and other books, universities have formed regional clusters anyone wishes to use Commons material for profit-making,
in which the member campus libraries divide annual jour- the author can charge fees. Foundations and a coalition of
nal subscriptions among themselves. When one campus legal specialistslaunchedthe Electronic Commonsin 2oor.20
requests a specific article in a journal from the member A similar effort is Wikipedia, an Internet free encyclo-
campus that actually subscribesto it, the requested article pefia that consists entirely of volunteer operators and con-
usually is sent by Internet. But even here, the monopoly pub- tributors. It, Iike the Creative Commons, was started in zoor.

r46 r47
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY REBELLION AND REMEDIES

TWoyears after its founding there were almost l5o,ooo en- if they were sent to fight in Vietnam, they deserved the
tries in more than ten languages.Its name is derived from right to vote). It enfranchised n.5 million young voters, but
the Hawaiian wordwikiwilcr, meaning "fast." Though it con- in the first presidential election afterward only half of the el-
tains all the subject categoriesofa large general encyclope- igible voters actually cast ballots. Whether the new activism
dia, the articles vary in quality and length, from the scholarly among the young will change politics significantly and for
to the sketchy.2l how long remains to be seen.It could be a fundamental fac-
Though the Wikipedia was created to counter the corpo- tor in elections.By zooo, the 14.4percent, or z7 million, men
rate control of information, a number of commercial firms and women of the voting age population 18to z5 years old
have started their own fee-based"wiki" Internet sites, which who were actually U.S.citizensand therefore eligible to vote
business professionals and corporations can use as a fast- had increased their registration to vote to 6o percent. Ac-
moving bulletin board for large corporate conferences and cording to the Youth Vote Coalition, otheryoung adults and
conventions.22 yonnger politicians are the most attractive to them , at 7o per-
Even a conventional book publisher, Prentice Hall, faced cent. In zooo, only z4 percent found the president elected
with Internet usageof copyrighted material, is issuingbooks that year to be legitimate, and what most concerned them
over the Linux Internet under an "Open Publication Li- was terrorism, r7 percent;jobs and the economy,r5 percent;
cense," which permits anyone to download one of their and crime, r3 percent.za
books in this categoryand make firll photocopies.The pub-
lisher predicts that this will develop enough goodwill and
interest in books reproduced this way that eventually users Media Reform Groups
will want the sturdy, stable conventionally printed hardback
books for as much as fiftv dollars each.z3 The large majority of media reform groups concentrate on
a variety of what they seeas needed changes.The Democ-
ratic Media Reform, originally funded by the Social Sci-
New Activism of the Young ences and Humanities Research Council of Canada,
e:rploresthe condition of all English{anguage media in the
As mentioned earlier, the active politicd direction for the country. In the United Statesit works in conjunction with
country has seen the growth, thanks mostly to the Internet, Free Press in Northampton, Mass. (mediareform.net), and
of movements of mostly younger men and women who have major centers like the Association for ProgressiveCommu-
had a serious influence on public thinking on policy matters nications in San Francisco;the Association of Independent
and in voting. That and the Internet have activated what Video and Filmakers, Big Noise Tactical Media, and Bren-
used to be the lowest age-group participation in voting, the nan Center for Justice in New York City; the Benton Foun-
r8- to z4year-old citizens.The TWenty-si:rthAmendment to dation and Campaign Legal Center in Washington; and
the Constitution passed in rg7r, granting the right to vote the Center for Communication and Community in Los
to any cTtnen eighteen years old or above (on the basis that Angeles.

r4B r49
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
REBELLION AND REMEDIES

Other significant natio.nal media reform and monitoring cial progress in the United States.A fundamental change on
groups include Jeff Chester, an indefatigable monitor of
which media and other reforms depend is the removal of the
media matters in Congressand the FCC, who has created magnitude of corporate money given to the major political
the Center for Digital Democracy,Center for Media Educa- parties. It tests the patience of any citizen to take seriously
tion, and TeledemocracyProject, all based in Washington; the claim by politicians that the millions of dollars from cor-
Extra! theptblication of FAIR (Fairnessand Accuracy in Re- porations does not influence their votes. If that were true,
porting), regularly reports errors and omissions in the ma-
one must assumethat for the last generation, as corporate
jor news media; the National Writers Union's Acfdon Alerts:
contributions to politicians have grown to historic highs,the
Free SpeechTV which broadcasts twenty-four hours a day
corporations making those massive contributions are incur-
via satellite DISH Network Channel9415,advocatesdiver- ably stupid and continue to throw away ineffective millions
sity oriented around social progress and the environment, year after year out ofpure caprice or philanthropic virtue.
covers protest marches, and produces films;25 and Zine, Before mass media reforms can become real and sub-
which publishes anthologies of independent publishers with stantial, the political system requires changesthat seemed
circulation of less than five thousand.26A reflection of the almost impossible before the Internet generation used the
speedwith which a new generationhas becomeaccustomed technique to organize protests. But as long as hundreds of
to rapidly changingimagesand commercialsrequiringnear millions of dollars continue to be given to candidates and
subconsciousimpressionsis a Ten SecondsCompetition film officeholders, there will be powerfi-rl influence on the laws
festival. The event is held eachyear to selectthe best ofone and agencies of the U.S. government, given that corpora-
thousand entries that demonstrate ways to squeezetheir tions, including media corporations, constitute 75percent of
messagesinto the world of standard commercials. all political contributions. The influence of media corpora-
The new protests against entrenched media power are tions on broadcast laws, for example, is an example of the
local, national, and international. Some local groups moni-
results- almost complete disappearanceof seriousnational
tor citywide or regional press and broadcasting, and some
and worldwide news from local radio and television sta-
national and others, like the World-Information Organiza- tions, low-budget television programs that coarsen the cul-
tion and UNESCO, are international and hold periodic con- ture-though broadcast profits are among the highest in
ferences ofnew-generation activists in various regions ofthe
American industry.
world. As corporate media giants have become international
in scope,so have media reform organizations.
Public Objectionon the Rise
The Corrupting Disease Public objection to the misuses of corporate power, espe-
cially by mefia corporations, is increasingly evident, and
While reform concentrating on the mass media must con- that is encouraging.A new generationofyoung people, once
tinue, it must fight the formidable barrier inhibiting all so-
notoriously uninterested in national and world politics,

150
l5r
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY

has become an effective corrective on the American media Thereare still quite a few executiveofficers
scene.They have, probably well beyond that of their elders, who are accustomedtogivingordersand
skill in marshaling information and using it to produce pub- who resentthe mediafor not taking them.
Iic policies. KENNETH A. RANDALI, rg8ol

An aroused adult generation and activist younger one is

in the tradition of the country's first trust-buster, Fresident
Theodore Roosevelt,who took on the great conglomerates
and monopolies of his time and broke their conspiratorial CHAPTER EIGHT
hold on the American consumers. He died forty years before
..W(lN'T
the first crude Internet was born, but in r9o3 the first mes-
sagehe sent to Congressas president of the United States
rings true today: "The first essential in determining how to
THEY
deal with the great industrial corporations is knowledge of
the facts."27
EVERLEARN?"
James Madison, fourth president of the United States,
died sixty years before the first crude radio was born, but
what he wrote more than two hundred years ago proclaims As JosephPulit zer approachedthe end of his career, he wor-
'A people who mean to be their own ried about the future of his newspaper. Would his heirs be
the same principle:
governors must arm themselves with the power which competent and committed? Or would they sell to greedy
knowledge gives. A popular government without popular in- new owners? He decided to follow the example of.theLon-
formation, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to don Times and to name trustees instructed by will to oper-
afarce or a tragedy or perhaps both."28 ate the paper in the public interest.
The trustee device generally has failed. Voices from the
grave seldom win debates;where there is a will there is a
lawyer to break it. But rgo4 was a more innocent age, and
Pulitzer set out to find distinguished citizens as trustees to
preserve the integrity of his New YorkWorld. He was im-
pressed with the character of the presiding justice of New
York State'shighest court, Morgan K. Stanley.He took the
judge horseback riding and e>rplainedhis plan. The judge
seemed amenable. The two men tentatively agreed that
Stanley would be a trustee. They rode on for a while before
Pulitzer asked,"What do vou think of the World?"

152 r53
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY "woN'T THEYEVERLrenx?"

"It is a greatpaper.Butithasonedefect'" establishedpolitical movements- are subjectedto periodic

"Whatis that?" criticism. Minor tribes like athletes,fashion designers,and
"It neverstandsbyitsfriends." actors receive routine praise. But since World War I hardly
'A newspaper shouldhave Pulitzerrepliedsharply.
no friends,"
amainstream Americannews mediumhas failed to grant its
"l thinkit shoutd," thejudgeanswered justassharply.
most favored treatment to corporate life.
"If thatisyouropinion,"Pulitzersaid,"l wouldn'tmakeyouoneof my
trustees if yougavemea milliondollars."2 There has been much to celebrate in the history of cor-
porate industry and technology.Great cities rose and flour-
Pulitzer was serious.In his newsroom a sign announced ished, material goodsflowed to the populace,cashspreadto
ominously, "The Worldhas no friends." new classesof people, standardsof living rose, and life was
But almost all news media have friends who are given prolonged in developed countries.
preferential treatment in the news, who are immune to crit- There have also been uglinessand injustice in corporate
icism, who can keep out embarrassinginformation, or who wielding of power-bloody repressions of workers who
are guaranteed a positive image. In the newsrooms of Amer- tried to organize unions, cormption of government, theft of
ica, these friends are called "sacred cows." They frequently public franchises.But through it all, most of the massmedia
include the owner, the owner's family andfriends, majorad- depicted corporate life as benevolent and patriotic.
vertisers, and the owner's political causes.Sacredcows in
the news run the gamut from petunias to presidents. In one
northeastern city the sacredcow is civic flowerbeds donated The Ghostat the Banquet
by the publisher's spouse;in another city it is an order that
any picture of Richard Nixon must show him smiling' In the late rgbos,ghostsappearedat industry's banquet.Raw
The sacredcows in American newsroomsleaveresidues materials had been extracted in astounding volumes, and
common to all cows. But no sacred cow has been so pro- some were near e>rhaustion.Economic benefits of industri-
tected and has left more generousresidues in the news than alization were spreadunevenly,causingpolitical turbulence.
the American corporation. So it is ironic that in the last As ever, entrepreneurs contended for dominion over the
decadethe most bitter attackson the news mefiahave come earth s crust, this time wielding its bitter fruit-uranium. In
from the American corporate system'The ironybecomes ex- someforms the ghostswere literally invisible. Sincethe start
quisite when, in the r98os,the segmentof American life that of the Industrial Revolution, new vapors, zoo billion tons of
most hates the news increasingly comesto own it' carbon dioxide alone,were addedto the atmosphere,chang-
Large classesof people are ignored in the news' are re- ing climates and human organs.sThousands of new chemi-
ported as exotic fads, or appear only at their worst-minori- cals, Iike DDI soon resided in every living tissue and, like
ties, blue-collar workers, the lower middle class,the poor. radiation, created ominous biological alterations. By the
They become publicized mainly when they are in spectacu- rg8ossomewastesofindustry,77billionpounds ayear, were
lar accidents,go on strike, or are arrested. Other groups and so hazardous that it was not clear whether the planet could
institutions - government, schools, universities, and non- safely contain them. Corporate products and wastes began

154 155
 THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY "woN'T THEY EVER LEARN?"

to poison drinking water, food, and in some caseswhole even before massive corporate fraud, dishonest bookkeep-
communities. In the past itinerant merchants sold harmful ing, executive theft, and collusion of the country's largest
products that could sicken or kill hundreds, but now great banks and accounting firms at the turn of the twenty-first
international organizations poured out avalanches of prod- century a permissive corporate culture of "everybody's
ucts which, if unsafe,threatenedmillions. One in four Amer- doing it" had paved the way for decadesin the past.
icans came to die of cancer. In r97g the Department of Justice found that, of the 582
In earlier periods, death and diseasewere acceptedas largest American corporations, more than 6o percent were
acts of God. If a tunnel collapsedon miners or textile work- guilty of at least one illeoal action, including evasionoftaxes,
ers died coughingblood, it was all in the hand of God or ran- unfair labor practices, dangerousworking conditions, price
dom bad luck. But when industry's ghost of pollution and fixing, pollution, and illegal kickbacks. At the "West Point
diseasematerialized in the last half of the twentieth century, of capitalism," the Harvard Graduate School of Business
the problems drew attention not, as before, to the hand of Administration, the Harvard BusinessReview found that
God but to the organizationsthat owned and operated most corporate ethical practices, poor in 196r,were even worse
of industrial civilization -the great corporations. in t976. Its survey of industrial leaders showed common
Corporate unease became sharper when a president practices like cheating customers,bribing political officials,
whom corporations consideredtheir own, Dwight D. Eisen- and using call girls for business purposes.sTwo separate
hower, left office in 196rwarning againstthe bloated power 1976surveys ofcorporate executivesby corporations them-
of what he called "the military-industrial complex.,, Later selves-Pitney Bowes and Uniroyal-found that a majority
that same year twenty-nine major corporations, some with of business managers "feel pressured to compromise per-
household names like Westinghouseand General Electric, sonal ethics to achieve corporate goals," including selling
were convicted of conspiraciesin selling $Zbillion worth of "ofi-standard and possibly dangerousitems."6
electrical equipment, and some executives actually served Nevertheless,nothing in government or law prevented
shortjail sentences.a More shocksto the corporate statusquo the two hundred largest corporations from increasing their
came in quick succession.Racial tensions, suppressedfor control of all manufacturing from 45 percent in 1947 to
centuries, burst into a mass movement in the rg6os. The 6o percent in 1979,7and nothing lessenedcorporate crime,
Vietnam War protests raised an additional specter of re- which produces $++billion in losses ayear compared with
bellion in the streets. Another president the corporations $+ billion in property lossesresulting from crimes commit-
regardedastheir champion,Richard Nixon, left office in dis- ted by individuals.s
gracein 1974,partly becauseof accusationsof cormption in- Courts have always been lenient with corporations,
volving prominent corporations. though in recent years even that has not satisfied the corpo-
When the twenty-nine corporations were convicted of rate world. Conservative foundations give judges and their
conspiracy in 196r,a lawyer for one of the defendants told the tamilies all-expenses-paidtrips to Miami so they can take
judge that the executives should not be punished because coursesinthe laissez-fairedoctrines of Milton Friedman, fo-
their acts were "a way of life-everybody's doing it." Thus, cusing on the necessilr of leaving corporations untouched by

r56 r57
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY ..WON,T
THEY EVER T,BENN?,'

regulation and minimally touched by law. By rg8o one-fifth steadily and quietly become dominant in the scientific re-
ofthe entire federaljudiciary had taken the courses.e searchcommunity. Corporate executivesare the largest sin-
Added judicial sympathywould not have seemedneces- gle group represented on governing boards ofcolleges and
saq'. In the 196r conviction of the twenty-nine corporations universities. In the public schoolscorporate materials have
involved in the electrical equipment conspiracy,all the cases always been prominent, and their presence is increasing.lz
had been delayed for ten years or more, some for twenty-five Only r percent ofalready tight school budgets are used for
years, while the offensescontinued.lOWhen the Aluminum instructional materials, and industry has been quick to fill
Company of America was found guilty of illegal damage to the gap with largely seH-servingpublications. Free class-
competitors,massivelegal defensesby the companydelayed room materials are produced by 64 percent ofthe five hun-
court action for sixteenyears.ll Though the Internal Revenue dred largestAmerican industrial corporations, go percent of
Serviceregularly jails between 6oo and 7oo tax evaderseach industrial trade associations,and 9o percent of utility com-
year, some for relatively small amounts,l2when the Fire- panies. The materials concentrate on nutrition, energy, en-
stoneTire & Rubber Companypleaded guilty to concealing vironment, and economics,almost all supplied by industries
$12.6million income in two deliberately falsetax returns and with a stake in their own answer to the problems posed in
to conspiring to obstruct legal audits of their books, the cor- the materials. "Free marketplace"and nonregulation ofbusi-
poration received a fine of only $ro,ooo.rB ness is the predominant classroom economics lesson, pre-
In addition to their ability to evade or soften the legal sentedlargely through materials from a businessgroup, the
consequencesoftheir actions,corporations are protected by Advertising Council. The only nonscholasticsourceof class-
their specialpositions in government. After laws are passed room material larger than corporations is the Department of
or before regulations are designed, outside advisory com- Defense.
mittees sit with governmentleadersto help shapeofficial ac-
tions. In 1974,for example,AT&T had r3o positions on these
advisory bodies, RCA ro4, General Electric 74,and ITT 53.la A New Irreverence
Defense industry executivessit on the Pentagon'sIndustry
Advisory Council, oil executivessit on the National petro- While corporate influence remained almost untouched in
leum Council, and someof the heaviest-pollutingindustries the last few decades,changesoccurred at the grass roots.
have executives on the National Industrial pollution Control Fueled by the irreverence ofthe r96os protesters, critical
Council.ls The most powerful businesslobby, the Business attitudes toward corporations for the first time in recent
Roundtable, has been able to use its membership on such American history went beyond the small enclavesof the Left
committeesto kill crucial legislation on the verge ofpassage, and reached the middle class.In the early rg7os,corporate
like the unexpectedcollapse inry74of a bill in the House of abuse became an issue when an ecology movement cut
Representatives that would have established a consumer acrosspoliticd and classlines. Government, responding to
protection agency.16 its demands, Iooked more closely at corporate crime. A
In universities, as in government, corporate values have newconsumermovement, built aroundthe nucleusof Ralph

r58 r5g
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY "woN'T THEY EVER LEARN?"

Nader and skilled university students,produced systematic for seH-praisebut in "news" that is assumedto be dispas-
data on dangerous consumer goods and unfair business sionate.Most businesssectionsof daily papers seldom apply
practices. Slow-actingmalignanciescausedby asbestosand to corporations the same criteria of validation and critical
other carcinogensbegan raising morbidity and death rates judgment applied to other subjects. Most business pages
among industrial employees,drawing attention to the haz- consistof corporatepropagandain the form ofpress releases
ards in the workplace. run without significant changes or printed verbatim. Each
At about the same time Western capitalism entered a day millions of expensivepagesof stock market quotations
period ofcrisis. The spiral ofprosperity faltered. In country are printed, even though only a small minority of American
after country including the United States,standard reme- households actively trade in the stock market. Editorially,
dies failed or made things worse. What seemedat first to be corporate causes almost invariably become news media
an isolated phenomenon of escalated oil prices became a causes.Among the most commonly suppressednews items
more firndamental malaise.Undeveloped nations that were each year are stories involving corporations that are re-
once docile sourcesof raw materials vital to the new indus- ported in the major media.l8 The integration of corporate
trial civilizationbecame lessdocile. Leaders ofbusiness and values into the national pieties could not have been estab-
finance had always insisted, at least in public, on the infalli- lished without prolonged indoctrination by the main body of
bility of the self-righting mechanismsof their marketplace. American news organizations.
And yet the marketplacedefied their pronouncements.That In the years after r97o, mounting public anger at some
malfunction, too, turned the public's attention to the great corporate behavior does occasionally find expression in
corporations. print and on the air, aswhen the public was askedto sacrifice
In most walks ofpublic life, corporations are accustomed wann homes and car travel during a gas shortagewhile the
to a smooth path edged with indulgence. Criticism in the major oil companiesreported their highest profits in history.
United Stateshad tended to be short-lived if it came from Or local demonstrationsagainstpolluting industries became
government or establishedsources.Longer-lastingcriticism melodrama that met the criteria for conflict news. Or a spec-
camefrom public health authorities, social scientists,union, tacular trial, like the Ford Motor Company defenseagainst
Iiberal and left activists,and other specializedvoices.In both criminal chargesof neglect for its defective Pinto gastanks,
cases,either criticism failed to be reported in the massmedia caught the media s attention. The barriers against damaging
or the reports were brief or even neutralized by the media s news about corporations were high but not impassable.Jour-
criticism of the critics. nalism had slowly changed so that in a few standard media,
The standard media-mainstream newspapers, maga- including, ironically, the daily bible of business, the WaIl
zines, and broadcasters-had always been reliable promot- StreetJournal, there were more than brief flurries of items
ers of the corporate ethic. Whole sections of newspapers about bad public performances of big business.There was
were always devoted to unrelieved glorification of business still no significant criticism of the corporate system, simply
people, not just in advertisements where corporations pay reporting of isolated cases,but for the first time there was a

r6o r6r
THE NE\^/ MEDIA MONOPOLY "woN'T THEy EVERr,renN?"

breach in the almost uniform litany of unremitting praise and hend world economic forces. But the accusationthat stan-
promotion of corporate behavior. dard American reporting was biased against businesswas
Corporate leaders were outraged. They criticized gov- absurd. It was absurd, but beginning in the r97os it was
ernment agencies that reported corporate culpability. In relentless.
theirpolitical action committeestheyraised the largestcam- In 1976the vice chairman of Bethlehem Steel, Frederic
paign war chests in electoral history to defeat candidates West Jr., told the American Newspaper PublishersAssocia-
they consideredhostile to business,and in rg8o they elected tion: "People in businesshave a lot of gripes about the press.
a national administration dedicatedto wiping out half a cen- Anytime a bunch of executivesget together these days you
tury of social legislation and regulation of business.leThey can be sure somebody will start talking about what's wrong
createdintellectual think tanks to counter academicstudies with the news media."2ofn ry77 the president of Union
damaging to corporations. But the corporations reserved Pacific said, "There is a basicbias that big businessis bad."21
their greatest wrath for the news media. Hell hath no fury In r98r the president of a major advertising agency,Need-
like the sacredcow desanctified. ham, Harper & Steers/Issuesand Images, said: 'All too fre-
Business had special advantages in its attack on the quently someratherrabid anticorporate messagesare aired
media. It had privileged accessto media executivesthrough as part of the regular daily news schedule . . ..I assureyou
common corporate associationsand lobbies, and it could that I echo the sentiments of most people on the corporate
produce large-scaleadvertisementsto counter antibusiness side whove been stung repeatedly by the slanted coverage
news and, increasingly, to use as threats of withdrawal of their activities. Especially those stories about corporate
against hostile media. And corporate leaders could invoke profits."22
against the media that peculiar American belief (ironically A vice president of Shell Oil complained to a Senate
createdmore by the media than by *y other source)that to committee about bias in the news. He displayedheadlinesas
criticize big businessis to attack American democracy. evidence."f have brought along a few articles clipped from
Criticizing the media is neither unnatural nor harmful. our dailynewspaperas examplesofwhat I mean." Thehead-
The difierence in the corporate attack was that the campaign lines were:
attempted to discredit the whole systemof American news
as subversiveto American values and to characterizejour- Nader ChargesEnerg' ScareDesignedto Double Oil Prices
nalists as a class of careless "economic illiterates" biased Aspin Claims Oil Companies Gouging Public
againstbusiness. SenatorClaims Oil ShortagePut-UpJob
Some specific corporate complaints were justified. Jackson SaysOil Firms Irk Public with Evasions2s
Throughout journalism there is more carelessnessand sloth
than shouldbe tolerated. Mostreporters are "economicillit- These news items usually originated with documented
erates" in the sensethat they lack skills to analyzebusiness studiesorwithreports of establishedagencies.Lawrence K.
records and they seldom have the sophisticationto compre- Fouraker,dean ofthe Harvard Graduate SchoolofBusiness

rGz r6s
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY ..WON'T
THEY EVER I,SI'NN?"

Administration, echoing the complaints of those (including wrote, "the Washington press corps was liberal . . . a stereo-
media companies and journalists themselves) who want type of the news corps that is no longer accurate."26
only pleasant news about their work, said that businessre- It does not excusejournalists, who should becomecom-
porters "tend to be gullible about business,if it is not good petent in the subjectsthey cover, but genuine economic lit-
news."24 eracy throughout the American population is remarkably
No other news sources, including high government low for a society in which economicshas becomethe center
officials, have been as effective as corporate executivesin of national politics. ft is even more remarkable that business
causing reporters to be fired, demoted, or removed from people themselvesare among the most economicallyilliter-
their beats. If the routine reporting of negative news about ate. A survey ofthree thousand persons by the business-
businessfrom official sourceswas enraging,the idea ofjour- oriented Advertising Council showed that "only B% of all
nalists taking the initiative in their own investigation of U.S.businessmenczlncorrectly define the firnctions of these
business, as they do with government, welfare recipients, five groups-business, labor, the consumer,the investor,and
and organized crime, tended to produce hysteria. advertising."2T
One of the most causticcritics of businessreporting had
been Walter B. Wriston, chairman of Citibank. He insisted
"Ov erzealousReporters?" that journalists are interested only in bad news about the
economy."The media, supported by some academic'liber-
Leonard Matthews, president of the American Association als,' would have us believe that things are not just going
of Advertising Agencies, said that "business and the entire badly, they are growing progressively and rapidly worse,"
free enterprise systemneed to be supported by the medid, Wriston said in 1975.28 Wristonls own 1975prediction was "I
but that this "mutually healthy relationship" had been "im- am convinced inflation is going to moderate very very sub-
paired in recent years by the overzealousactions of a small stantially" and "f don't think there is any question that the
but very visible group of investigative reporters who have price of oil will come down." Five years later, the consumer
made a practice of sh'ggingadvertiserswhile their associates price index had risen more than 5o percent, and the price
in the sales department were accepting an order from the index for refined petroleum products was up r5o percent.2e
samecompany."25 Eventually, inflation and oil prices did fall, but "eventually"
In the r98os there were more investigative reporters than is not convincing evidence that a leading banker had any
ever before. They had their own organization, Investigative more foresightthan the "sg6nemisilliterates" who happened
Reporters and Editors. And the stereotJpeof the journalist to be less euphoric than the bankers.
as radical and antibusinessdoes not match the facts. An au- The vigorous corporate campaign against alleged bias
thoritative study by StephenHess showed that 58 percent of in the news contained a large element of cynicism along $dth
Washington correspondents consider themselves "middle whatever genuine angerwas involved. Most corporate lead-
of the road" or'tonservative" politically. "In the past," Hess ers did not experience criticism by the media. David Finn,

164 r6b
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY "woN'T THEy EVERr,ranN?"

leader of a major industrial public relations frrm, Ruder and Corporationsas Heroes
Finn, conducted a survey ofthe one thousand largest indus-
tries for the American Management Association in rg8r. Perhaps nowhere is the cynicism more blatant than in the
When chief executive ofrcers were asked to describe how newly energized activity known as corporate advertising.
the media had treated their companies,their responseswere This constitutes printed and broadcast ads designed not
to sell goods and services but to promote the politics and
Poor,60/o benevolent image ofthe corporation-and to attack anphing
Fau;r.
z8o/o that spoils the image. Ideology-image ads as a category of
Good,4f/o all ads doubled in the r97os and had become a halFbillion
Excellent, r9%o3o dollar-ayear enterprise.
The head of a large advertising agency described the
TWo-thirds ofthe leadingindustrial chiefs ofthe country purpose:
believethe mediatreatment oftheir companiesis good or ex-
cellent, and only 6 percent feel it is poor. Corporations must It presents
thecorporationashero,a responsible
citizen,aforcefor good,
constitute the best-treatedcomplainers in society. presentinginformation ontheworkthecompany is doingin community
relations,assisting
thelessfortunate,minimizingpollution,controlling
A few corporate leaders have said that the corporate
drugs, amelior atin g p overty.38
antimedia campaignis misdirected.J. Peter Grace,president
of W R. Grace Company, says the public's bad image of The publicationMediaDecisions estimatedthat as much
business originated "because business has countenanced as $3billion in corporatemoney goesinto all methods of pro-
dishonestyin dealing with government employeesand pur- moting the corporation as hero and into "explanations of
chasing agents on a world-wide basis." William F. May, the capitalistic system,"including massiveuse of corporate
chairman of American Can Company, said, "There is a ten- books and teaching materials in the schools,almost all tax
dency for businessto stand on tippy toes and communicate deductible.sa
only the favorable. We need to present more unvarnished The energy crises of the r97osand r98os intensified the
information." sl corporate campaign against the media, led this time by the
Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut told a meeting petroleum industry. Extraordinary escalation of consumer
of top businessexecutivesin 1979: prices for energy was accompanied by multiplied profits to
the oil companies. The corporate profit announcements
Businessmen arealwaysgettingmadandblamingsomeoneelsewhenthe
were intended, as usual, to impress international investors,
blamelies squarelyonyour shoulders.Youlet theJapanesebeatyou in
thesmall-carmarket.Youtreat everyregulationas an attackwhenyou and the general public apparently was not supposed to no-
knowverywell that someregulationis beneficialtoyou. you alsoseemto tice. But it did. The public demanded that legislators, civic
forgetthat theAmericanpeopleare concerned for their health,tife and groups, and the media explain why private citizens were
safelt.32 asked to sacrifice but oil companies were not. A survey

r66 L6T
THE NE\^/ MEDIA MONOPOLY ..WON,T
THEY EVER LEARN?',

showed that z5 percent of the American population favored Mobil's own accuracyin advertisinghas not alwaysbeen
nationalization of the oil industry. the best model for the journalists it lectures so sternly. In
The structure and inner finances of the oil industry are rgSothe company agreed under threat of official penalty to
among the most byzantine in the world. Journalists had re- undo the inaccuracy of a Mobil ad that claimed a product
mained ignorant and for the most part are still ignorant of would saveup to zSpercent in oil consumption when in fact
the rea-Iitiesof energy economics.Journalistic negligencehas it often increased oil consumption.3o
damaged the public, but it has been to the advantage of oil Mobil's most noticeable and influential ads against
companies. the media have appeared in the editorial spaceof the New
In the rg8os the most vigorous promoter of the corpora- York Times, the Wall Streetlournal, the Washington Post,
tion as hero and the most relentlesscritic of the news media and other major metropolitan newspapers.The ads express
was Mobil Oil. In rg8r Mobil and its petroleum allies gave anger at error in the media, weariness at media ignorance,
the journalistic world an object lesson in the penalties for and sarcasmat lack ofdevotion to the true principles ofthe
journalists who stray from the paths ofcorporate piety. First Amendment. Unfortunately, Mobil seemedto define
Mobil Oil was the third largest industrial corporation in one First Amendment for the news media and a different
the country (Exxon was second),and it had taken the lead one for the oil company.
urmongAmerican corporations in attacking the news media One Mobil ad declared,'Any restraint on free discussion
for allegedantibusinessbias.35In r97zit beganusing someof is dangerous. Any policy that restricts flow of information or
its $zr million annual public relations budget for advertise- ideas is potentially harmful."37It is a noble idea. But shortly
ments directed against the news media and succeededin afterward, Mobil Oil, a major sponsor of public broadcast-
guaranteeingits ads a place on the editorial pagesofa dozen ing, urged the Public Broadcasting Systemto suppressthe
major papers (a spotnext to editorials that cameto be known showing of a film that would upset its oil partner, Saudi
in the newspapertrade as "the Mobil position'). During the Arabia.38
1973Arab oil crisis Mobil's editorial ads appeared in hun- In rg8r Mobil ran one of its editorial ads in ten major
dreds of papers.The companyalso ran a column called "Ob- newspaperswith a total of 7 million circulation. The ad ex-
servations"in Sundaysupplementsdistributed to thousands ploited the Benedictine Sistersagainsttheir will. The Sisters
of community newspapers. Mobil has an informal network complained. Ottly one of the papers, the LosAngelesTimes,
of television stations that carry its political and antimedia ran the letter of complaint. Mobil's multimillion-dollar edi-
commercials. It sponsorsbooks and publishes some books torial ad campaign obviously was more convincing to the
under its own imprint and others by regular trade and uni- other nine papers than grievances ofthe nonpaying Bene-
versity presses.Its book The Genius of Arab Civilization, dictine Sisters.se
published by New York Universifr Press,is one of a series Other Mobil editorial ads praised the companyitseHfor
promoting countries where it has oil interests. Other books sensitive attention to pollution.aoWhen a national business
and reports it has sponsored have been published by MIT group of which it is a member, the Council of Economic Pri-
Pressand Hudson Institute. orities, issued a pollution report that mentioned Mobil's

r68 r69
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY "woN'T THEY EVER LEARN?"

poor record on pollution, Mobil withdrew its support from miniums in Hong Kong, and W. F. Hall, of Chicago, one of
the council. When Columbia University created a program the largest commercial printing plants in the world. Mobil
to give trainingin economicstobusiness reporters, aproject indulged its profits "in search for new energy supplies" by
aiming to diminish journalistic "economic illit eracy:, Mobil,s printing Playboy magazine, National Geographic, and Ban-
action may provide a hint at the nature of the "economic lit- tam and Random House paperbackbooks.a3
eracy" it desired. Mobil was a contributor to the Columbia
program but, when the university named the director of the
program, Mobil withdrew its support becausethe director Oil VersusaJournalist
had once criticized the oil industry.
When a smaller company used a front organization The quiet power of a large corporation to suppress damag-
to criticize Mobil, a vice president of Mobil announced in- ing information and to silence the journalist who brings it
dignantly, "The public has a right to know who is behind any to light can be seenin the attack by Mobil and its oil indus-
advocacy effect." This prompted the Jack O'Dwyer public try allies on an economicsreporter for United Press Inter-
relations newsletter to disclose that Mobil is the sponsor of national (UPI), then a leading American news agency.
pro-oil, antigovernment cartoons that appear in hundreds Major oil companiesbased in the United Statespay an
of newspapers around the country masquerading as the extremely low U.S.income tax. The meagerpercentagesare
newspapers' own, with Mobil the unidentified propagandist. obscured by oil industry finances that are so arcane that even
' The cl.nicism of ads focusing
on corporate policy is not the Securitiesand ExchangeCommission has said that they
always subtle.alOne Mobil ad said the company needed all cannot be dealt with by ordinary accounting methods. But
its profits for drilling becauseonly r.7 percent of its wells when the complexities of industry finances were expressed
struck oil. The ad did not explain that this was true for only in plain language,Mobil and its friends decided to discredit
a small category of drilling and that the average successrate the correspondentwho accomplishedthe task.
for all drilling is about 6o percent. Even less subtle was The reporter selectedfor treatment was a poor example
the Mobil ad that declared in rgTg: "Can oil companies be of the corporate stereot;rye of a liberal-radical journalist hos-
trusted to put additional revenues into the search for new tile to business.Edward F. Roby of UPI is a graduateofWest
energy supplies?History saysyes." Point, was awarded a Silver Star for Vietnam combat, is a
Sadly, history says no. The top twenty oil companies devotee of conservative economist Milton Friedman, and
have used profits to purchase so many firms outside of oil personally believes that corporations should pay no income
production and distribution that the value of their nonoil taxes.But he also believesin reporting the news and making
properties in rg7g,the year the Mobil ad appeared,totaled it clear.
$35billion.a2 Mobil itseHwas investing much of its profits On June 5, r98r, Roby received a routine government re-
"in searchfor new enerS/ supplies" by purchasing such as- port in the Washington bureau of UPI. It was a study of oil
sorted nonoil companiesas Montgomery Ward, Container company revenues and taxes prepared by the Financial Re-
Corporation ofAmerica, restaurantsin KansasCity. condo- porting Systemof the U.S. Department of Energy.aaHe no-

r70 17r
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY "woN'T THEy EVER LEARN?"

ticed that the effective tax rate for the twenty-six largest en- double taxation on the same income . . . Despite the fact that we have
erry firms, including Mobil, Exxon, and GuE was surpris- pointed it out hundreds of times, reporters still can't seemto get it right.
a6
ingly low for the adjusted grossincome. The adjusted gross lEmphasis Mobil'sl
income for the oil companies was the income of the parent
firm within the United Statesafter the firm had been for- But Roby and UPI were correct.
given U.S.taxes for any taxespaid in other countries.
The nominal corporate income tax was 46 percent, but in
fact the averagetax paid by all U.S.corporations in rgTgwas A Lessonon Taxes
29.7percent. The twenty-six largest energy companies,ac-
cording to the report, paid even less- 12.4 percent - at a time What Mobil had not pointed out hundreds of times-or
of record-hig;hoil industry profits. The n.4percent income ever-was the strange arrangement it had made to define
tax rate for the biggest oil company was, Roby learned from "income tax" in its foreign tax credits. Mobil was a member
the Internal Revenue Service,the same rate that would be of Aramco, the consortium of four oil companies-Mobil,
paid by a private citizenwho made less than twenty thou- Exxon, Socal,and Texaco-that dealt with SaudiArabia for
sand dollars ayear.He wrote that information in a story that oil. In lgbo the Saudisannouncedan increasein the price of
appearedon UPI news wires inJune r98r. oil to its partners. Ordinarily, this would mean that Ararnco
Shortly after Roby's story went out on the wires,45a would pay higher royalties for the oil and deduct from its
Mobil ad appearedin "the Mobilposition'in eleveninfluen- revenuesas a cost ofdoing businessthis added cost ofits raw
tial American newspapersunder the headline:Won't They material, in the same way that an individual taxpayer can
Ever Learn? "Once againl'the ad began, "newspaper read- deduct from his or her total income (not from taxes)someof
ers acrossthe country were recently presented with a mas- the amount he or she pays for doctor bills. But that is not
sive dose of misinformation on oil industry taxes." whathappened.
After its usual denunciation of a news article about oil In t977RepresentativeBenjamin Rosenthalof New York
profits being "misleading" and "blatantly incorrect,,, the produced secretInternal RevenueServicedocumentsgoing
Mobil ad concluded, "This is not the first time the oil indus- back to lg5o.47They showed that the tax laws of Saudi Ara-
try has been falsely accusedof underpaying its taxes . . . we bia were drafted with the help of Aramco to call the added
hope that UPI will set the record straight so the American price of oil not a "royalty" or 'tost of doing business,"as was
public can make judgments based on accurate and reliable proper, but an "income tax." The Saudis did this knowing
data." that income tax paid to a foreign country is deductible from
The ad told readers that oil company income is the income taxes an oil company pays the United Stateson
all income received in the United Statesby the parent firm.
taxedbythecountryin whichit is earnedaccording
to thecountry,s
cor- At the same time, the U.S. Department of the Tfeasury
porate tax rate. Theseforeign income taxes-and only income taxes- called this "royalty exacted in the guise of income ta;ri, a
are credited by U.S. law against taxes on that foreign income to avoid "sham." But the power of the oil industry within government

172 173
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
"woN'T THEy EVER LEARN?"

is a"Imostunmatched, and the unorthodox provision was

Exxonintelet;pes, telegrams,andmailings to editors all
acceptedby the Tfeasury. A ryTT calculation by the House
over the country simply denouncedRoby and UPI as "mis-
Ways and Means Committee showed that about 75 percent representing Exxon's position."5OExxon did not tell the
of what the oil companies paid Saudi Arabia for oil was
editors what Exxon had said to Watt and what Roby had re-
counted as "income tax," reducing their U.S. taxes so much
ported. It simply said the companywas misrepresented.UPI
that it cost other U.S.ta:rpayersmore than $z billion ayear.
dependsfor its existenceon the faith newspaperand broad-
It is such a highly profitable avoidance of domestic taxes that
castclients have in its reports. A major advertiser calling its
it has motivated the major oil companiesto emphasizeMid-
stories inaccurate could hurt. And Roby, as an individual
dle East oil despite its high price and unstable future. journalist, was about to be badly damaged by the oil com-
The Mobil ad did not explain the "sham.',Instead it de-
pany campaign against his accurate reporting.
nounced accuratenews.
Other oil companieshad joined Exxon in recommending
Recently officials in China, which has no income tax,
that lessacreagebe offered for drilling. Thesecompaniesin-
were startled when American oil companies,negotiatingfor
cludedAtlantic Richfield, Union Oil, Sohio,and Marathon.
drilling contracts,askedthe Chineseto exact an income tax.
Their requests for reduced acreageare on record in their
trresumablythis request did not arise so much from a desire
own files, in governmentfiles, and in their own releasessent
to pay taxes to a Ma::rist regime as from a desire to pay
to news media. Yet in dutifirl support of Exxon in its attack
artificially low taxes to the United States.as
on the media, Charles DiBona, president of the American
A few days after Mobil's attack on the Roby-UpI story
Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's main lobby, issuedhis
Exxon, possibly in an attempt to help an ally in its offensive,
own press releaseto the news media, saying:"I know of no
attacked another Roby story and mentioned Roby by name.
companywhich has said that over time it wants lessoffshore
Roby had reported what had earlier been reported by the
land opened to inventory."5l
Wall Streetlournal aurrdindustrytrade papers.aeSecretaryof
Tony Dinigro, media managerfor Mobil OiL told a meet-
the Interior James Watt, in his philosophy of maximum ex-
ing sponsored by the right-wing group Accuracy in the Me-
ploitation ofnatural resources,had announced that a vast
dia that the "Wont They Ever Learrfl" ad was designedto
area of the oceanic outer continental shelf was open for
embarrassthe wire services.Dinigro said, "We hope this ad
drilling bids by oil companies. Roby wrote that some oil
will serve to put the reporter, the wire service and other re-
companiesthought Watt had openedtoo large an areaat that
porters who are writing about this subject-about Mobil-
time. It was news that oil companieswanted less,not more,
on notice to make sure they take the time to . . . do an accurate
acreageto explore. Roby, in the seventeenthparagraph ofhis
Piece."sz
story had written that Exxon recommended ..offering much
The concerted attack on Roby worked. UPI told him to
Iessacreagein eachsale."The Exxon communicationto Sec-
do no firrther stories about Mobil and no in-depth stories on
retary Watt said precisely that, recommending .bffering
oil and taxes,even though his specialtyin the UPI Washing-
much less acreagein each sale."
ton bureau was energy and environment and even though

rT4
175
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY

his superiors agreedthat his stories about the oil companies NEUHARTH SAYSI-PAPER
had been accurate. Shortly afterward, Roby left UpI and be- TOWNS DON'T EXIST
came a European correspondent for another major Ameri- Headline in trade magazine
can news organization.
Why did Exxon pick on Roby when the same passage No Gannett newspaperhas
was reported independently by papers like the Wall Street any direct competition.l
Journal, the WashingtonPost,andother news organizations? ALLEN NEUHARTH, chairman of
One possibility is that Roby's story about all oil company in- Gannet Co., to Wall Streetanalysts
come taxes had made him a target.
An object lesson in the Corporate School ofJournalism
had been given. Corporations have multimillion-dollar bud-
gets to dissect and attack news reports they dislike. But with CHAPTER NINE
each passingyear they have yet another power: They are
not only hostile to independent journalists. They are their
employers.
On October rg, r98r, UPI dutifully reported another at-
FROMMYTHOLOGY
tack on American news media. A corporate executive said:
"What our country needs worse than anything is freedom
from the press.. . . The pressis absolutely intolerable today."
TOTHEOLOGY
The speaker was Arthur Temple. Temple at the time was
vice chairman of Temple-Eastex,which was the Iargest sin- Anthropologists, Iooking in history for what journalism is
gle stockholder in Time, Inc., the largestmagazinepublisher supposed to look for daily-the literal truth-know that
in the country and employer of hundreds of journalists there is a curious quality to epic poems. The mythological
whom Mr. Temple, then a director at Time, Inc., considered men and women are more courageousand loyal than in real
"absolutelyintolerable." Among the publications over which Iife. Tirrning life's natural mixture of the noble and ignoble
Mr. Temple had responsibilities, as a director, was a major into unrelieved heroism is done by those who, Iike editors
reporter on American business,Fortune magazine. of the old Soviet Encyclopedia,believe it is their religious
duty to mislead the public for its own good or who convince
themselvesthat their heroes'sins are merely misunderstood
philanthropy.
Every culture has its official folklore. In ancient times
medicine men transformed tribal legends to enhancetheir
own status. The twentieth century is no difierent, but the
high priests who communicate mythic dogmas now do so

r76 177
 THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY
FROM MYTHOLOGY TO THEOLOGY

through great centralized machines of communication_

conservative.But Frank Gannett praised the sacreddogma
newspaper chains, broadcast networks, magazinegroups,
of freedom for his local editors and reporters. He or his foun-
conglomerate book publishers, and movie studios. Opera-
dation might own a local paper but the local editor would
tors of these systemsdisseminate their own version of the
work without interference from above. Carl Lindstrom,
world. And of all the legends they generate none are so
editor of the Hartford Times, described what happened
heroic as the myths they propagateabout themselves.
when a Gannett official addressedthe staff after the chain
The largest and most aggressive newspaper chain in bought the Hartford Times in rgzS:
the United Stateswas not so different from other corporate
media giants. It was neither the best nor the worst. But Gan- Nobody must ever use the word, " chain," in regard to Go.nnettnewspaper
nett Company, Inc., is an outstanding contemporary per_ properties. The word must not appear in the paper. It must notbe voiced.
former of the ancient rite of creating seH-servingmyths, of If outsiders were so indiscreet or ignorant as to utter it thqt must imme-
committing acts of greed and exploitation but describing diately beapprised that in referring to Gannett newspapers,the wordwas
"group." 3
them through its own machinery as heroic epics.In real life
Gannett has violated laws, doctrines of free enterprise, and
Having thus laid down a command from headquarters,
journalistic ideals of truthfulness. But its official procla-
the oftcial next declared, "It must be explained ... that the
mations are a modern exercise,with appropriate Madison
cardinal principle of Mr. Gannett in operating his papers was
Avenue gloss, of the ancient privilege of the storyteller
Iocal autonomy."
-transforming the shrieksofprivate sins
into hymns ofpub- While the Greeks had Homeric poems for their epics,
lic virtue.
modern corporations have other art forms: executive
speeches,press conferences,and publicity releasesthat are
reported in fi;Isome detail througlr their own media. Above
ForbiddenWords all else are fi.rll-pageads that celebrate the coryorations' own
spirituality and socialservice.Gannett has alwaysbeen a de-
In the beginning there was Frank E. Gannett.zHe was tall.
voted practitioner of the art.
big-jowled, and genial;he never drank or smoked and only
In 1936a Gannett firll-page ad announced transfer of
in extremis would utter, "My goodness!',In the mythic tra_
Frank Gannett's nineteen papers to the Frank E. Gannett
dition, he worked his way through Cornell University and
Newspaper Foundation, whose seH-perpetuatingdirectors
became part owner in 19o6 of the trny Elmira (New york)
were all appointed by Frank E. Gannett. The ad did not men-
Star-Gazette.From this humble beginning came America,s tion anything as mundane as superior tax benefits. The an-
largest newspaper chain. (The word chain,with its implica-
nouncedpu4lose of the reorganizationwas to provide more
tion of captivity, is shunned by the newspaper industry; the
service to the communitv:
preferred term is group, with its appealing connotation of
harmony and mutual aid.)
Through his lifetime, Gannett's papers were inflexibly
Notnewspapersfor profitto ownership,
butprofittothecommunities
in
whichtheyarepublished. Notnewspapers producedwitha minimumof

ITB
17g
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY FROM MYTHOLOGY TO THEOLOGY

expense. . . but rather newspapersthat reflect dn extravagant hand, yet to get control ofthe generationand distribution ofelectrical
designed to be commercially successful,but with whatever remaining
energy."6
profits plougJtedback into the ground from which they sprung.a
It may have been a coincidencethat the Gannett papers
were enthusiasticsupportersof the power trust and scathing
One year later, Frank Gannett ploughed back into the attackersof public ownership of generatingplants.
ground from which they had sprung two of his paper in AI- Frank Gannett died in rg57and was succeededas head
bany, New York. Killing these papers removed direct com- of the chain by Paul Miller. Miller, like Gannett, was tall but,
petition for the Albany papers of William Randolph Hearst.s unlike Gannett, handsome and imposing. Though patrician
At about the sametime, it sohappened,Hearst killed his two in manner, he was born in Diamond, Missouri, and grew up
Rochester, New York, papers, giving Gannett a monopoly in a small town in Oklahoma. It was this rustic background
there. Perhaps it was fitting that Gannett should have no he stressed when he visited owners of local papers, with
rivals in Rochester, which was to become the seat of his whom he established fatherlike relations of friendship and
empire. But there were ungeneroussoulswho regardedthis trust. When local owners were confronted with impending
remarkable coincidence-not a rarity among chains with estatetaxesor heirs fighting over their papers,it seemednat-
competing papers-as an unconvincing demonstration of ural to turn to Paul Miller for advice and, as it happened,as
free enterprise. It violated the capitalist dogma of uninhib- a buyer for their papers.Under Miller, Gannett'stradition of
ited competition that they proclaimed with religious fervor growth accelerated.So did the tradition of epic mythology,
in their editorials. In the Homeric tradition Hearst and Gan- including, in one instance, Homeric invocation of the dead.
nett announcedtheseacts in their papers as enlargedpublic
service.
Only a year later Gannett su-fferedan irreverent inter- Misquoting an Icon
pretation of his dedication to journalism without fear or
favor. It was a period of rapid growth of electric generating On February u, 1963,Paul Miller received the William Al-
systems owned by states and municipalities and of fierce len White Award at the University of Kansas. William AIIen
counterattacks by private power company groups, called in White had been owner, editor, and publisher of the Kansas
those days "trusts." A. R. Graustein, president of Interna- Emporia Gazette,a small paper he bought in r8g5and turned
tional Paper and Power Company,testified before a Senate into a national voice of liberal Republicanism, humanistic
committee that his company had secretly financed the ex- ideals, and sensitive prose. His voice, always based in Em-
pansion of the Gannett chain, giving the private power trust poria, carried civilized ideas into the corridors ofpower. He
influence over Gannett (and other chains for which the was a confidant of presidents, including, when it finally came
power company did the same thing). Senator George W. into vogue,a Democratic one. He was one ofthe few genuine
Norris, who chaired the committee, said this was part of a demigods ofjustified reverence in newspaper publishing. He
'campaign
going on all over the country by the power trust could even get awaywith criticizinghis fellowpublishers for

rBo t8r
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY FROM MYTHOLOGY TO THEOLOGY

narrowness and greed,orwhat he called their,.unconscious FrankMunsqt, the greatpublisher, is dead.

arroganceof consciouswealth." When he died in rg44he was FrankMunsqt contributed to the journalism of his day the talent of
mourned in solemn resolutions of condolenceby publishers a meatpacker, the morals of a money changer,and the manners of an un-
who regularly ignored his precepts. dertaker. He and his kind have about succeededin transforming a once-
noble profession into an eight percent security.
On the occasion of his receiving the William AIIen White
May he rest in trust.e
Award in 1963,Paul Miller askedhis audiencean interesting
question: When Plato, that great promoter of the elite, was elimi-
nating unpleasant realities from Homer, he said, "We must
WouldWilliamAllenWhitehaveapproved. ofchains? beg Homer not be angry if we delete them." White, safely
Wouldhefeelthat"chain"newspapers arehavinggoodfficts or bad deadnineteenyears when Miller invokedhis blessingsfrom
onAmericanjournalism? Or noneat all?
Couldhehavereached worldeminence the grave, would have had a few choice words about Plato
asan editorof a so-called
"groupnewspaper"? and PauI Miller.
Myanswers toall . . ofthesequestions
areoptimistic
andffirmafive.T The year 1963had added importance in Gannett history:
Allen Harold Neuharth had arrived at Rochesterheadquar-
How well William Allen White would have maintained ters.lOFrank Gannett had a limited vision, Miller broadened
his iconoclastic independencein the Gannett chain may be it, and Neuharth built it into a modern conglomerate empire.
judged in a moment. In the meantime, it may be worth not- Clever, good looking in an impudent way, engagingly frank
ing that White hated chains. He hated the idea of all large in love of power and pomp, Neuharth could have starred
corporate influence on newspapers.He once wrote: in dramas of corporate conquest,possibly produced by one
of the two television companies he eventually bought. He
As thenewspapers' interesthasbecome a mercantileor industrialpropo- makes more than $r million ayea\ travels in a companyjet
sition,thedangersof commercialcorruptionof the pressbecome greater whose imperial G is woven, etched, embossed,and printed
andgyeater.Thepowertrust of courseis buyingthenewspapers in order on all visible appointments, has a taste for Pouilly-Fuiss6
to controltheoldvestigeofleadership,theremainingfragmentofprofes-
sionalstatusthat still remainsin the newspaperbusiness. and sharkskin suits (of which a friend said, "When Al wears
As a commercialinyestmentthenewspaperisyieldinggoodreturns a sharkskin suit, it's hard to tell where the shark stops and
for investment.But as a political weaponit is worth to self-seeking
cor- he begins"). As Neuharth s mentor, Miller gradually relin-
porationshundredsof dollars of undercoverinfluencewhereit is worth quishedhis titles and Neuharth becamecompanypresident,
dollarsin direct returns.s chief executive officer, and chairman.
Another crucial year was 1967.That year, Gannettjoined
White's most eloquent view of chains and chain owners Iarge newspaper chains that, beginning in 1963,entered the
was expressed in an obituary he wrote in the Emporia arena of international finance by listing their shares on Wall
Gazette on the death of Frank Munsey, the great newspaper Street.In 1967,Gannett had zBnewspapersand $z5omillion
chain operator ofhis day. in annual revenues.ll Under Neuharth s driving energy the

rB2 rB3
 THE NE\4/ MEDIA MONOPOLY FROM MYTHOLOGY TO THEOLOGY

corporation, financed by WaIl Street, grew to 93 daily papers, giant cashflow. He discarded the mendicant's cup and pitifirl
4o weeklies, r5 radio and B television stations, 4o,ooo bill- whine and began to celebrate power and size as synon)rmous
boards, Lou Harris Public Opinion poll, TV productions, a with efficiency,social responsibility-and profits. He began
half-interest in McNeil-Lehrer Productions for television to use the dreaded five-letter word chaininmixed company.
and cable, satellite operations in thirty-six states,and more He met regularly, as do all corporate leaders, with Wall Street
than $z billion in annual revenues. It had a spectacular analystswho question executives so they can then give inside
record of ever-increasingquarterly earnings. investment advice to important clients. During one meeting,
Neuharth was asked whether the corporate name should be
pronounced GAN-nett or Gan-NETT. Neuharth smiled and
Accent on Money said the correct pronunciation was MONBy.
Gannett (accenton the last syllable)used a great deal of
More than anyone else in American newspaperpublishing, Wall Street money and produced a great deal more. The
Neuharth reversed the public posture ofcorporate journal- company went eighteenyears, from 1967to 1985,with each
ism. In the past, newspaper owners, their private finances quarterly profit greater than the one before. When all man-
known largely to themselvesand their local banks, publicly ufacturing return on stockholder equity averaged r5 percent,
pictured themselvesas pennilesskeepers of freedom of the Gannett's was 2r percent.ls Even to hard-boiled investors,
press.They cried poverty and the First Amendment to fend the profitmargin on someGannettpaperswas astonishing-
offantitrust indictments, child labor and wages-and-hours
30 to bo percent ayear.ta
laws, unions, workers' appealsfor higher wages,advertisers, But in one respect Neuharth conformed to tradition.
complaints of high rates, and politicians' accusations of Publishers publicly like to insist that there is no such thing
monopoly bias. Each newspaper failure was reported as as a newspaper monopoly.ls The word monopoly evokes
proof of the imminent collapse of the industry. In fact, the specters of trust busting by the government. It boils the
number of daily papers in the country had remained con- blood of advertisers and of communities in which papersare
stant for thirtyyears; somedie and others are born. The fail- the only dailies. Sopublishers createdthe charming concept
ure rate for papers had been remarkably low.r2 For decades of "media voices" that included, when rhetorically neces-
the newspaperindustry had been one of the most profitable sary, anything and everything printed, uttered, broadcast,
in America. seen,or heard in and by a community. Thus, no daily paper
Neuharth recognized that entry of the newspaper busi- is a monopoly. Unfortunately, almost all of them are. By
ness into the New York Stock Exchange changedall this. Big zooo, of all cities with a daily paper, gg percent had only one
investors are not enamored of small enterprises on the verge newspaper management (in rgro more than half of all news-
of collapse. Like other leading industrialists of the period paper cities had local daily competition, firically five or six
Neuharth also recognized that it was no longer profitable to papers).
conceal the emergenceof giantism. Big investors look for But if customers and excluded community groups hate

184 r85
 THE NE\^/ MEDIA MONOPOLY FROM MYTHOLOGY TO THEOLOGY

monopolies, Wall Street loves them. Otis Chandler, at the other competing daily, the Arkansas Gazette,which had a
time head of another giant newspaperconglomerate,Times comfortable 6o14olead over its rival, the Democrat.It was a
Mirror Company, publisher, among other things, of the ,Los sign that there are few profitable monopolies left.
Angeles Times, said: "If a newspaper is noncompetitive, it As the chain mushroomed in the rg7os, complaints of
gives you a franchise to do what you want with profitability. monopolistic arrogancethreatened Gannett's image, so the
You can engineeryourprofits. you can control expensesand company turned to the great corporation art form. A series
generate revenues arbitrarily.',to of firll-page celebration ads beganto appear in major news-
SoNeuharth, like other publishers, insisted in public that papers and magazines seen by journalists, financiers, and
there are no monopolies, but in private-with investors_ prospective sellersofnewspapers.The ads usedthe Gannett
he insists that there are. In ry7g, Editor €t publisher, the slogan:Gannett-A World of Different VoicesWhere Free-
newspaper?ublishing trade magazine, headlined a story dom Speaks.leA standard ad proclaimed: "Gannett believes
about a Neuharth speech: Neuharth Says r-paper Towns in the freedom of the people to know."zO
Don t Exist.lTIn his speechNeuharth gaveas an examplehis From time to time the ads referred to reality. Some of
paper in Boise, Idaho. He told his audience (which was in Gannett's thousands of journalists do produce individual
another state)that he had nine local competitors in Boise_ pieces of admirable journalism. These become the stuff of
"ten choicesfor the reader." He referred to dispensingboxes the full-page ads. But most of the empire consists of vast
around the leading hotel in Boise, but he did not add that silent domains where ruthless demands for ever-increasing
these boxes included specializedpapers like the wall street profits crushjournalistic enterprise and block adequatecov-
lournal, the Christian ScienceMonitor, andfree advertising erageof the news in their communities.
circulars, none with local news. Nor did he mention that It does not detract from the positive social benefits of
none of the other papersis published in the county where his some Gannett policies to note that they were forced on the
daily circulates.Not surprisingly,the Gannett paper in Boise corporation.
had 99.5 percent of all daily salesin the county.ls In 1978Gannett announced its intention to merge with
But in private, Neuharth spoke differently. In 1976he told Combined Communications Corporation, at the time the
Wall Streetanalysts,"No Gannett newspaperhas any direct biggestmedia merger in the country. The merger was crucial
competition ... in any community in which we published.,, to Gannett's leap into the national conglomerate arena.
His appointed publisher in Wilmington, Del., toldAdvertis_ Neuharth said it was a "marriage made in heaven." But some
ingAge that the chain bought the Delaware papers because objectors at the wedding were not prepa"redto forever hold
"they are the only gamein town.,, their peace.
In 1986, Gannett finally bought a big-city paper with A black media group protested that Gannett'shistory of
competition, the Detroit News, close in circulation with hitiog women and minorities was "worse than the industry
Knight-Ridd er's Fr ee Press.But soonafterward, both papers average."2rIt said the company had conflicts of interest:
asked for exemption from antitrust law in order to become In Rochester, for example, its papers had refused to print
businesspartners. Later the sameyear, Gannett bought an- Urban League reports of supermarket price discrimination

r86 lB?
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
FROM MYTHOLOGY TO THEOLOGY

in black neighborhoods for fear of offending advertisers. newspapers are intensely local and highly personal. Adver-
And it said the Gannettpapersreported poorly on issueslike tisers and community groups care about the nature of their
nuclear power, race, and human relations, perhaps,it said, local newspaper and who owns it. Staffswork in peculiar op-
becausePauI Miller was closeto Richard Nixon. erations that require hourly s;mchronization.If theybecome
demoralized at the prospectof a ruthless owner they can de-
fect and lower the price of the paper asked by the original
ManufacturingModern Myths owner. The local owner often has to remain in the commu-
nity and face angry peers for selling to an outside exploiter.
The Federal Communications Commission, which had to A bad image is not good for business.Local owners, most of
agree to the merger, said the combined companies would ex- all, Iike high bidders. But they also like buyerswho look nice.
ceedthe legal limit ofbroadcast stationsallowed to any busi- Gannett ads were designed to make any prospective
ness entity. And the FCC had doubts about permitting seller feel that selling to Gannett was a patriotic act. The ads
Gannett to continue to own its Rochestertelevision station and the Neuharth speechesstressedthe theme that big cor-
in a city where it owned the only daily newspapers. porations can protect freedom of the pressbetter than small
Gannett resorted to the twentieth-centuryform of Greek corporations can. In r98o, for example, Neuharth said the
mythology.22It hired the advertising agency young & Rubi- real danger to freedom of the press camenot from networks
cam to produce a $r.5 million public relations campaign and big papersbut "in Pumpkin Center, S.Dak.; or Paducah,
to createa heroic image of Gannett. It sold its Rochestertel- Ky.; or Pocatello, Idaho-the smaller communities across
evision station to black business people (at a record high the country-where the resources of the media are more
price). It appointed a black editor for irs Oakland, Calif., limited and the balanceofpower shifts to police and sheriffs
paper which it had reluctantly acquired as part of the merger and lawyers bent on stilling the local voices."23
(reluctant becauseOakland had too many civic problems and Gannett presumably would never be "bent on stilling
too much adjacent competition for a typical Gannett opera- local voices." But in Salem, Ore., as in ancient Troy, there
tion; a few years later, Gannett sold the Oakland newspaper was heavy translation between realrty and myth.
to its black editor, adding to the chain s new program ofas- In 1974, Gannett bought, from the owning family in
sistingblacks. It beganto promote women aggressively.The Salem, a company that published the morning and evening
FCC approved the merger. papers. It did so with the standard speechwith which chain
Neuharth stepped up his public speeches.Though the owners bless eachnew acquisition, telling the new commu-
Department of Justice has been comatoseon the subject of nity they admire and respect the existing papers and would
newspapermergers, the image of corporation as hero helps never think of telling efitors how to operate in this special
maintain government indifference. More immediate was and wonderfi-rl city.
the need to polish the picture of Gannett benevolencefor And so it was in Salem.But after the speechesthere is,
practical corporate reasons.Gannett was in the businessof typically, a quiet set of events. If the old owners had two
acquiring other firms. Unlike most corporate acquisitions, papers, one morning and one afternoon, as they had in Sa-

r8B
rBg
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
FROM MYTHOLOGY TO THEOLOGY

lem, one ofthe papers- gradually and with a diplomatic pas-

munity, their'tommitment" to whose future is so often the
sageof time-is quietly folded into the other. The emerging
subject of the fullaage ads.
single paper is more profitable. On the other hand, if they
The manager in Salemwas shown the list of annual profit
lacked a Sunday edition, produced mostly for its massesof
increasesin other Gannett papers. It was supposedto im-
ads, one may be started with no proportional increase in press him. It did. For calendar year lg7b, one year after the
news reporting. If reporters leave or retire they are not re-
Salemacquisition, someof the figures of increasedprofit on
placed, quietly reducing the sta"ffand local news. Outside
Gannett papers were hard to believe: 113.6,9o.9, 58.8,4b.3,
news servicespaid for by previous owners are discouraged
32.8percent. Each "unit"-newspaper, radio station, or tel-
and the systemwide Gannett service encouraged.
evision station-had to meet its quota. Salem was told to
Most important and least visible are the financial e:pec-
double its previous profits. Or else. So in Salem, after the
tations most chains impose on their new acquisitions, Gan-
echo of the Acquisition Ceremony had faded, changeswere
nett with more precision and punishment than most. The
made.Former discountsto advertiserswere eliminated.25In
local team was given its profit orders.2aThese used to be
oneyear ad rates increased4z percent. The year before Gan-
called "Profit Plan," but as Gannett gained skill in bureau-
nett bought the paper,profits were $7oo,ooo.In its first year
cratic euphemismsthe terrn was changedto "Progressplan.,,
of ownership Gannett raised profits to gr,5oo,ooo and the
The local publisher was told precisely how much he or she
year after that to $z.r million tripled in twoyears.
must produce in profits for each three-month period. Each
Advertisers rebelled at the new high rates of the only
Iocal quota was carefully orchestrated in Rochester.It was
paper in town. They called in an outside organization to start
not keyed to the needs of the local community, except as a
a free-circulation paper to carry their adsfor lessmoney.The
guessat maximum possibleextraction, but is derived for the
new paper, started by Community Publications, Inc., soon
total systerns impact on Wall Street. Every quarter, the
had zo percent of all ads in Salem.
profits must increase.This maintains the price of stock, big
The Gannett empire struck back. Neuharth appointed a
banks are happy to lend the chain money for more e4pan- new publisher with orders to "fatally cripple the Community
sion, and it entices future sellers of independent papers to
Press."Gannett salespeoplewere given abonus for every ad
sell not for cash but for easy pieces ofpaper, share ofthe
taken away from the other paper. Advertisers were offered
ever-rising value of Gannett stock.
cash to abandon the competitor (one was offered gr3,ooo).
Local editors and publishers who met their profit quotas
Hesitant advertisers were taken on expenses-paidtrips to
had considerable freedom. Those who did not were pun-
Reno and Lake Tahoe. Long-term contracts with attractive
ished. They either lost their jobs or relinquished control to
terms were offered on condition that all ads would be with-
Gannett's regional or national headquarters. When they
drawn from the competing paper.
failed they forfeited the goal of most local chain editors and
When a major advertiser, K-Mart, still balked, national
publishers-the chanceto be promoted to a larger paper or,
executivesof Gannett visited national executivesof K-Mart,
ultimately, to the hierarchy of the national organization. In
told them that the other paper was doomed and if K-Mart
either case,the reward was far from their current local com-
did not switch soon the Gannett paper, when it returned to

r90
r91
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY FROM MYTHOLOGY TO THEOLOGY

being the only paper in town, might not take K-Mart ads on to sell the Hartford Times in the r97os becauseit had local
pleasant terms. When the store's executives still wavered, competition, the new owner sued Gannett and won, having
Gannett made intimations about the local K-Mart manager, charged the chain with fraud.28The chain s managers had
who said in a sworn deposition that Gannett officials talking createda letterhead "survey" companythat issueda falsere-
to his superiors tried to make him "look absurd from all port exaggerating the Time' s circulation.
standpoints, from our decision-making to taking graft and In rg79 Neuharth said, "Diversity of news and views and
being involved in graft and cormption." quality of journalism has been greatly enhanced in this
Ultimately, Gannett drove the other paper out of busi- decadeby growth in newspaper chains."2ePublicly owned
ness.The other paper sued.Gannett settled out ofcourt but chains, he said, "are providing better news and service to
for a time some of the court documents in the lawsuit were their readers." A large ad in the NewYorkTimes, obviously
available to the public. When reporters began to look at them aimed at investors and potential sellers, asked, "What hap-
Gannett quickly petitioned the couft to sealthe records.Cas- pens to a family newspaper when it joins Gannett?"3oThe
sandra Tate, a free-lancewriter, askedAllen Neuharth how answer: "It gets better."
all his corporate advertising could stressthe public's right to How can one know it gets better? Neuharth believed he
know proclaim the sanctity ofopen court records, and then knew. In a LosAngelesTimesinterview in r97Bhe said a lo-
make the Gannett court records secret. She cited one Gan- cally owned newspaper that gives too much sophisticated
nett ad that asked: "Can you imagine up to 90 percent of 'but
news is of touch with its community." Chain papers,he
all court casessettled in secret?Gannett could not." 2uWhy said, are realistic, give the readers what they want, and con-
didn't that apply to Gannett'sown court records? sequentlygain circulation. 31
The Gannett papers failed their tests. From 1973to rg78
Gannett papers lost 6 percent in circulation while other
Freedomof the Press? dailies of the samecirculation size gained circulation.s2
Neuharth singled out as excessively concerned with
Neuharth answered, "That's business. I dont think it has qualrty and quantity of news two papers whose owners had
anlhing at all to do with the First Amendment." been firm in announcingtheir rejection of chain ownership,
It was not the first time Gannett had exempted itseHfrom the Riverside(California) Press-Enterpriseand the St.Peters-
its slogans.Intg74 Gannett supervisors were at the Roch- burg (Florida) Independent-Times.While Gannett was los-
esterfnstitute ofTechnology (inthe Frank E. Gannett Build- ing circulation during the five years preceding Neuharth s
ing) being trained to break a possible strike by Gannett's statement,the independent papers 'but of touch'with their
union printers.zTAn alternative paper in Rochester,the Pa- communitieswere gainingmore than 8 percent circulation.s3
triot, senta photographer to take a picture ofthe scene.The Occasional embarrassments like these increased the
photographer was firmly escorted out of the room while need for more mythology. The full-page ads increased.
some Gannett supervisorsyelled, "Confiscate his film!" Neuharth made even more speeches,which were reported
When Gannett, notoriously poor at competing, decided more firlly in his papers. In rg77he said that in the first eight

192 r93
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY FROM MYTHOLOGY TO THEOLOGY

years of the rg7os, 'A total of seventy-four Pulitzer Pizes a site of a recent Gannett acquisition, is near Emporia. The
have been awarded to U.S. newspapers and their staffs. Emporia editor wrote: "It was my first meeting so f was too
Sixfy-one of those seventy-four went to newspapers of group shy to go to the microphone and tell Mr. Neuharth that
owners."34 Coffeyville is not a backwoods hillbilly town . . . and that his
His wording was careful. Strictly speakinghe was cor- remarks were an insult to the then newest Gannett property,
rect, ifone counted as "newspapersofgroup owners" papers the Coffeyvill eJour na);' z7
Iike the NewYorkTimesandthe WashingtonPosf.Theseand The Coffeyvillelournal, it turned out, had been greatly
other large, prestigious papers had in recent years bought respected and its circulation had grown steadily before Gan-
other, smaller newspapers.But if one counted papers that nett bought it.38Its former owner, Richard Seaton,and edi-
were developedindependently and only lately had acquired tor, Daniel Hamrick, had won prizes for the fight against
other papers,the independently developedpaperswon most attempts by the John Birch Society to take over the city coun-
of the Pulitzer Prizes (the New YorkTimeswon eight during cil. After Gannett bought the paper, the amount of news was
the period Gannett cited, the Washington Posf eight, the reduced. When an accuratenews story offended an adver-
Boston Globe five, the ChicagoSun-Timesfive, the Chicago tiser, the Gannett headquarterstold the local editor to make
Tribune four, and so on).35Papers that achieved their dis- peace. When reactionaries complained about stories the
tinction as the sole papers of their owners won 7Zpercent of paperhad alwaysrun, a Gannett regional director supported
the Pulitzers. Once-independentpapers run by chains won the complaints and a Gannett senior vice president said he
only z3 percent of the prizes, even though they were a ma- was grateful for being informed that the local editor was
jority of allAmerican dailies. "failing to do a proper news reporting job for its community."
The editor of many years, Daniel Hamrick, quit. A
nearby paper, the Parsons(Kansas)Sun, editorialized: "Its
Don't Be Too Serious neighborshave watched with dismay the decline of theJour-
nal inrecent months. Its news content, under chain owner-
Neuharthhimself mayhave disclosed one causeof the Gan- ship, had becomeincreasingly smafl."3e
nett chain s failure to gain circulation for its monopolies. The Emporia Gazettewrote: "One of the state'sbest edi-
In a rgTBspeechto the American Societyof Newspaper Ed- tors quit his job last week becausehe could not get along
itors, in Washington, D.C., he ridiculed smaller papers that with some executivesof the Gannett chain that bought the
try to be too serious. When it comes to national and inter- paper..."4o
national news, he said, "Coffeyville Kansas,Muskogee,Ok- What happened to news in Salem, in Coffeyville, and
lahoma, they don t give a damn; the less they hear about in other Gannett cities was not unusual for Gannett local
Washington and New York the better they feel about it."36 papers or for almost all chain-owned local papers. Profit
The editor of the Emporia Gazette,still owned by heirs squeezesand indifference to comprehensive local news is
of William Allen White, was in the audience. Coffeyville. the norm. Systematicstudies by researche s over the years

194 r95
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY FROM MYTHOLOGY TO THEOLOGY

made clear that despitegrandiloquent rhetoric, chain papers requires no fringe benefits, and never forms unions. It is
had given their communities less serious news than did in- possibleto issue a mediocre paper with a large sta-ffbutit is
dependentpapers. not possible to produce a good paper with too small a sta-ff.
A study reported in the standard scholarly journalis- Unfortunately, in a monopoly city it is possible even with
tic publication lournalism Quarterly found that papers that deficient news to extract excessiveadvertising revenues.
were once competitive but were made monopolies by chains In t966, before Gannett began its drive to create its in-
produced "higher prices and lower quality."41Another study ternational empire, its 26 daily and 6 Sunday papers aver-
at Brookings Institution showed that chain-owned papers agedapproximately 45 news employeesper paper.asBy r98o,
chargedTpercent more for adsthan independentpapers,but when it had 81 daily, 53 Sunday,and 23less-than-daily pa-
where the chainshad competition their rates were r5 percent pers (and had added Saturday editions to acquired papers
lower than for counterpart monopoly papers.a2A 1978study that previously had none), it averaged 26 news employees
at GeorgeWashington University showed that chain papers per paper. During this period, the averagecirculation sizeof
gave their readers B percent less news than independently its papers remained the same,about 44,ooo.
owned papers.a3This was confirmed in a separatestudy by Editorial vigor diminishes under chain ownership. A
Kristine Keller, who found that of serious current news (as lournalism Quarterly study published in 1975said that more
opposed to "soft" features) independent papers printed z3 than 85 percent of chain papers have uniform political en-
percent more than did chain dailies.aa dorsements. "These data run counter to the insistence of
The most pervasive changesmade in independent pa- chain spokesmenthat their endorsement policies are inde-
pers acquired by chains are typically to increase advertising pendent of chain direction," the report said.
and subscription rates, to introduce cosmetic alterations of The Cox chain, once the ninth largest in circulation, in
page design and makeup to give the impression of moder- one election ordered all its papers to endorse the same
nity, and to quietly reducethe amount of seriousnews. It was national candidates.aoScripps-Howard, once the seventh-
conventionalwisdom amongpublishers that readersare un- largestchain, has done the sameand annually adopted a uni-
interested in "serious" news. As we will seelater, this is not form stand on major issues.The Panax chain fired editors
true. The real reason publishers shun serious news is that who refused to put the publisher's propagandistic views on
it is more expensive than features. The "serious" papers pager asnews.47Copley Newspapers,with dailies in Illinois
Neuharth ridiculed gainedcirculation while his own lost cir- and CaMornia, once ran national ads proclaiming its edito-
culation. Detailed and comprehensivenews requires expe- rial position, "the birth ofJesus Christ, God's only begotten
rienced reporters who devote substantialtime to eachstory Son,"in order to argue against"the defiant polemics of some
particularly local stories.The reporters are paid by the local theologians."4sPresumably,it was a position that readers of
paper,they have fringe benefits,and they often form unions. its papers, even if they happened to disbelieve fundamen-
"Soft" features, in addition to attracting advertising, are in- talist polemics or happenedto be Jews,Moslems, and other
expensive: they can be bought from a syndicate and de- nonfundamentalists, had to accept from the only paper in
livered by mail or computer from a machine that is cheap, theirtown. Freedom Newspapers,a substantialchain, spent

rg6 r97
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY FROM MYTHOLOGY TO THEOLOGY

years promoting its founder's libertarian philosophy of Iocal editors and publishers, the most definitive mechanism
dissolving almost all government in favor of private enter- ofcontrol possible. It controls the budget, another persua-
prise.aeWhen one branch of the family moderated the doc- sive ilfluence. Gannett had another way of controlling com-
trinaire approach, the papers became far more profitable munity newspaper money: In 1979it announced that bank
and popular. But the chain's management was sued by other deposits ofits local papers,beyond daily operations needs,
heirs who feared that the papers were drifting from liber- would be transferred nightly to Rochester-about g4 million
tarianism to conventional conservatism. a day, not a small loss to the economy of its comrnunities.s2
Chain papers are divided in their political drive. Either There are additional persuasivemeasuresthatpermitted
they pursue the doctrines of their owners, like Freedom or Gannett to publicly declare local independence and private
the chainsthat impose centralizedendorsements,ortheybe- commitment while ruthlessly extracting every possible dol-
come bland to avoid controversy. Editorials that take a stand lar from the local community. Stock options permitted man-
may offend advertisers or community groups. In general, as agers to buy Gannett stock at an artificially low price. I{
all organizations become large and directed from afar, they through maximum profit making, they could drive up the
value predictability and bureaucratic smoothness. Another price of the stock, they might make a fortune in the future.
Journalism Quarterly study of editorials over a fifteenyear In rg8r, a Gannett executive told Wall Street analysts that
period found that after an independent paper is bought by a local Gannett managers are ofiered stock options in the par-
chain the general result "is not helpfi-rl to readers who seek ent company to mal<ecertain they will push for profits and,
guidance on local matters when they turn to the editorial as she expressedit, "to tighten the golden handcuffs."53The
pagesof their daily papers."so intriguing title of this executiveis senior vice-president for
Chains tend to hire less-qualified journalists. Stephen human resources.The title would have been applauded by
Hess in a study of Washington correspondents found that the Homeric rewrite artists.
when chains had 75 percent ofall American daily circulation, Of all the Homeric incantations of chains, the most re-
they had only zg percent of the correspondents working for sounding is the folklore of Local Autonomy. It is the center-
individual papers, and their correspondents had slgnif- piece ofevery speech,press release, and ceremony on the
icantly less education than those working for independent occasionofa chain'spurchaseofa local paper.
papers.5l Three themes are mandatory in the ritual speech:The
new acquisition is a splendid paper that the outside company
has no intention of changing;the chain acquired the paper
No Control-Just Fire the Editor in order to offer its larger resourcesfor even greater service
to the community; and the new owner believes, absolutely,
There is seldom daily or detailed interference in the chain completely, and without mental reservation in Local Auton-
papers' news. Given the large number of rapid decisions omy. This is the unholy trinity of newspaper acquisition
reached hourly, such interference would be impossible. In- speeches.And the greatestof these is Local Autonomy.
stead, there are chain policies. The chain hires and fires its Gannett's ceremonies were strictly orthodox.

rg8 r99
THE NE\^/ MEDIA MONOPOLY FROM MYTHOLOGY TO THEOLOGY

Tucson, Aiz., December 1976:"From long association garded as one ofthe best studied, best printed and best man-
with the top executives of Gannett I know them to be men of aged in the country."
high principle . . . They believe in local autonomy."54 Allen Neuharth uttered the benediction: "Mr. McKinney
Three weeks later, in Reno, Nev., on the occasionof an- has developed a splendid newspaper that exercisesa posi-
other Gannett takeover: "Both companies have long had tive, useful influence throughout its area. He has laid the
policies of local autonomy. This approach guarantees that all groundwork for continuing growth and we look forward to
news and editorial decisions will continue to be made by his further leadership."5sOnce the ceremonies were con-
local editors and publishers."ss cluded and the sacredwords had their obligatory reproduc-
Nashville, Tenn., July rgTg: "In keeping with Gannett's tion on page r of the purchased paper, the curtain was drawn
policy of local autonomy [the present editor] will have fi.rll re- on the stage.Behind the curtain all was not peace.Watkins
sponsibility for all news and editorial matters."56 was givenhis marchingorders from Rochester,includinghis
Allen Neuharth, in 1978,about all his papers: "We be- profit quota.seHe was stunnedwhen he saw the profits other
lieve completely in the conceptof local autonomy."s7 Gannett paperswere makingbut he tried his best to meet the
But alas, periodically the golden handcuffs come apart quota. One year after Gannett took over, Watkins had pro-
and the hlnnns oflocal service turn sour. duced the sixteenth-highestincrease in profit in the chain.
On the morning of February 27, rgTi,journalistic hier- Local news was cut, as it usually is, and replaced by inex-
archs conducted the Local Autonomy rite in SantaFe, New pensive syndicatedmatter from afar. Hispanic news, impor-
Mex. Gannett had bought the local monopoly daily, the New tant for New Mexico, was sharply curtailed. Cartoonist Bill
Mexican, founded in 1849and owned since rg49 by Robert Mauldin, who had lived in Santa Fe for years, said of the
McKinney. McKinney was a tough, irascible man who sold Gannett-style NewMexican, "Itcould be printed in Hutchin-
to Gannett with an ironclad contract for Local Autonomy. son,Kansas,or Amarillo, or Pecos,Texas.Essentiallyit lacks
The contract gave McKinney continued total control of his character.It particularly lacks the character ofthe place it's
paper for several years, during which he would be chairman, being printed in."6o
chief executive officer, publisher, and editor-in-chief. The Inside the chain, memorandums circulated and meetings
contract specified that McKinney, suffering from heart trou- were called as executivesplanned how to circumvent the
ble, would necessarilybeout of SantaFe, with its Z,ooo-foot tough McKinney contract to produce a standard Gannett
altitude, much of the time. But he would still be bossand his paper. Gannett's western regional vice president proposed
deputy, Stephen E. Watkins, would, as in the past, run the one option to a Gannett operative on the scene:"Look, this
paper as president and chief operating officer. is the way the contract reads, so be nice to the old coot and
On that February morning in Santa Fe, Paul Miller, then tell him what youve done after youve done it and be sure
chairman of Gannett, conductedthe ceremonies:"The New that his empty office is kept dusted in case he ever drops
Mexican will add to our group one of the nation s distin- in."61
guished papers and the West's oldest.. .. It is generally re- When McKinney ordered an editorial endorsing Demo-

200
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY FROM MYTHOLOGY TO THEOLOGY

cratic candidate Bruce KingforgovernorinJune ofr978, the On June 27, rg8o, the jury in New Mexico found that
Gannett appointee did it reluctantly and, against McKin- Gannett had violated its contract that granted McKinney
ney's orders, criticized King in the endorsing editorial. autonomy. Four months later, Gannett, in the tradition of
A little later, Gannett fired Watkins, McKinney's chief in Soviet revisionists, ran full-page ads. They depicted two
SantaFe.Watkins's replacementwas referred to as "Quinn's stern and determined men, marching to their own drum-
spyon the scene."John C. Quinn is Gannett senior vice pres- beats,on the keys of massivetypewriters, giants of integrity.
ident for news. The headline read: Different Voices of Freedom. The text
Finally, McKinney suedfor fraud and breach of contract. was inspiring:
The trial lasted fourteen weeks, at the time the longest
in New Mexico history. A jury in U.S. District Court found EachGannettnewspaper formsitsowneditorialopinions.
Nobody
tells
Gannett guilty ofbreach of contract.JudgeSantiagoE. Cam- Iocaleditorswhat
to think.
EachGannetteditormarchesto hisor herownbeat,and theseareas
pos ordered the paper returned to McKinney. The judge's
dffirent as the pulsesof eacheditor'scommunity.Thatis why Gannett
official order was not kind. He noted that Watkins had newspapers, broadcaststationsand othermediaare,AWortd of Differ-
pushed for the big profits Gannett demanded to match its ent VoicesWhereFreedomSpeaks."63
otherpapers. He cited one paper,in Bellingham,Wash.,with
5o percent annual profit and another in Olympia, Wash., The Soviet rewrite artists would have been envious.
with 36 percent profit. The judge wrote:

ThisworriedWatkins. A precipitous
risein profits,hefelt,woulddam-
agethe qudliryofthenewspaperandleadtoits eventual demise.Watkins
becamedefensive towardthe profit push. This convincedGannett
officialsthathewasstandingin thewayofprogress. ...
Gannetthas alreadywrought,and daily continues,an uncon-
scionableand malicious deprivation of precious rights belongingto
McKinney. . . the right to controleditorialpolicy of theonly newspaper
publishedin thecapital city of thestateof NewMexico.. . .
Oneof thegreatestsourcesof wonderto meat trial wastheattitude
of someof the Gannett menwhen they addressedMcKinney'srigftt of
"completecharge"and "completeauthority" . . . Theyattemptedto pro-
ject sincereirnpressionsthat thesecontractualprovisionsdid not really
meanwhat theyclearlystate.. . . Theeffortfailed. Neuharth,for exdm-
ple, cavalierlycharacterized Mc&nney's solidand substantialcontract
rigfttsof "completecharge"and "completeauthority" as "window dress-
ing.". . . McKnneywouldnothave enteredintothebargainifhehadcon-
templatedthat Gannettwouldnot keepits word.. . . He wasattrd.ctedto
Gannettbecause ofits policyof"localdutonomy." 62

202 20:]
 "DEAR MR. pRESrDENT..."

Morepeoplearebribedby their sion stations, book publishers, and the country's second-
own moneythan anybodyelse's. largest news service. These media produced news and in-
JONATHAN DANIELSI formation that helped create the country's perception of the
world in general and of Richard Nixon in particular.
No politician likes to lose the sympathy of even a single
newspaperor radio station. For a national leader to lose the
C H A P T E RT E N support of a major portion of all American media can be a

..DEAR political disaster. Richard Nixon needed no education on the

MR.PRESIDENT... subject, but Berlin was not famous for subtlety. In the un-
Iikely event that the president missed the point, Berlin took
pains to hint that if Nixon did not come acrosswith the favor
Berlin requested, the media chiefs would remember this
"Dear Mr. President," the letter began,.,nothingextraordi- when Nixon ran for reelection in 1972.
nary in a country where every day hundreds of citizens write The Hearst executive and his fellow publishers were not
to the president ofthe United States.But this was not an or- conducting a novel experiment. By the nature of their posi-
dinary letter. The recipient on this July day in 1969was Pres- tions they were all familiar with power: Many corporations
ident Richard M. Nixon. The writer was Richard E. Berlin. lobby for favorable government treatment, but only media
The name of Berlin and six other men whose causehe in- corporations control accessto the American mind. The more
vokedmeant nothingto the generalpublic, but theymeant a media power possessedby a media corporation, the more a
great deal to Richard Nixon. And in the symbiotic equation government leader has reason to feel its displeasure.
of power, Richard Nixon meant a great deal to them. Few media corporations deny that they have power.
Berlin was asking the president to use his influence to They usually assert that they would never use their power
exempt him and his friends from a federal law that in previ- for selfish purposes. But no corporation, media or other-
ous years had sent other corporate executivesto jail.2 That wise, will fail to use its power if it feels a threat to its future
is why they needed the president. The reason President or to its profits. The t}reat could be a national political move-
Nixon needed them was nearly as obvious. ment it dislikes, as the New Deal seemedto most newspa-
Richard Berlin, as noted on his stationery was president per publishers during the Great Depression.Or it could be a
and chief executive offi.cerofthe Hearst Corporation in New threat to profits that makes them urge creation of loopholes
York.Atthe time, the Hearst Corporation ownednine news- in the law; like the Newspaper Preservation Act.
papers, ten broadcasting stations, twenty-six magazines,and Whatever the provocation, when a media corporation
a book publishing house.s Berlin spoke for his corpora- executive approaches a politician for a favor or to deliver a
tion and for six others, so his letter represented a massive threat, there is no doubt in the mind of either party what is
complex of popular communications-dozens of newspa- at stake.
pers, national mAgazines,cable systems,radio and televi- Lionel Van Deerlin, an ex-journalist, was former chair-

204 205
 ..DEAR
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY MR. PRESIDENT...,,

man of the House Subcommitteeon Communications. He their local members of the Senateand House. It says that
saidthat everymemberof Congressis familiarwiththe spe- it usesthis lobbying power to 'preserve the American way
cial power of broadcastersand publishers. Van Deerlin de- of broadcasting," which Jonathan Miller of TV Guide satd
scribed it simply: "They can make or break you."a really means "preserving their hegemony over the eyeballs
Frank Leeming, when publisher of the Kingsport (Ten- of America."s
nessee) Times-News,said that on the occasions when he The results over the years have been impressive. News-
asked his delegations in Congress for favorable action, papers have obtained special favors to exempt them from
"When they look at Kingsport they would see me both as a child labor laws and to obtain favorable postal rates, tari-ffs
businessmanand as the person who controls the editorial on imported newsprint, and media taxes.Broadcasterswere
policy of the paper." able to hold back cable broadcasting for more than ten years,
The late Katharine Graham, when head of the Washing- obtained the deregulation of radio, and moved toward de-
ton Post media empire, as president of the American News- regulation in television.
paper Publishers Association lobbied personally for legal
restrictions to prevent AT&T from competing with news-
papers. That is a normal activity for the head of any trade TV Blackouton TV
organization. She also spoke to the editorial writers and re-
porters covering the issuefor the WashingtonPosf.That, too, Important issues can be promoted by the media, but at
is normal for trade associationsseekingpublic support. It is strategictimes they can also be ignored. On March 29, rgTg,
not normal that the lobbyist looking for media support is also Van Deerlin made a historic announcement: a bill for the first
the employer of the journalists being lobbied. basic alteration of communications law in forty-five years.
JosephCostello once owned five radio stationsin Louis- It would give commercial broadcasters what they had lob-
ville. When he went to Washington to lobby for dbregulation bied for-semipermanent possession of their station li-
of radio, he said of each of the members of Congressin the censes, cancellation of the requirement to provide equal
various districts coveredby his stations:"He knows he's got accessfor political candidates,and no further need to pre-
to buy time on my radio station, so he's going to lend me sent community issues or to do it fairly. It proposed a frmda-
an ear. We're keeping them alive back home and that's why mental change in the law controlling the most pervasive
the newspaper and radio and TV people are more effective common experience in American life, the seven and a half
lobbyists." hours a day that the averagehousehold usesits TV set. When
The National Association of Broadcasters,even in 1969 Van Deerlin made the announcement of the proposed
with a $Z million budget and 6,ooo members, lobbies in change,there were two hundred persons present at the press
Washington for broadcasters and presents large speaking conference,including representativesof the television net-
feesto members of Congresswho, through their committees, works. That night no television network in the country men-
have influence over broadcast legislation. It uses a special tioned the event.6
network to mobilize individual stations to bring pressure on A fair report on the Van Deerlin proposal might have said

zo6 207
 ..DEAR
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY MR. PRESIDENT...,,

that the station the viewers were watching and all other sta- news account of a Thomson paper strike was deliberately re-
tions would, under the proposal, no longer be required to op- ducedto three paragraphsand that a speechby the president
erate in the public interest, to be fair in their presentation of of the Ontario Federation of Labor criticizing the Thomson
issuesand candidates,or to give equal time for rebuttals. It organization was killed. When a branch of Canadian gov-
was important news, but it was not broadcast. ernment investigated to see if a series of birth defects in
Huge umbrella corporations with control over a variety women employeesof Thomsonwas causedby electronicter-
of media can use one medium they control to enhancean- minals used in the newspaper'splants, the wire service de-
other, and at times the leverageis used to changethe news layed the story for twelve hours until they saw what the
in order to woo governments. United Press (now United Thomson paper would report about itseH.
PressInternational), like the Associated Press,not only re- Time, Inc. owned book publishing houses,national news
ports the news but sells its servicesto news systemswhich, magazines,and book clubs, among other media properties.
in many countries, me€ursselling it to governments. Colin Timemagazinehadbeen a steadysupporter of the policies of
Miller is the syndicate consultant who helped create what Henry Kissinger.The Time, Inc. book house, Little, Brown,
was once the most popular political column on the continent, published both volumes of Kissinger's memoirs and his ideas
"Washington Merry-Go-Round," by Drew Pearson and on foreign p olrcy. Time magazineexcerpted large sections of
Robert Allen. Miller, Pearson, and Allen planned a special the books and ran Kissinger's picture on the magazine's
column that would do for Latin American papers what they cover. Kissinger's books were also selectionsin the biggest
did for American ones- exposepolitical malpractices in the book club in the country, Book-oFthe-Month Club, owned
country. The column was distributed by United Features, by Time, Inc. These coordinated promotions of Kissinger's
which was corporately controlled by United PressInterna- books could have been coincidental but it is a coincidence ex-
tional. Miller testified before a Senatecommittee: perienced by few authors and publishers who lack control of
so many media.
Whenwordof thisreachedtheftont officeof UnitedPress,wewere Large media corporations have their ownpolitical action
ordered
todroptheidea.TheywereafraidthatwhatPearson andAllen committees to give money to favored candidates or, in the
mightexposein Lima,Peru,or Asunci6n,
Paragpay,or Riodelaneiro,
growing fashion, to defeat unfavored ones. Somemefia cor-
mightevolve
tobeeome a negative insofar
factor asthegovernmentswere
and,througftthegovernmmts,
concerned uponthepapersto whichthe porations also own other industries that will benefit from the
UnitedPress
solditssertice.T right candidates.
Time, Inc., which owned and operatedTime, Life, For-
In r98r two editors of the national news agency of tune, Sportslllustrated, People,andMoney magazines,had a
Canada, Canadian Press,told a Canadian government com- political action committee in its own name. Canfidates re-
mission that the news service edited its news about the ceiving contributions from a Time, Inc. political committee
media in ways to please major media owners.8 The press were quite aware that they had become special beneficiaries
service was bought by rro newspapers, forty of which are of the media empire, whose reporting could a-ffecttheir po-
owned by the Thomson chain. The two editors said that a Iitical careers. In 1986,after General Electric acquired the

208 209
 ..DEAR
THE NEIM MEDIA MONOPOLY MR. PRESIDENT...,,

National BroadcastingCompany,it installed a GE president prices is also contrary to the rhetoric of free enterprise with
who informed employees of its new radio and television unit which the same media flood the public. Only occasionally
that they were expectedto support General Electric's polit- doesunpleasantreality puncture the surfaceappearance,as
ical goals, including a political action committee to influence in r96t when executivesof someof the country's best-known
legislation. The head of the news staffs said that those em- corporations were jailed for conspiring to fix the prices of
ployees would be exempted. The rest of NBC presumably electrical equipment. Now a few newspapers had somewhat
would be expectedto support the corporate politics. the sameproblem.
It is not every American business person who easily In twenty-two cities of the country ostensibly competing
makesappointmentswith the president of the United States local papers had, over the years, agreedto becomebusiness
or, Iike Richard Berlin, is certain to have his or her letters partners, fixing prices and sharing profits while maintaining
read and acted upon by the president. Berlin s letter created separatenewsrooms. In 1965a U.S.district court found this
serious changewithin the Nixon administration even though a violation of the antitrust law. The newspapers appealed
the favor Berlin asked affectedonly one Hearst newspaper, that decision and began lobbying for special exemption from
the San Francisco Examiner. The other publishers whose the law for any competitive newspaper that felt it might be
names he invoked were not much more involved. Cox fuilitrg financially. The effort was rejected by Lyndon John-
had only one paper affected, Knight had only one, Worrell son s Democratic and Richard Nixon s Republican adminis-
one, Block one, Newhousetwo, and Scripps-Howard seven trations in 1967,1968,and the summer of 1969,on grounds
(while Berlin mentioned all of the chains, there is nothing to that it was harmfirl social policy. If newspaper companies
indicate that the others participated in his letter to the pres- were permitted to ignore antitrust laws, other kinds offirms
ident, though they, too, were actively pressing for the change would demand the sameexemption.
Berlin pursued). But, as noted, Berlin and his colleagues In 1969the U.S. SupremeCourt upheld the finding that
were speaking not with the power of fourteen papers, but the forty-four papers were in violation of the law. The pub-
with the power of seventy-four. In addition to their total lishers felt an impending crisis. Faced with the terrifring
newspaperholdings, they spokewith the mefia power and prospect of competing in the open market, they becamedes-
influence over public attitudes that flowed from their maga- perate. Richard Berlin, speaking for the most powerfi-rl op-
zines, books, and broadcasting stations. Most of the pub- erators, becamea crucial operative.
lishers' properties would be unafiectedby the requestedlaw,
but all of their media properties could be used to influence
the president. "Faithfirlly,Dick..."
Berlin wanted President Nixon s influence to exempt
a group of newspapers from antimonopoly law, which for- Berlin shrewdly sent two letters. The one to the president
bids competing firms to perform the act usually described was partly Uriah Heep proclaiming loyalty before the maj-
in headlines as "rigging prices"-quietly agreeingon prices esty of the president. The letter ends with a conventionally
among themselves while appearing to compete.e Fixing typed "Sincerely." But Berlin, who presumably had no hesi-

2to 2tl
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY "DEAR MR. PRESTDENT..."

tation in asking secretariesto retype letters to the president The "narrow and tortured economic concept" was the
of the United States,used his pen to scratch out the ..Sin- Sherman Act, a law in effect since r89o, which simply
cerely" and in a heavy hand wrote in large letters, "Faith- codified the supposedlysacredcatechismofcapitalism that
frrlly, Dick." is endlessly enunciated by most newspapers, magazines,
Even in the Nixon letter, Berlin permitted the scent of broadcasters, and movie studios -that competition is the life
power to escape. of trade and that free enterprise requires the marketplace to
decide who shall survive.
I am takingthe libertyof addressing myselfto a matterof common There followed a strange minuet by the Nixon adminis-
interestto bothyou and me.. . . Monyotherimportantpublishers and
tration.
friendsofyouradministration (includingScripps-Howard whoarein-
volvedin sevenof thesearrangements) are similarly situateil All of us In June, before the Berlin letters, Assistant Attorney
Iooktoyoufor assistance. General Mclaren, speaking for the administration, testified
against the publishers'bill. The chairman of the committee
But at the same time Berlin wrote a difierent kind of handling the bill, the late Senator Philip A. Hart of Michi-
letter to Nixon s assistant attorney general in charge of an- gan,responded:
titrust, Richard W. Mclaren. There was no Uriah Heep in
the Mclaren letter. It was a tough demand with a clear I wanttocongratulateyou andtheNixonAdministration for theposition
threat: youhavetaken. . . I knowit wouldbe for all of usin publicffice
easier
togyantnewspapers special
favorsbecause
theydealwithusintimately
Those
ofuswhostrong$t
supported
thepresent
administration everyday.ro
in thelast
electionaretheonesmostseriouslyconcerned andendangeredbltfailure
to adopttheNewspaperPreservation Act . . . thefact remainsthat there
wasalmostunanimoussupportof theAdministrationbltthenewspapers DecisionReversed
whoareproponentsof the Newspaper PreservationAct.It thereforeseems
to me that thosenewspapersshould,at the very least,receivea most But Senator Hart's congratulations were premature. Several
friendly consideration. weeks later, after the Berlin letters, the Nixon administra-
tion reversed itseHand announcedthat it was now in favor
Berlin again made certain that his threat to Nixon and ofthebill. The publishers obtained their Newspaper Preser-
the Republicar party could not be misunderstood. vation Act and President Nixon was given his political re-
ward, the support of the large media orgarfzations.
Thoseof us . . . nowfind that, by supportingthat personand that party
In his letter to the president, Berlin had referred to
which we thoughtbestexemplifi.edthosevery ideals,we havebecomethe
"many important publishers" who wanted the bill. He meant
victims and the targetsof a narrow and tortured.economicconcept
advancedand implementedby thosein whom we placed the highest seven chains, a few of whose dailies were in quiet business
confiilence. partnership with their Iocal competitors. The chains owned
only fourteen of the forty-four newspapers involved in the
Berlin sent a copy of this letter to President Nixon. Newspaper Preservation Act. But it did not take an angel

2r2 213
 THE NE\^/ MEDIA MONOPOLY
"DEAR MR. PRESTDENT..."

from heaven to inform Richard Nixon that when

the Hearst mer of 1972,months before the election, the first Watergate
stories began to disclose the profound cormption permeat-
ing the White House. But in early October, directors of the
American Newspaper PublishersAssociationwere reported
'thary
oftaking any action that implied criticism of the Pres-
ident's policies."llAt a time when the first Watergatestories
should have been ofgreatest value to voters, the response
outside a minority of papers was strange.A study of major
papers around the country-dailies with a quarter of all na-
tional circulation, including papers in the Hearst, Scripps-
Howard, and Cox chains - showed that in the months before
the election "pro-Nixon papershad a much higher tendency
to suppress damaging Watergate stories than papers making
no endorsements."These included the papers who had ob-
tained their antitrust favor from Nixon.l2
IntgTz, Richard Nixonreceivedthe highestpercentageof
newspaperendorsementsof any candidatein modern times.
Prominent in this massive support of the man who most
threatened their journalistic freedom were chains whose
names Berlin invoked in his letters. In the previous three
presidential elections- contra-ryto Berlin's assertion that
there was "a.Imost unanimous support of the Administra-
tion'-a third of all Hearst papershad endorsedthe Demo-
cratic candidate, as had a third of the Cox papers and half of
the Scripps-Howard papers. In rg7z, after passageof the
NewspaperPreservationAct, every Hearst paper,every Cox
paper, and every Scripps-Howard paper endorsed Nixon.
Scripps-Howard ordered a standard pro-Nixon editorial
into all its dailies. Cox ordered all its editors to endorse
House or raJl news of negative events that Nixon (causingone editor to resign in protest).13
were normal It is likely that Nixon might have won the r97z election
fare in ordinary reportage. In the pentagon papers
casethe without this wholesale shift to his support and the sl.rnpa-
Nixon administration obtained the first court_ordered
ces_ thetic reluctance to print Watergate disclosures before the
sation of publication in the country's history.
In the sum_ election. But it was not long after the election, when Water-

214
2r5
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY "DEAR MR. PRESrDENT..."

gate stories fiorlly broke through the barriers ofpublishers,

were the gravest since the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.
protection, that the president,s power began to crumble. Ten years after his departure from office in disgrace, the mo-
Studies throughout the years have shown that any bias in the mentum he initiated had become a continuing crisis. But the
news tends to follow a paper,seditorial opinions. dominant newspaper publishers were willing to support the
Without the chains whose local papers benefited from suppressor offreedoms of the press in return for a corporate
the White House reversal on the Newspaper preservation favor. Nixon's favor was not crucial in the life of the three
Act, Richard Nixon worrld have had, with the exception of corporations that ordered their papers to endorse Nixon.
Barry Goldwater in 1964,the lowest newspaper support Their nine local newspapers were saved not from extinction
of
any Republican candidate since World War II. Instead. but merely from competition. The Hearst, Cox, and Scripps-
he
had the highest newspaper support of any candidate in U.S. Howard chains had sixty-five other, unafiected newspapers
history. Without this massive support from the press, much plus alarge body ofprofitable properties in othermedia. Yet
of it implicitly sealed in 1969 by the mutual exchange in exchangefor so small a prize they were willing to order all
of
favors,.Richard Nixon and his aides might have been less their papers-not just the nine-to support a comrpt ad-
confident in their illegal activities. ministration hostile to an independent press. It is not reas-
The rhetoric of media corporations is consistent: Thev suring to consider what might happen to the integrity of
do not interfere with the professionar selection of content national news if dominant media corporations felt their
for their newspapers,magazines,broad.caststations. basic power threatened.
book
houses,and movie studios.This book showsthat this is tech_
nically true for most operators in day-to-day, hour_by_hour
operations, but it is not true for larger issues in which the
media corporations have a strong seH-interest. In the case
of
the Newspaper Preservation Act, three media operators,
with a stroke of a pen, ordered their professionals to endorse
for president a man who had previously attacked their con_
stitutional freedoms but who had recently granted them
a
corporate favor. And becauseofthe high degree ofconcen_
trated control over the mass media, the seven chains that
benefited from Richard Nixon s change of mind owned pa_
pers read by most of the voters.
Protection of independence in the gathering and dis_
seminating of news and other public information depends
on
something more than rhetorical declarations of fieedom
of
expression.
Richard Nixon's depredations of freedom of the press

zrG 2r7
 ONLY THE AFFLUENT NEED APPLY

Wemake no effort to sellto the mob.

implied messagebeing that if you have to ask you have no
DANTELNrzEN, seniorvice president,
businesslooking. A display of Jaeger-Le Coulture advised
NewYorkTimesr
that the wristwatch'tan be pivoted to reveal . . .your coat of
arms." One ad for Audeman Piquet watches suggestedgiv-
ing three to impress a woman, while another ad did suggest
a price, murmuring in fine print, "From $to,5oo."
CHAPTERELEVEN There are some homely products, like a Jeep station
wagon. But it was displayed with a polo field in the back-

ONLY
THE
AFFLUENT 'i

I
ground and was redeemed by other ads like the one that
shows a couple in evening clothes embracing in the cockpit

NEED
APPLY of an executivejet. Even in advertisementsfor products that
cost less than $5,ooo,the charactersseemto come from ad-
jacent ads where cufflinks were offered at $675,earrings at
$3,5oo,a bracelet at $6,ooo, a brooch at Sr4,ooo.A Jean
Patou perfume ad has no vulgar listing of price, but said in
bold letters what the spirit of all New Yorker adsseemto pro-
claim: "So rare .. . and availableto so few."
Despite its violation of the most commanding conven-
tions of what makes a magazine sell, The New Yorker for
decadeshad been a leader in making money.
idyllic scenes.While other magazinesassumethat modern
Over the years the magazinewas the envy of the period-
Americans don't read, New yorker articles were incrediblv
ical industry in the standard measureof financial success-
long and weighted with detail. The magazin",,
the number of advertising pages sold annually. Year after
ridicule many of its readers, the fashionably afiluent"".toorr',
who are year,The NewYorker was first or second,so fixed in its rep-
portrayed in their Upper East Sidepenthousesspeaking
h,y utation that other magazinespromoting their effectiveness
League patois. Editorial doctrine on other leading.""g"
would tell prospective advertisers that they were first or sec-
zines calls for short, punchy sentences,butThe Newyorker
ond "after The New Yorkerl'the implication being that, like
was almost the last repository ofthe style and tone of Henry
r95os baseball and the New York Yankees,fi.rst place was
David Thoreau and Matthew Arnold, its chaste, old_fash_
r.rnassailable.
ioned columnsbreathing the quietude ofnineteenth_century
That was true until 1967.The year before was a record
essays.
one for TheN ew Yorker.Most people in the industry believe
NewYorker advertisementsstill are in a different world.
that in 1966the magazine attained the largest number of ad
They celebratethe ostentatiousjet set. Christmas ads
offer pages sold in ayearby any rnagazineofgeneral circulation
gold, diamond-encrusted wristwatches without
prices, the in the history of publishing. In 1966 The New Yorlcersold

zrB
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY NEED APPLY
ONLY THE AFFLUENT

6,roo pages of ads. Its circulation was at its usual level, the Vietcong was going well. In Saigon, Schell was liked and
around 448,ooo.2 "adopted" by the colonels, perhaps becausehe had proper
In 1967 a strange disease struck. The New yorker,s establishment connections:He carried an expired Harvard
circulation remained the same but the number of ad pages Crimsonpresspassand his father was a successfi.rl Manhat-
dropped disastrously.In a fewyears 2,5oo pagesof ads dis_ tan lawyer. The military gave him treatment ordinarily re-
appeared, a loss of 4o percent. The magazine,snet profits served for famous correspondents sympathetic to the war'
shrank from the 1966level of $3 million to less than gr mil_ In addition to attending the daily military briefing sessions
lion. Dividends per share,gro.93in 1966,were down to in Saigon, the basis for most reports back to the United
$9.69
by rg7o. States, Schell was also taken on helicopter assaults and
The disastrous loss of advertising occurred despite a bombing and stra"fingmissions and given ground trans-
continued high level of circulation which, to lay observers, portation to battle scenes.
would seemthe only statistic needed for amagazine'ssuc- The assumption of his hosts was that the nice kid from
cess.The popular assumption is that if enough people care Harvard would be impressed with the power and purpose
enough about a publication or a television program to buy it
of the American mission. But Schellwas appalled. The war,
or to turn to it, advertisers will beat a path to their doorway. it seemedto him. was not the neat containment of Soviet-
That clearly was not happening at The New yorker.
Chineseaggressionthat had been advertised at home or the
attempt ofhumane Americans to savedemocracy-lovingna-
tives from the barbaric Vietcong. Like all wars, this one was
The High Cost of Truth mutually brutal. Americans shot, bombed, and uprooted
civilians in massive campaigns that resulted in the disinte-
The onset of The New yorker,smalady can be traced to gration of Vietnamese social structures. And the Americans
July
r5, 1967.That issue of the m"gazine carried a typically long
were notwinning the war.
report under the typically ambiguous title ..Reporter at Schell returned to the United States disturbed by his
Large." That was the standing head for Newyorker articles findings. He visited a family friend, William Shawn, the
dealing in depth with subjects as diverse as the history of or- quiet, eccentric editor of The New Yorker,who had known
anges'the socializationofrats, and the culture ofan Irish sa-
loon. This time the subject was a report from the village of
Ben Sucin Vietnam.s
r the Schell children since childhood. Shawn listened to
Schell's story and asked him to try writing about his experi-
ences.Schell produced what Shawn called "a perfect piece
The author was Jonathan Schell, a recent Harvard grad_
uate who, after commencement,visited his brother, Orville,
il' of New Yorker reportiing." The story which ran in the July r5,
$
t
1967,issue,told in clear,quiet detailwhat the assaulton one
in Taiwan, where Orville was doing Chinese studies. Once village meant to the villagers and to the American soldiers.
in Taiwan, Jonathan decided to take a trip to Vietnam, where,
Shawn said he had serious doubts about the war before
accorfing to the standard press, the American war against
Schell appeared, "but certainly I saw it differently talking to

220

-L
 THE NE\^/ MEDIA MONOPOLY
ONLY THE AFI'LUENT NEED APPLY

him and reading what he wrote. That

was when I became speakingon campusesand saythat the kids arereadingThe
convinced that we shouldn,t be there
and the war was a NewYorkerout loud in the dormitories."
mistake."
Ordinarily this is a happy event in the life of a magazine.
Thereafter The Newyorker in issre
after issue spoke sim_ There is always a need for some younger readers so that
ply and clearly against the war. ft
was not the firsi publica_ when older subscribers die the magazine will not die with
tion to do so, but at the time most important
mediafollowed them. But advertisers live in the present. Tbroughout its cri-
the general line that the war was
n'eededto stop interna_ sis years after 1966,TheNewYorker audience actually grew
tional communism and to savethe
Vietnameseand that the in numbers. But while the median ageof readersin 1966was
United Stateswas on the v_erge ofvictory. Most newspapers, 48.7-the agewhen executiveswould be at the peak of their
including the two most influential
dailies in the co_._try,the spending power-by ry74 New Yorker subscribers'median
New York Times and the Washingtonposr,
editori"lly *p_ age was 34, a number brought down by the infusion of col-
portedthewar. The:
mas smarch",
*".ffi ::trKl',il*1?r"'r;'fj**: lege students in their late teens and early twenties.a Maty
college students will form the affluent elite of the future, but
sacre nor the Tet ofiensive had occurred,
and thl e>rposure at the moment they are not buying $ro,5oowristwatches and
ofthe- Pentagon paperl detailing a
long history ofgovern_ gr4,ooo brooches.They were buying the magazinebecause
ment lying about Indochina was still
foriryears away. of its clear and moral stand against the war and its quiet, de-
The Newyorker was the voice of the
elite, the repository tailed reporting from the scene.
of advertisements for the hedonistic
rich, of gentu"t It was then that ad pagesbegan their drastic disappear-
on the first day of spring,_oftemperate "rrry,
profiles of aesthetJs, ance.An easy explanation would be that conservative cor-
ofhumor so sophisticatedthat it ,""-"i
designedsolely for porations withdrew their ads in political protest. Somedid.
intelligent graduates of the best
schools. The WqIl Street But the majority of the lossescamefrom amore impersonal
Journal once labeled it .,Urbanity,fnc.,, When
the magazine process, one of profound significance to the character of
spoke clearly againsl the war, ii
was a significant event in contemporary American mass media. The New Yorkerhad
the course of public attitude toward
theimerican enter_ begun to attract "the wrong kind" of reader. Circulation re-
prise in Vietnam. If this apolitical
organ of the elite said the mained the same, but the magazine had become the victim,
war was morally wrong, it was saying
it to the country,s as it had formerly been the beneficiary of an iron rule of ad-
establishment.
vertising-supported media: It is less important that people
buy your publication (or listen to your program) than that
they be "the right kind" of people.
The Kids Are Reading. . .
The "right kind" usually meansaffluent consumerseigh-
teen to forty-nine years of age,the heavy buying years, with
At the same time, the magazinewas giving
the messageto above-medianfamily income. Newspapers,magazines,and
a quite different constituency.A, Nei yorker
stafi member radio and television operators publicly boast oftheir audi-
recalled that in 1967,"our writers
would come back fiom ence size, which is a significant factor. But when they sit

g9t

223
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
ONLY THE AFFLUENT NEED APPLY

down at conferences with big advertisers, they do not

pre_ Shawn,a Dickensian man, modest in manner and speech,
sent simple numbers but reams of computer printouts
that reddens in indignation when asked whether, during the crit-
show the characteristics of their audience in income,
age, ical 1967-1974peiod, the businessleaders of the magazine
sex, marital status, ethnic background, social habits,
;i_ informed him that his editorial content was attracting the
dence, family structure, occupation, and buying patterns.
wrongkind of reader.
These are the compelling components ofthat crucial
element
in modern media-demographics, the study of characteris_
tics of the humanpopulation.
The standard cure for..bad demographics,,in newspa_
The Unthinkable BecomesThinkable
pers, magazines,radio and television is simple: peopletotellme
Changeihe It wouldbeunthinkable for theadvertisingandbusiness
content. Fill the publication or the programs with that. . . I didtt hearaboutit until theearly1970s.. . . It graduallysank
material
that will attract the kind ofpeople the advertisers in on methat "fhe New Yorkerwasbeingreadbyyoungerpeople.I
want. The
general murnagerof Rolling Stone expressed didn'tknowit in anyformalway.Whothereaders arel reallydon'twant
it when that
magazine wanted to attract a higher level of advertiser: ..We to know.I don'twantto knowbecause weeditthemagazine for ourselves
had to deliver a more high-quality reader. The only andhopetherewill bepeoplelikeourselves andpeoplelikeourwriters
way to whowillfindit interesting andworthwhile.
deliver a different kind of reader is to change editoria].,,
if an
editor refuses or fails to change,the editor is fired.b
Shawn's words are standard rhetoric of publishers and edi-
The New Yorker facedthis problem but it did not fire
the tors when they are asked about separation of editorial inde-
editor; nor did the editor'thange editoriar." It is almost
cer- pendence and advertising. The rhetoric usually has little
tain that for conventional corporate ownership the .ture,,
relation to reality. Increasingly, editorial content ofpublica-
would be quick and decisive. William Shawn would
'thanged have tions and broadcasting is dictated by the computer printouts
editorial;'which would have meant dropping the
on advertising agency desks, not the other way around.
insistent line on the war in Vietnam, or he would
have been When there is a conflict between the printouts and an inde-
fired. In the place ofthe Vietnam reporting and commentary
pendent editor, the printouts win. Were it not for the incon-
there would have been less controversial material
that trovertible behavior of The New Yorker during the Vietnam
would adjust demographics back to the affluent population
War, it would be diftcult not to regard Shawn's words as the
ofbuying age and assuagethe anger ofthose corporations
standard mythic rhetoric.
that disliked the magazine,sposition on the war.
"We never talk about 'the readers,'" Shawnsaid."I won t
But at the time, The Newyorkerwasnot the property
of permit that-if I may put it so arrogantly. I don t want to
a conglomerate.Later, in 19g6,it would be sold to
the Nlw_ speakabout our readers as a'market.' I dont want them to
house publishing group. The new owner altered
advertising feel that they are just consumersto us. I find that obnoxious."
and promotion policies but left editorial content
the same. The firll-page ads of other newspapers, magazines, and
After a year, however, the new owner replaced the
editor, broadcast networks in the New York Times and the Wall
William Shawn.
StreetJournal are often puzzling to the lay reader. They do

224
225
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY O N L YT H E A F F L U E N T N E E D A P P L Y

not urge people to read and listen. They seem to be filled atmosphere. "Wewant to edit themagazinetogivetheaudiencewhatthey
with statistics of little interest to potential subscribers or want.Wat dowegivethem?"
viewers. They are intendedto showthe advertisingindustry Thereis a fallacy in that calculation. . . Thatfallacy is ifyou edit
that the demographicsof the publication or station are .tor- thatway,togivebackto thereadersonlywhat theythink theywant,you'Il
nevergivethemsomethingnewtheydidntknow about'Youstagnate'It's
rect," that their audienceis made up not of a cross-sectionof just thisback-and-forthandyou end up with the networks,TV and the
the population but of people in the ..right, ageand income movies.Thewholethingbeginstobe circular.creativity and originality
brackets. anilspontaneitygoesout ofit.The newtendencyistodiscouragethis cre-
Eventually during the ry67-tgT4period Shawn did hear ativepr ocess and kill or iginality.
what he called "murmurings": We sometimes publisha piecethatI'm aftaid not morethanonehun-
dreil readerswill want.Perhapsit'stoodfficult, tooobscure'But it'sim-
portanttohave.That'show peoplelearnandgrow'Thisotherwayisbad
Thereweremurmurings
in thebackgrounil
aboutthreethings:
Themag-
for our entire society and we're sufferingfrom it in almostall forms of
azine wasgetting too serious,the magazinewas getting toomuch into pol_
itics, and thepiecesweregettingtoolong. My reactionwas thatwe shoulil communications.
do nothing about it. Whatever change took place did. so gradually and
I don'tknowifyou tried to startup a New Yorkertodayifyou could
getanybodytobackYou.
spontaneously as we saw the world . . . There,sonly one way to do it: Did
we think it was the right thing to do? Did we take the rigJtt editorial
stand?. . . Tobesilentwhen somethingisgoingon that shouldntbe going
on would be cowardly. we published information we believeil the public "It happensregularly"
should have and we said what we believed. If the magazine was seriousit
wds no more serious than we were. If there was too much politics, it was
becausepolitics became more important and it was on our mind.s . . . I A magazine industry executive was asked f a magazine
wishwe couldremain out ofpoliticsbutwe can't. . .I could.enjoylife more owned by a conventional corporation would have supported
if we could do nothingbut befunny, which I love . . . but-Ihe New yorker Shawn during the lean years. He answered: "Are you kid-
has gradually changed as the world changeil. ding? One bad year like the one New Yorkerhadin 1967and
either the editorial formula would change or the editor
Shawn noted that the Time-Life and Reader's Digest would be out on his ear. It happens re$ularly."
empires succeededbecausethey were started by men who By the rg8os The New Yorkerwas economically healthy
expressedtheir own values regardless of the market and again. Its circulation in rg8o was more than 5oo,ooo, it was
thereby established an identity that made for long-range running 4,zzopages of ads ayeat, fourth among all Ameri-
success. can magazines, and its profits were back above $3 million'6
That seemsto be a heartwarming morality lesson in the re-
Nowthewholeideais thatyoueditfor a marketandif possible
designa
magazinewith that in mind. Nowmagazines wards of integrity. But a few years later, even TheNew Yorker
aren'tstartedwith thede-
sirefor someoneto expresswhathebelieves.r think thewhoretrend.is so would become another conglomerate property. Newspapers
destructiveand so unpromisingsofar asjournalism is concerned.that it and magazinesinthe main do notwant merelyreaders; they
is very worrisome.Youngereditorsand writersare growing up in that want a.filuent readers. Broadcasters do not want just any lis-

q<rFl
226
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY ONLY THE AFFLUENT NEED APPLY

teners; they want rich ones.Those who are not going to buy "Some people are more valuable than others'" When word
are not invited to read, hear, or watch.
of this title reached the nonadvertising world, ABC, not
Media executivesdont tell the general public that only
wishing to appear nonegalitarian in public, withdrew the
the affluent are wanted. But just as there is sometimes un_
booklet-but retained the demographicboast.8
guarded truth in wine, there is sometimesunguarded
truth Broadcasters can safely be blunt in trade publications
in the heat of competition. When individual media compa_
seenby advertising agencies.BroadcastingMagazine,for ex-
nies fight for business,or one medium tries to lure advertis-
ample, carries a great deal of corporate promotion aimed at
ers from another medium, the unvarnished truth escapes
advertisers. One ad announcedin healy type over a photo-
from behind high-sounding rhetoric. In r97Bthe American
graph of Mike Douglas, the talk show host:
Broadcasting Company emerged as the leading television
network in size of audience;other networks fought to main_ Women Mike'sGotYourNumber!
18-49:
tain their advertising revenuesby deprecating the ,,qvalrty,, The Mike Douglas Showtoday delivers more women in its audience
18-49 . . . a higher percentage ofwomen 18-49 in its audience than the
of ABC's audience. paul Klein, then program director of
JohnDavidsonShow.s
NBC-TV said ABC's audiencemight be the largest but it is
"kids and dummies."
Such advertising is also crucial for magazines in closed
Reminded that ABC had large ratings ..in homesmaking
business circles. An issue of Public Relations Journal carried
$2o,ooo and over," Klein said: the following firll-page ad:

weII,thatis thekidswatching in those

homes,andsometimestheailults. Wanted:77,000,000Moversand Shakers
' ' ' wewouldliketopull awaythoseadurts,
andreaveABCwiththechil- Are their
Did theygo to college? Are theyprofessionalsor managers?
dren.. . [ABC]maystillhaveaverybigaudiencebut theiraudiencewill plus? Are
household incomes$20,000plus?Are their homes$40,000
beworthless. played active rolesin
their corporatesecurities$20,000plus?Havethey
local civic issues?Have they written any electedofficials or editors
Br oadcasting M agazine reported: any
lately?Havethqt written any booksor articles?Havetheyaddressed
public meetingsor workedfor anypolitical parties?
Morespecifically,
Mr. Klein defined.
as histargetaudience
1,g_
to 4g_ Only 77,136,000adultscanansweryesto oneor moreof thoseques-
year-old women who are in reasonablltsecure tions. . . they'rebig on magazinesand not so big on television' . ' Make
financial situations _,, the
women with some monE) to buy a product anil the necessity thisyouryear to re-evaluatethebalanceofpowerbetweentelevisionand
to buv it.,,
since the cardinal rule of program d.emographicsis that peopre magazines in your mediaplanning.. .
like to
watch people like themselves, Mr. Klein is pouring Magazines.TheBalanceof Power.lo
fematis into his
prime-time programs . . . Sexually oriented plots are
also becoming in_
crea singly p r omin ent.7
The original mass medium, newspapers, in its early pe-
riod carried ads that were marginal in the medium's eco-
In counterattack, ABC issued a booklet to impress po_
nomics. But in the late rSoos mass production of consumer
tential advertisers. one section of the booklet was entitied goods expanded beyond normal consumption. At the time

zz8 229
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY ONLY THE AFFLUENT NEED APPLY

advertisers spent an average of $28.39a year per house- of broadcast program in which their commercials are in-
hold urging people to buy goods and services.ll By rg8o serted. An ad for a sablefur coat next to an article on world
they were spending $69r per household, an increase far starvation is not the most effective association for making a
greater than the rate of inflation, with z9 percent of ad sale.
money going to newspapers, 2l percent to television, 7 'quality"
Thus, both the of an audience and the nonad-
percent to radio, and 6 percent to magazines.By now news- vertising content around the ads have become dominant
papers get Bo percent oftheir revenues from ads, general- in the thinking of major advertisers. Not surprisingly, those
circulation magazines5o percent, and broadcasting almost factors have consequently become dominant in the think-
roo percent. ing of owners of newspapers, rnagazines,and broadcast
Withmore than $z4Tbillion spentin zoor onthose media stations.
eachyear, advertisers do not leave to chancewho will see The president of Harte-Hanks Century Newspaper
their ads. Surveys and computers make it possible now Group, owner of twenty-erght daily papers in the United
to describe with some precision the income, education, oc- States, said in rg8o that the company's editors are losing
cupation, and spending habits of newspaper and magazine what he called their "prejudices" about separating news con-
subscribersand broadcast audiences,thoug;heach medium tent from the desire to reach advertisers'model audience.
tends to exaggeratethe 'quality" of its audience.Media op- "The traditional view has been for editors to focus only on
erators fear "the wrong kind" of audience-too young or the total circulation figures. Today we are seeing more edi-
too old, or not affluent enougflr.The greater the pressure on tor emphasis on the quality of circulation."l2
newspapers,magazines,and broadcastersto increasetheir The largest newspaper chain in t)re country, Gannett,
profits, the more they push not just for larger audiencesbut owns ninety-four daily papers. A study of the Gannett chain
for higher-quality audiences, as each newspaper, each mag- by William B. Blankenburg of the University of Wisconsin
azine,eachbroadcaststation insists to the major advertisers concluded that the chain aims at fewer subscribers who are
that it has the highest-quality audience. richer: "The lost subscribers,ifless wealthy . . . may not have
With billions in ads and more billions in product sales fitted into their marketing scheme."13
at stake, advertisers no longer leave the demographics of Otis Chandler, once the head of the Times Mirror em-
their ad carriers to rhetoric and speculation.They now in- pire, owner of the Los AngelesTimes and the fourth{argest
sist on carefi.rlly audited subscription statistics and scientiF newspaper chain, said, "The target audienceof the Timesis
ically gathered audience data, with sophisticated computer . . . in the middle classand . . . the upper class.. . . We are not
analysis of exactly the kind of individual who is exposed trying to get mass circulation, but quality circulation."la On
to a particular kind of advertisement in a newspaper, maga- 'We
another occasion, he said, arbitrarily cut back some of
zirre, or broadcast. And they are,increasingly interested our low-income circulation. . . . The economics of American
in the context of their ads in the medium-the surround- newspaperpublishing is basedon an advertising base,not a
ing articles in newspapers and magazines and the type circulation base."15

230 23r
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY

Wine by the Case I wouldratherbethemanwhoboughtthe

Brooklyn Bridge than the man who sold it.
Years after the near-fatal disease struck The New yorker, \MILL ROGERS
when recovery had set in, the magazine'sMarket Research
Department commissioned a professional survey to analyze
its subscribers.loFor the edification of prospective adver-
tisers in The New Yorker, its salespeoplecould display r34 CHAPTER TWELVE
pages of statistical tables that showed that the magazine,s
readerswere 58.5percent male, 63.8percent married (6.6%
widowed, 8.roloseparated or divorced); 94.o percent had
attendedcollegeor had degrees(zr.Bo/ohadph.D.s);
HAS
DR.BRANDRETH
Zr.oper-
cent were in business,industry or professions;r9.3percent
were in top managemen! 16.6percent were members of cor-
GONETOHARVARD
porate boards of directors; 4o.r percent collected original
paintings and sculptures; z6.r percent bought wine by the
case;59.3percent owned corporate stock, which had an av- JamesGordon Bennett, founder of the New YorkHerald, is
erage value of S7o,5oo(though a scrupulous footnote to this one of American journalisrn s bad boys' In August of 1835
datum says,"In order not to distort the average . .. one re- his Ann Street plant suffered a disastrous fire, but the ller-
spondent reporting $z5,ooo,ooowas omitted from the cal- ald was back on the street nineteen days later with this
culation'); and the median agewas 48.4.Inother words, the pronouncement:
elite audience was "the right kind" for advertising expensive
merchandise. . moreindependent
Weareagaininthefield.. TheAnnStreet
thanever.
types,presses,
consumed
conflagration manuscripts, badpo-
paper,some
By rgSrTheNewYorlcerhad recoveredenoughof its high- - all theoutwardappearance
books
etry,subscription oftheHerald,but
quahty demographics to make it a desirable carrier for a
its soulwassaved.r
fullaage ad by the Maqazine Publishers Association. The ad
pursued the theme that magazines are superior for advertis- 'fhe Herald was "again in the field" but not "more in-
ing becausethey don t want readers who aren t going to buy. dependent than ever." After the fire Bennett was savedby
The headline on the ad read: A Magazine Doesnt Waste a large advertising contract from a "Doctor Brandreth," a
Words on Window Shoppers.lT quack who sold phony cure-all pills. After the Heraldwas
Neither does any newspaper or broadcast station that back in circulation, the Brandreth ads appeared in profusion'
makesmost of its money from advertising. But so did a steady diet of "news" stories, presuming to be
straight reporting, "more independent than ever," recount-
ing heroic cures effected by none other than Dr' Brandreth s

232 233
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY DR. BRANDRETH HAS GONE TO HARVARD

pills. While other pill makers complained that Brandreth mute button. This new insidious technique has been given
was gettingfront?age news accountsaswell as ads, Bennett the name of its predecessor,"infotainmentj' a repellent word
replied in his news columns: that is alleged to be in the English language"'3
In short, nineteenth-century money changers of adver-
Send us more advertisements than Dr. Brandreth does-give us higher
prices-we'll cutDr. Brandreth dead-or atleast curtailhis space.Busi-
tisers have not been invited into the temple, they have been
nessis business-money is monqt-and Dr. Brandreth is no more to us given the deed to the temple.
than "M r. Money Broker. " 2 Present-day Brandreths have changedtheir technique. So
have the contemporary Bennetts. The advertiser does not
Nine months later, when Brandreth canceledhis adver- barge througlr the front door announcing, "I am Dr. Bran-
tising contract, Bennett, in print, called the good doctor a dreth. I pay money to this network (newspaper, magazine,
"most impudent charlatan" who "deceivedand cheated.,' radio station) and I am pleased to introduce to you the pro-
In the new dignity of modern American journalism, this ducer (reporter, editor, writer) who, with all the por /ers
kind of corruption in the news is a thing of the past, hav- vested by society in independent journalism, will proclaim
ing occurred only in the bad old days before the turn of the the wonder of my pills." Except for a few clumsy operators,
centuqr. Modern media, it is said, are immunized by pro- such a tactic is much too cmde for the twenty-first century.
fessional ethics from letting advertising influence editorial Today Dr. Brandrethmakes his proper appearanceinhis
content. ads. He then leaves politely by the front door, goes to the
Contemporary news and entertainment are, to use Ben- back of the television station (radio studio, newspaper news-
nett's phrase, "more independent than ever." Newspapers room, magazineeditorial off.ces),and puts on the costume
make Bo percent of their revenues from ads and devote of a professional producer (reporter, editor, writer) whom
about 65 percent of their daily spaceto them. Magazines, 'Through professionalresearch
you have been told to trust:
similarly clothed in virtue, make roughly half their money and critical analysis, it is my independent judgment that Dr.
from ads, though they used to make more, and they usually Brandreth s pills, politics, ideology, and industry are the sal-
insist that their advertising departmentsnever shapethe ar- vation of our national soul."
ticles, stories,and columnsproduced by professionaleditors
and writers. Radio and television, the most pervasivemedia
in American life, have varied nonadvertising content like The SubtleCormption
game shows, situation comedies,cops-and-robbersserials,
news, talk shows, documentaries, and musical recordings. Modern cornrption is more subtle.Today,or in recent times,
Broadcasters vary in their separation of commercials advertisers have successfullydemanded that the following
and programs. Some,no longer satisfiedwith a brand name ideas appear in programs around their ads.
product simply appearingin the background of a scene,now All businessmen are good or, if not, are always con-
have the commercial product integrated into the dialogue of demned by other businessmen.All wars are humane. The
the program itself. The whole idea is to escapethe viewer,s status quo is wonderful. Also wonderful are all grocery

234 235
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
DR. BRANDRETH HAS GONE TO HARVARD

stores,bakeries,drug companies,restaurants,and laundries.

it has been one of the leaders in creating promotions in all
Religionists, especiallyclergy, are perfect. All users of
ciga_ media, including commercials inserted into television pro-
rettes are gentle, gracefirl, healthy,youthfirl people. In
fact, grams. It has always appreciated the power of advertising.
anyone who uses a tobacco product is a hero. people
who The company was created in 1837with a soap called, simply,
commit suicide never do it with pills. All financial institu_
White Soap.aBut in rBTgHarley Procter,a descendantofthe
tions are always in good shape.The American way of
life is founder, read in the Forty-fifth Psalm, "All thy garments
beyond criticism.
smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory pal-
The above messages,to cite only a few, have not
been aces.. . ." Ivory Soapwas born and with it the first ofthe full-
vagueinferences.Major advertisershave insisted that
these page ads for the product. Within a decade Procter & Gam-
specificideas be expressednot in the ads but in the ostensi-
ble was selling 3o million cakesof the soap a day. Since then,
bly "independent" news reporting, editorial content, or
en_ the company has been spectacularly successfi.rl,combining
tertainment programs of newspapers, magazines,radio,
and soap, detergent, Christian religion, patriotism, and profit
television. The readers,listeners, and viewers did not
know making. After World War II it projected its ideas to televi-
that thesemessageswere planted by advertisers.They
were sion programs in the form of advertising.
not supposed to know. They were supposed to think
that They, like most major advertisers, do not merely buy a
theseideas were the independent work ofprofessional jour_
certain number of commercials,deliver the tapesto the net-
nalists and playwrights detached from anything commercial.
works and local stations,and let the commercialsfall where
Ifthe audienceswere told that the ideas represented
e:rplicit they may. Some television and radio ads are bought on that
demands of corporations who advertised, the mesJges
basisbut not, usually,those of major advertisers. Big adver-
would lose their impact.
tisers in particular want to know what time of day their com-
But for too long, the taboo againstcriticism ofthe system
mercials will be shown, since that helps define the makeup
of contemporary enterprise, in its subtle way, was almost
as and sLe of the audience they are buying. And they want to
completewithin mainstreamjournalism and broadcastpro_
know the nature of the program into which their commer-
gramming in the United Statesas criticism of
commurrism cials will be inserted.
was explicitly in the soviet union. The forbidden criticism
In the early years oftelevision, advertisers sponsored
ofthe systemoffree enterprise that experiencedspectacular
and produced entire news and entertainment programs.
explosions of Enron, Tyco, and other giants of the free
mar_ This gave them direct control over the nonadvertising part
ket economy in zoor can be better appreciated by
consid_ of the program and they inserted or deleted whatever suited
ering what used to be inflexible demands once made
and their commercial and ideological purposes. NBC's news
obeyedby broadcastersin, for example,the caseofprocter
program in the early rgboswas called Camel NewsCaravan
& Gamble and, of course,tobaccoproducts.
after its sponsor,Camel cigarettes,which banned all fitm of
The entry of pro-corporate ideas into news and enter_
news that happened to take place where a No Smoking sign
tainment was specific. procter & Gamble, once the
largest could be seenin the background.s
advertiser in television, is now the fourth largest. Foryears
Afterthe rg5os,networks producedtheirown showsand

46
2:\7
 THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY HAS GONE TO HARVARD
DR. BRANDRETH

advertisers bought commercials of varying lengths for in- Procter & Gamble was particularly interested in the im-
sertion during the networks' programming. Advertising was ageof businessand businesspeople on television programs:
allotted six, then twelve, and now a-lmostunlimited minutes
per hour of prime-time evening hours and longer periods at Therewillbenomaterialonanyofourprograms whichcoulilin anyway
further theconcept ofbusiness ascold,ruthless, andlackingaII senti-
other times of the day.But no network produces a program
mentor spiritualmotivation.
without considering whether sponsorswill like it. prospec-
If a businessman is castin theroleofvillain,it mustbemadeclear
tive shows usually are discussed with major advertisers, thatheis nottypicalbutis asmuchilespisedby hisfellowbusinessmen
who look at plans or tentative scenesand reject, approve, or asheisbyothermembers ofsociety.
suggestchanges. Special attentionshallbegiventodnymention, innocuous,
however
Major advertisers like Procter & Gamble do not leave of thegrocery anddrugbusiness aswellasanyothergroupofcustomers
ofthecompany. Thisincludes industrialusersofthecompany's products,
their desiresin doubt.
suchasbakeries, restdurdnts, andlaundries.

The company view of religion and patriotism is built into

Wars without Horror programs . If, in a drama or documentary , a character attacks
what the memo called "somebasic conception of the Amer-
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held hear- ican way of life," then a rejoinder "must be completely and
ings in 1965to determine how much influence advertisers convincingly made someplacein the samebroadcast."
had on noncommercial content of television and radio. Al- The sameis true ofwhat Procter & Gamble called "pos-
bert N. Halverstadt, generaladvertising managerof procter itive socialforces": "Ministers, priests and similar represen-
& Gamble, testified that the companyestablisheddirectives tatives ofpositive socialforces shall not be castas villains or
for programs in which Procter & Gamble would advertise. represented as committing a crime or be placed in any un-
These policies were to create standards of ..decencyand sympathetic antisocial role. "
cornmonsense.. . . I do not think it constitutescontrol.,,6He The memo speci-fies,"If there is any question whatever
then gave the FCC the formal requirements for television about suchmaterial, it should be deleted."
programs, as establishedby the medium's largest advertiser Halverstadt testified that these policies were applied
in their memorandums of instruction to their advertising both to entertainment programs in which Procter & Gam-
agency: ble commercials appeared and to news and public affairs
documentaries.8
Whereit seems fitting, thecharactersin procterty Gambled.ramas Thus, corporate ideology was built into entertainment
shouldreflectrecognition andacceptance of theworldsituation
in their
thoughtsandacfions,although in dealingwithwar,our writersshould and documentary programming that the audience believes
minimizethe"horror"aspects. Thewritersshouldbe guidedbythefact is presented independent of thirry-second and sixty-second
that any scenethat contributes negatively to public morale is not accept- commercials that happen to appear in the program. It is
able. Men in uniform shall notbe castas heavy ilIlains or portrayed. as sobering that these demands are made of a medium reach-
engagingin any criminal activity.T
ing roo million homes for sevenand ahalf hours every day.

238 239
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY DR, BRANDRETH HAS GONE TO HARVARD

But insertion of corporate ideology and commercial what many consider the most grievous weaknessof Ameri-
themes in the nonadvertising portion of television program- can television - superficiality, materialism, blandness, and
ming is not limited to Procter & Gamble. An executive of escapism.The television industry invariably responds that
Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation placed into evi- the networks are only giving people what the people de-
dence before the FCC the company's policy on programs mand. But it is not what the public says it wants: It is what
carrying cigarette commercials, directives that prevailed the advertisers demand.
until the end of televised cigarettecommercialsin rgTo:

Tobaccoproducts
shouldnotbeusedin a derogatory orharmfulway.And The BestAtmospherefor Selling
or gestureof disgust,dissatisfaction
noreference or distastebemadein
connection with them. Example: cigarettes should not beground out vi-
At one time the Bell & Howell Company attempted to break
olently in an ashtray or stamped out underfoot.
the pattern of escapist, superficial prime-time programs
Whenever cigarettes are usedby antagonists or questionable char-
acters, thqt shouldbe regular size,plain ends and unidentifiable. by sponsoring news documentaries.loThe president of the
But no cigarette shouldbe used as d prop to depict an undesirable company told the FCC that this was tried to help counter
character Cigarettes usedby meritorious characters shouldbe Brown €c. the standards applied by most advertisers, which he
Williamsonbrands and they maybe identifiable or not. described, disapprovingly, as consisting of the following
requirements:
A vice president ofan advertiser ofheadache tablets,
Whitehall Laboratories, told the FCC that the company de- One should not associatewith controversy; one should always reachfor
the higJrcstratings; one should neverforget that there is safety in num-
manded of networks that "if a scene depicted somebody
bers;one shouldalways remember that comedy,adventure and escapism
committing suicide by taking a bottle of tablets, we would provide thebest atmospherefor selling.
not want this to be on the air."
A vice president of Prudential Insurance Company, Even if a nonescapist program becomes a commercial
sponsorofpublic afiairs programs, said that apositive image success,it is likely to be canceledby the networks or major
of business and finance was important to sustain on the air. local stations.In the early daysof television, there were out-
The company rejected the idea for a program on the bank standing serious programs, including live, original drama:
holiday during the Depressionbecause"it cast a little doubt Kraft Television Theatre, GoodyearPlayhouse,Studio One,
on all financial institutions." RobertMontgomery Presenfs,U.S.SteelHour, RevlonTheaten
AII major advertisers, it seems, would concur with a Omnibus,Motorola TV Hour, The Elgin Hour, Matinee The-
statement made by a Procter & Gamble vice president for ater, and Playhouse90. It was the era of striking television
advertising in 1979:"We're in programming first to assure a plays by playwriglrts such as Paddy Chayefslcy,who said he
good environment for our advertising."e had discovered "the marvelous world" of drama in the lives
Corporate demands on television programs underlie ofordinary people.

240 24t
 THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY
DR. BRANDRETH HAS GONE TO HARVARD

Erik Barnouw in his definitive history of American with dumping sick ones overboard did not create "abuying
broadcastingwrites: mood."
The printed media have not escapedthe pressure,or the
That this"marvelous world"fascinatedmillionsis abunilantlyclear desire, to shape their nonadvertising content to support the
from statistics.Theseplays-akin to thegenrepaintings-heldconsis-
mood and sometimesthe explicit ideas of advertisers. Mag-
tentlyhighratings.Butonegrouphatedthem:theadvertising profession
. . . Mostadvertisers azines were the first medium to carry sophisticated, artistic
weresellingmagic.Theircommercials posed the
same problemsthatChayefsky dramadealtwith:peoplewho advertisements.l2Magazineshad graphic capabilities supe-
fearedfait-
urein loveandin business. Butin thecommercials therewasalways a rior to newspapers, with better printing and color illus-
solutionasclear-cut asthesnapofafinger:theproblemcouldbesolved trations (the first successful national magazine, Godey's
bya newpill, deodorant,toothpaste,shampoo,
shavinglotion,
hairtonic, Lady Book, begun in r83o, hired r5o women to tint the
car,girdle,cffie, muffinrecipe,
orfloorwax.II magazine's illustrations by hand). Until late in the r8oos
ads were a minor part of maoazine publishing, but once na-
That was a generation ago. Today's audience is more tional merchandising organizations grew, this national
jaded and sophisticated.Socommercialsare more insifious mefium responded.By tgoo Harper's,for example,was car-
and clever.They use humor, self-deprecation,even satire of
rying more ads in one year than it had in its previous twenty-
the product in such a way to leave the viewer with a sympa- two years.
thetic, wann smile that becomesassociatedwith the brand
name product.
There is another reason networks and advertising agen- "Bait the editorial pages. . ."
ciesresist seriousor nonescapistprograms. Networks make
most of their money between the hours of 8:oo and rr:oo Beforetelevision emergedin the r95os,successfrrlmagazines
r.u.-prime time. They wish to keep the audience tuned were 65 percent ads. By that time, most magazineswere firn-
from one halFhour segment to the next and they prefer the damentally designed for advertising rather than editorial
"buying mood" sustained as well. A serious half-hour pro- matter. The philosophy of Cond6 Nast had triumphed. Nast,
gram in that period that has high ratings may, nevertheless, who had createdVogue,VanityFair, Glamour,Mademoiselle,
be questionedbecauseit will intermpt the evening'sflow of andHouseand Garden,regardedhis mission "to bait the ed-
lightness and fantasy.In that sense,the whole evening is a itorial pages in such a way to lift out of all the millions of
singleblock of atmosphere-a selling atmosphere. Americans just the hundred thousand cultivated persons
Programs like Roofs on the origins of American black who can buy these quality goods."l3
slavery had very large audiencesbut no comparable com- The role of most magazines,as seenby their owners,was
mercial support at the level an audience that size ordinarily to act as a broker in bringing together the buyers and sellers
receives. The forcible seizure of West African men and of goods. There was, and still is, a significant difference
women and their shackled boat trip on the Atlantic Ocean among magazines in how far they go to sell their readers to

242
243
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY DR. BRANDRETH HAS GONE TO HARVARD

advertisers. But the influence of advertisers on magazine new owner (S.I. Newhouse, the newspaper chain, which
content continues. bought the Cond6 Nast magazines in 1959),it seemed to
A tg4o Esquire article declaredthat the guitar is a better make no difference. Richard Shortway, publisher of Vogue,
accompanimentto singing than a piano. A few months later sixty-three years after Nast's candid statement, made his
the magazine rarf,an apology, "We lost all our piano ads . . . own candid statement: "The cold, hard facts of magazine
We can and do beg the pardon of the piano manufacturers." publishing mean that those who advertise get editorial
By then the fiery owners of the magazine had already been coverage."16
tamed. Two years earlier they had started Ken, amagazine Magazineshave been the Achilles' heel of corporations
of liberal idealism that seemedto start with great promise. who also ownbookhouses. The NewYorkTimes Company
Advertisers disliked the liberal ideas in its articles and not is a conglomerateinvolved in magazines,books, and broad-
only refused to advertise in the new publication but threat- casting,as well as newspapers.In 1976the NewYorkTimes
ened to pull out their ads fromEsquire as well. So the own- published a series of articles on medical malpractice'l7The
ers of Esquire killed Ken, even though it met its circulation news series angered the medical industry, including phar-
plans.la maceutical firms. They could not retaliate effectively against
In 196zPaul Willis, president of the Grocery Manufac- the New York Times, which does not carry much medical
turers Association, warned television operators that they advertising. But meficine-related advertisers were crucial
had better run more programs boosting the food industry. to magazines published by the New York Times Company,
He boasted that a similar warning had worked with national including a periodical called Modern Medicine. Pharmaceu-
magazines. tical firms threatened to withdraw z6o pages of their ads
from Modern Medicine, a loss of ha-lf a million dollars, and
Wesuggested
tothepublishers thatthedaywasherewhentheireilitorial
the Times Company sold its medical magazinesto Harcourt
department
andbusinessdepartment migfttbetterunderstandtheirin-
terdependent
relationships Brace Jovanovich.
. . . astheiroperationsmayffict theadver-
tiser - their bread and butter.l5

The periodicalAdvertisingAge said Willis "pointed with The PermissibleLies

pride" to favorable food articles printed thereafter by "Look,
Reader's Digest, American Weekly, This Week, Saturday Reader's Digest Association owns the mLagazineReader's
Evening Post, Good Housekeeping,Ladies' Home Journal, Digesf and Funk & Wagnalls book publishing.l8 In 1968Funk
Family Circle, and Woman'sD ay, among others." & Wagnalls prepared to publish a book, The Permissible
If, like Bennett's Herald, this was merely the bad old Lie, which criticized the advertising industry. A month
days,there has been little evidenceto give comfort in recent before publication date, Reader's Digest ordered its book
years. Cond6 Nast could create Voguein rgog with his phi- subsidiary to cancel the book. Reader's Digest advertising
losophy of using his articles to get "the cuhivated person who revenues in its magazine, at that date, were $5o million a
can buy these quality goods." InrgTz, withVogue under a year and the associationpresumably felt threatened by loss

244 245
THE NE\M MEDIA MONOPOLY DR. BRANDRETH HAS GONE TO HARVARD

of advertising from its magazine if its book subsidiary mostneu)spaper realestate

sections therealestate
serve industryfar bet-
offended the advertising agency. ter thanthqtserveconsumersandgeneralreaders . . . Articlesthatap-
Newspapers are considered the most scrupulous of all pearas "news"frequentlyarepromotional pieces
for developers, real
estdtedgents,
or industryassociations.ls
the media subsidized by advertising. It had been a sacred
edict in official newspaper ethics that church and state- Examples in the study included the following: the Birm-
news and advertising-are separateand that when there is ingJmm(Alabama)Newsprinted four industry pressreleases
any doubt each is clearly labeled. This is a relatively recent without more than cosmetic rewriting on the front page ofits
change. Thirty years ago it was common for newspapers to real estate section; one issue of the SacramentoUnionhad
resist any news that offended a major advertiser. Depart- more than a dozen articles promoting new subdivisions;
ment store fires, safety violations in stores, public health pressreleaseswere substituted for news articles in the Bal-
actions against restaurants that advertised, and lawsuits timore Sun, Birmingham News,Boston Herald American,
against car dealers seldom made their way into print. The New York Post,Philadelphia EveningBulletin, and Washing-
average paper printed stories about some advertiser or ton Star.
prospective advertiser that were solely promotional propa- Bigger papers, including some of the country's most
ganda. A standard fixture in almost every newspaper was prestigious, often printed more real estatepropagandathan
the memorandum from the business office-B.O.M.. or did some smaller papers.The reports said:
"business office must," meaning that the news department
was ordered to run a story for purposes of pleasing an Weweresurprisedto discover
halfa dozensmallernewsp(rpers. . . that
hada smallbutrespectablerealestatesection. in present-
Theirsuccess
advertiser.
ingrealestatenewsin anobjective,
informative
fashioncompared quite
Over the years, in most newspapers-but not all-those with somemuchlarger newspapers.
favorably
blatant cormptions of news had diminished. But censoring
of information offensive to advertisers continues. News that These smaller papers were Indianapolis Star, New Or-
might damage an advertiser generally must pass a higher leans Times-Picayune,Memphis CommercialAppeal, and Sf.
threshold of drama and documentation than other kinds of Petersburg(Florida) Times.
news. But as more papers become properties of large me- The study seemedto have little influence. Ayear later a
dia conglomerates where profit levels are dictated by Wall number of newspapersnot only kept up the flood of indus-
Street and distant CEOs, pressurehas increased to subdue try promotional material masquerading as news but actually
news that might offend an important advertisers. More took real estatereporting out ofthe hands ofreporters and
common in contempora4y papers is the large quantity of gaveit directlyto the advertising department. Thesepapers
"flu-ff"-material that is not news in any real sensebut is include theVan Nuys (California) Valley News, LosAngeles
nonadvertising material supporting of advertisers. Herald Examiner, Houston Chronicle,and Dallas Morning
A rgTBstudy by the Housing ResearchGroup of the Cen- News.Mainly becauseso mzrnynewspaper readers are world
ter for Responsive Law found that travelers for pleasure and business,a few notes ofrealism

246 247
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY DR. BRANDRETH HAS GONE TO HARVARD

are found in travel columns. A description of a lovely white- all the "news" for the following sections of the paper: home,
sanded tropical beach may add "Take your DEET to ward townhouse, apartments, travel, technology, livestock, and
offthe sand fleas." swimming pools. The vice president of salesand marketing
Thebulkof "news" inthe newspaperis containedin sim- of.the Chronicle said: "We do nothing controversial. We're
ilar special sections.The fashion section, for example,is aI- not in the investigativebusiness.Our only concern is giving
most always either taken from press releasessubmitted by editorial support to our ad projects."zz
designers and fashion houses or written by fashion editors One of the most compelling needs for readers in the dra-
who attend the fashion shows with all expensespaid by the matic inflation of the rg7os was reliable information about
fashion houses.The result is an annual flood ofgushy pro- comparative shopping,yet it is one of the weakest elements
motion of exotic garments, all in a "news" section. The con- in American newspapers.The consumer information most
tamination becomes more blatant with time. In rg8o John needed by families concerns industries with control over the
Brooks, director of communications for the Toronto Star, advertising income of newspapers-food, transportation,
said that when the paper createda new fashion section, and clothing. A feature that has always been extremely pop-
ular with readers during its spasmodic and brief appear-
aII marketresearchwasturnedoverto theeditorial departmentso that
ancesis the market basket survey. A reporter periodically
planningof editorial contentwould be consistent
with thewantsand
needsof readersand prospectivereaders.The Family Editor, under
buys the items on a typical family shopping list and writes a
whosejurisdictionFashion/80wouldfall, spentalot of timewith adver- story about price changesin major supermarkets.It is not a
tisingdepartmentpersonnelin meetingswith advertisers.zo story that grocery store advertisers like, so it has practically
disappeared in American papers precisely when it is most
The same is true of travel and usually food sections. A needed. Even when the market basket surveys are con-
snrvey rn ryT showed that 94 percent of food editors use ducted by university researchers,as at Purdue University,
food company releases for recipes and 38 percent attend most papers refuse to carry the reports, one admitting it bent
food events at the expense of food companies. This, too, has to advertisers' pressure.2s
not changed in the twenty-first century.zl In r98o the WashingtonSfarannouncedafive-part series
on the pros and cons of shopping coupons that have become
common in newspapers,but the series was killed after the
Nothing Controversial first story for fear of discouraging advertisers who bought
spacein the Sfar for shoppingcoupons.2a
The growing trend among newspapers to turn over sections Given the eagernesswith which newspapers protect
of the "news" to the advertising department usually pro- major advertisers, it is understandable that by now adver-
duces copy that is not marked "advertising" but is firll ofpro- tisers expect that when the interests of readers are in com-
motional material under the guise of news. The advertising petition with the interests of advertisers, the newspapers
department of the l{oust on Chronicle,for example,provided will protect the advertisers.

248 249
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY DR. BRANDRETH HAS GONE TO HARVARD

A senior vice president of MGM told newspaper execu- reprinted the reports of the tobacco industry public relations
tives in rgSr that he had seen too many negative reviews of operation, the TobaccoInstitute, that there was no proven
movies and warned newspapers that the $5oo million worth cause-and-effectbetween smoking and cancer. It seemed
ofmovie ads that the science of epidemiology that solved the problem of
the bubonic plague, typhoid fever, and many other notorious
cannot be taken for granted and you've got to get this word to your edito-
killers of human beings was not applicable to tobacco. Per-
rial counterparts . . . Today the daily newspaperdoes not always create a
haps only after the chromosomesof the cancerceIIunder the
climate that is supportive and favorable to the motion picture industry
. . . gratuitous andhateful reviews threaten to causethe romancebetween microscope spelled out the name "Brown & Williamson'
newspapersand the motion picture industry to wither on the yine.25 would the Tobacco Institute at most say that it required
"more researchand the major news media obedientlyreport
it with a straight face.
Death for Sale The prolonged behavior of newspapers was worse, given
their ability to be unambiguousabout mass deathsbased on
The most shamefirl conspiracy in the history of American mounting scientific evidence. In r97r tobacco advertising
news and a major advertiser was the prolonged complicity was banned from television-or television networks "vol-
of the news and advertising media in suppressingor neu- untarily" banned it when it became clear that it was going to
tralizing the irrefutable evidence that smoking cigarettes be made into communications law anyway. Significantly,
kills. According to the British medical journal .Lancet, aslate thereafter, television was much more willing to highlight
as the rggos, in the United States,Europe, Canada,Japan, antismoking researchthan was the printed press.28
Australia, and New Zealand,zr million people died tobacco- If there is a date beyond which there appears to be the
related deaths, usually after pain and suffering. The World obstinatesuppressionof the link between tobaccoand wide-
Health Organization estimated that 3 million people die each spread death, it is 1954.In rg53,the year the AMA banned
year from tobacco.26 tobacco ads from its journals, the New York Times Index,
For decades, newspapers, with rare exceptions, kept reflecting probably the best newspaper reporting on the
smoking deaths out of the news, even after a rgzT definitive tobacco-cancerlink, had 248 entries under "Cancer" and
study in Eng;landmade it inexcusable.As late as fourteen "Smoking" and "Tobacco."Ninety-two percent said nothing
years after the Surgeon General of the United Statescited about the link; of the B percent that did, only z percent were
serious health risks from smoking, and seven years after articles mainly about the tobacco-diseaseconnection; the
the SurgeonGeneral declaredthat even secondhandsmoke other 6 percent were mostly denials of this from the tobacco
may cause lung cancer, 64 million Americans, obviously al- industry. In 1954,the year of the American Cancer Society's
ready addicted, smoked an average of twenty-six cigarettes study, the New York Times Indexhad 3oz entries under the
aday.27 sametitles. Of the stories dealing mainly with tobacco s link
But for years newspapers (for whom the top three or to disease,3z percent were about the tobacco industry's de-
four advertisers were always tobacco companies) taithfi:lly nials and only zo percent dealt with medical evidence.

250 25r
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY DR. BRANDRETH HAS GONE TO HARVARD

In rg8o, sixteenyears later, there were still more stories educating the pubhc about the dangers of cigarettes, the De-
in the daily press about the causesof influenza, polio, and tu- partment of Health and Human Services,spent one-third of
berculosisthan about the causeofone ofevery sevendeaths a cent ayear for every citizen.
in the United States. National publications, especially the news magazines,
are notorious for publishing dramatic stories about health
and disease.Time artdNewsweekhavebothhadcover stories
A Media Disease on cancer.Newsweek,forexample,had a cover storyJanuary
z6,tg79,entitled "What CausesCancer?"The article was six
There began to be suspicions of a strictly media disease:a pageslong. On the third page it whispered about the leading
strangeparalysiswhenever solid news pointed at tobaccoas cause-in a phrase it said that tobacco is the least disputed
a definitive causeof diseaseand death. For years, up to the "carcinogen of all." The article said no more about the sta-
present, medical evidence on tobaccoand fisease has been tistics or the medical findings of the tobacco-cancerlink,
treated differently than any other information about carriers except in a table, which listed the ten most suspectedcar-
of disease that do not advertise. The print and broadcast cinogens-alphabetically, putting tobacco in a next-to-last
media might make page r drama of a junior researcher's place. A week later, Time, in a common competitive dupli
paper about a rare disease.But if it involves the 3oo,ooo an- cation between the two magazines,ran a two-column article
nual deathsfrom tobacco-relatedillness.the media either do on the causesof cancer.The only reference it made to to-
not report it or they report it as a controversial item subject bacco was that "smoking and drinking alcohol have been
to rebuttal by the tobacco industry. linked to cancer."A few weeks earlier, a Time essayurged
It is a history filled with curious events. In t963, for ex- smokers to organize to defeat antismoking legislation.
ample, HudsonVitamin Productsproduced Smokurb,a sub- When R. C. Smith of ColumbiaJournalismReviewsttd-
stitute for cigarettes.The company had trouble getting its ads ied sevenyears of magazine content after rg7o, when ciga-
in newspapers and magazines and on the air. EIi Schon- rette ads were banned from television, he found:
berger, president of Hudsons ad agency,said, "We didnt
In magazinesthat acceptcigarette adyertisingl was unable to find a sin-
create this campaign to get into a fight with anyone,but some
gle article, in severalyears of publication, that would havegiven readers
media just stall and put us off in the hope that we'll go any clear notion ofthe nature and extent ofthe medical and socialhavoc
a.way."29 wreaked by the cigarette-smoking habit.zo
This was, of course, strangebehavior for mefia that are
anxious for as much advertising as they can get. One major The few magazines that refused cigarette ads did much
magazinetold the company its product was "unacceptable." better at their reporting, he said. (The most prominent mag-
The tobacco industry once spent $4 a year for every azines that refused cigarette ads were Reader'sDigest and
American man, woman, and child for its cigarette advertis- TheNewYorker.)
ing. At the same time, the government's primary agency for The magazines that carried accurate articles on the

252 253
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY DR. BRANDRETH HAS GONE TO HARVARD

tobacco-diseaselink su-fferedfor it. In July rg57Reader'sDi- best of them was by CBS in 1965.But Howard K. Smith, of
gesfran a strong article on medical evidence against tobacco. ABC, speakingon a public-television panel, expressedwhat
Later that month, the advertising agencythe magazine used many have seen as the media's treatment of tobacco and
for twenty-eight years said it no longer wanted the Digest disease:
as a client. The agency,Batten, Barton, Durstine and Os- Tomethatdocumentary wasa casebook
example
ofbalancethatdrained
born, had $r.3million in businessayear from the magazine. a hotissueof itsmeaning.
Onthatprogramthereweredoctors
whohad
But another client, the American Tobacco Company, which every reason to be objective,who maintained that cigaretteshayea causal
spent $zz million a year with the agency, had asked the relation to cancer.On the other side, there were representativesof the to-
baccoindustry, who have no reason to be objective,who state persuasitellt
agencyto choosebetween it and Reader'sDigest.
the opposite.Thepublicwasleftwith ablurred impressionthat the truth
In rg8o aliberal-left magazine,Motherlones,rana series
lay betweenwhereas,as far as I am concerned, we have ewrythingbut a
of articles on the link between tobacco and cancer and heart signed confessionfrom a cigarette that smokinghas a causal relation to
disease,after which tobacco companies canceledtheir ads cancer.33
with the magazine.sl
Elizabeth Whelan reported, "I frequently wrote on If magazinesand broadcastinghad been muffled on the
heatth topics for women's magazines,and have been told national plague, newspapershad been no better. According
repeatedly by editors to stay away from the subject of to- to medical and other researchers.as well as the editors who
bacco."8zWhelan, on a campaign to counter the silence, produced it, the only lengthy in-depth specialfeature on to-
worked with the American Council on Science and Health bacco and diseasein a standard American daily newspaper
to ask the ten leading women s magazines to run articles on was published by the Charlotte(North Carolina) Observeron
the growing incidence of smoking-induced diseaseamong March 25,rgTg.
women, just as they had done to promote the Equal Rights The answer lies in a simple statistic: Tobaccowas the
Amendment. None of the ten magazines-Cosmopolitan, most heavily advertised product in America, and for a good
Harpefs Bazaar,Ladies'HomeJournal,Mademoiselle,Ms., reason. As the publishing trade journal Printer's Ink re-
McCalI's,Redbook,Seventeen, Vogue,or WorkingWoman- ported in 1937,"The growth of cigarette consumption has
would run such an article. . . . been due largely to heary advertising expenditure. . . ."
In 1954-the year beyond which any reasonabledoubt of the
link should have disappearedamong the media-the trade
The SevenOath{akers journal of newspapers, Editor €t Publisher, criticizing the
American Cancer Societyand SurgeonGeneral'sreports as
Television. con-frontedwith FCC moves to make it run anti- "scarenews," complained that it had cost newspapers"much
smoking commercials to counter what the FCC considered lineageand many dollars to somewhose businessit is to pro-
misleading cigaretteads,aired a few documentaries,most of mote the sale of cigarettesthrough advertising-newspaper
them emphasizing the uncertainty of the tobacco link. The and advertising agencies."sa

254 255
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY

It is not surprising that surveys in rg8o by Gallup, Roper,

and Chilton foundthat 3o percent of the publicwas unaware
of the relationship between smoking and heart disease,5o
percent of women did not know that smoking during preg-
nancy increases the risk of stillbirth and miscarriage, 40
percent of men and women had no idea that smoking causes
AFTERWORD
8o percent ofthe g8,ooo lung cancer deaths per year, and
5o percent of teenagers did not know that smoking
addictive.ss
may be
PARADISE
LOST
OR
In rgg4 researcher Dr. Stan Glance of the University
of California at San Francisco released internal documents
from Brown & Williamson on nicotine. Brown & William-
PARADISE
REGAINED?
son generalcounselAddisonYeamannoted in a confidential
memo to his superiors, "Nicotine is addictive' We are then
SOCIAL
JUSTICE
IN
in the businessof selling nicotine, an addictive d*g'"'u
There was, of course, the famous photograph and televi-
sion scene of seven leaders ofthe tobacco industry called
DEMOCRACY
before Representative Henry Wa:cnan of California andhis
committee testi{ying about the habit-forming character of
There was a time when new communications technology
nicotine. The seven splendidly suited tobacco executives
promised an era of diverse educational, civic, and entertain-
stood behind the witness table, riglrt hands upraised, swear-
ment choices beyond anything known before in the United
ing under oath that they believed that "nicotine is not addic-
States.Here, at last, would be the most commonly used chan-
tive." They had taken the oath, "so help me God'"
nels with varieties of entertainment, education, and civic in-
They did indeed require the help of the Derty, but He or
formation in the service of a more engaging democracy.
Shemust have been listening to a different channel'
Fiberoptic cable can carry32o ormore video channelsin
one fiber. Even existing copper wiring to most homes has
adopted the technique of multiplexing that permits many
channels to travel over one copper wire simultaneously.
Ordinary cable to homes in many places offers 9r available
channels. Satellite transmission to home rooftop dishes car-
ries more than rzo channels.
All of these could provide not only existing commercial
channels now controlled by large corporate conglomerates

256 257
AFTERWORD AFTERWORD

but also far more channels free of commercials. The multi- deregulation of everything possible. Private media power
ple public channels could be devoted to all age and taste successfullyused its political power.
categoriesfor education, work-related skills, and noncom- The failure of the vision for enlarged public channels is
mercialized entertainment. Every city of any size could have filled with ironies:
clusters of channels strictly for local programming of its Most new communications technologies were estab-
choice. lished with taxpayers'money. Like the Internet, satellite
In the r96os,when thesenew technologieswere in their transmission, for example, would not exist without its cre-
birth pangs,there was widespread discussionbased on the ation of communications satellites by government agencies
reasonable assumption that in time these new capacities and subsidiespaid for with peoples'taxes.The airwaves,the
would be used for the public good. Conferencesof technol- broadcast frequencies on which most Americans depend,
ogists, social scientists,economists,and journalists consid- happen to be public property. For all practical purposes
ered how best to use them. Major foundations issuedhiglrly thesepublic airwaves have been expropriated by giant media
researchedpossibilities for a rich spectrum of noncommer- corporations.
cial programs. Books were written on the coming bright new When the United Statesdefeated Japanin World War II
world. All assumed that the United Stateswould adapt the and establishedan American administration to reconstruct
new technologies to the special needs ofthe breadth and the old Imperial Government, it mandated thatJapan create
variety of the country's geographyand population. The coun- a noncornmercial, unpoliticized broadcast systemthat would
try would finally achieve what some other modern democ- not depend on annual parliamentary appropriations. The
racies already had in operation, and perhaps more. Japaneseadopted their presentbroadcastingsystembecause
But it was not to be. There would be no use of thesetech- the American occupying forces declared publicly that no
nologies for noncommercial civic programs. Commercial modern democracy should be without one. That is why
broadcast media corporations rapidly increased their con- Japans NHK has the most capacious,diverse, and varied
trol of every significant medium, including daily newspapers noncommercial broadcasting system in the world, with the
and magazines.The news ideas were reported in news sto- British Broadcasting Company second.l Both are financed
ries and industry publications' But as media conglomerates by a fixed tax on broadcast receivers in each home, compa-
grew in size and acquired the largest news organizations, the rable to annual auto registration fees in the United States.
assumption of noncommercial use of the new technologies Both the Japaneseand the English clearly are sufficiently
ceasedto appear. pleased with the arrangement to have maintained it for more
The commercial conglomerates fid their political best to than half a century.
elect members of Congressand the White House who then There are now dual systemsin Japan with private oper-
dared not offend them by creating a large public system ation with commercials and pay radio and television. Britain,
whose audienceswould reduce ratings for the commercial- too, now has commercial channels in ITV, alongside the
ized channels. The big media were loud in the clamor for BBC channels.

258 259
AFTER\,l/ORD AFTER\MORD

The comparatively tiny U.S. public system depends on This limitation of the major media extends beyond na-
congressional appropriations. Public broadcasting remains tional policies. The media giants, left largely free to do what
tiny becausecommercial broadcastconglomerateshave the they wish, have found ever-lower levels of coarsened cul-
lobbying power and campaign contributions to make certain ture and models. Prime-time television "realitJr'"programs
that Congress will not mandate a system like NHK for the glor$l some of the more revolting emotions in the human
United States,even though it was the United Statesthat de- psyche-deceit, cynical sexrality, greed, and the desire to
manded that Japan must have one. exploit, humiliate, and elicit shattering emotional break-
Today, the five huge corporate conglomerates are free downs on camera. The control ofmost ofwhat the American
to behave as though they "own" every major broadcast public reads, sees,and hears is not a merely technological
channel of communication in the country. In addition, they phenomenon, nor is it just an item in the nation s economy.
also own most of the production companies that create the It is a phenomenon that goes to the heart of the American
programs. democracy and the national psyche.
The large media conglomerates do not want greater po- The major media socialize every generation of Ameri-
Iitical and social diversity because it would dilute their au- cans. Whether the viewers and listeners are conscious of it
diencesand thereby reducethe feesthey can demandforthe or not, they are being "educated"in role models, in socialbe-
commercials that produce their unprecedented profit levels. havior, in their early assumptions about the world into which
They have defeated moves by Congressand federal agencies they will venture, and in what to assumeabout their unseen
to altertheirrestrictive policies. In addition, theyhave used millions of fellow citizens. One dictionary definition of "so-
their power to create new laws that limit even more the entqr cialize" is "To fit for companionship with others; make so-
of new media into the national scene.They have been a most ciable inattitude ormanners."The impact ofthe massmedia
powerful force in shifting the political spectrum of the on this socialization is not merely a theory that exists in
United Statesto the riglrt. dictionary definitions. The fact that violence on television
The artificial control overthe counut's political spectrum increases real violence in society has been studied and
was demonstratedin zoor by large-scaleprotests againstthe confirmed for more than thirtyyears. More than r,ooo stud-
United States'invasionof Iraq. The protests were organized ies, including a Surgeon General's special report in rgTz and
almost entirely via the Internet, the one important medium a National Institute of Mental Health report ten years later,
not yet controlled by the media monopolies. Initially, the showed television violence is directly related to violence
standard media owned by conglomerates systematically un- and aggressionin children, especially children under age
derreported most of the thousands of protesters who took eight. By the time an American child is 18,he or she has seen
to the streets across the country and the world. Only after t6,ooo simulated murders and zoo.ooo acts of violence.2
foreign news agencies reported the numbers more accu- As mentioned earlier, most local television news is a
rately-and many Americans used accessto these foreign nightly litany of bloody accidents and crimes, known in the
news agenciesby Internet-did the American conglomer- television studios as a policy of "if it bleeds,it leads."
ates alter their earlier inaccurate reporting. Violence on television exists in many foreign countries,

z6o zGr
AFTERWORD AFTER\MORD

but in few does it equal the extent of its suffusion in Ameri- the twenty-four countries of the Organization for Economic
can television. TV is the most commonly used baby-sitter in Co-operation and Development is 38.7percent.The United
the country. Corporate programming and a heedlessCon- Kingdom, for example,pays 33.6percent, Canada35.6per-
gress have permitted this baby-sitter to be an instructor in cent, Germany 39 percent, and Sweden49.9 percent.g
mayhem and murder. It is not surprising that studies show To addinsultto injury the countryhas the lowestincome
that while actual crime has dropped in the United States, tax among peer nations for its wealthy citizens. The top tax
public fear of crime and violence has risen. This is not un- for millionaires used to be 7o percent; in recentyearsthe top
connectedto an industry that by law is supposedto be reg- rate has been cut to 33percent.
ulated and granted broadcast licenses on the basis of "the No one loves to pay taxes.Voters in the countries men-
public interest." tioned could vote against candidates who support the higher
In the rg5os and r96os, SenatorJohnO. Pastore,Demo- taxation, but they seldom do so. They tolerate higher taxes
crat of Rhode Island, as chair of a Senate subcommittee becausethey value their guaranteed health care, their living
on corlmunications, regularly called leaders of the major wages,their housing for all, and all the other social programs
broadcast corporations before him to berate them for suf- that are either missing in the United States or remain a
fusing the public with gratuitous sex and violence. So did hodgepodge depending on the city or state in which an
other members of Congress, like Representative Edward American citizen happens to live. Yet the major media in the
Markey of Massachusettsand Senator Fritz Hollins of South United Stateshave been the emphatic voice of every politi-
Carolina. They fid not bring a permanent change, but dur- cian and corporate chieftain complaining about ..confisca-
ing their period of leadership they did create a palpable re- tory taxes."
straint among the major networks, who took pains to skirt There is, of course,a remedy.It is true that mediapower
what they saw as limits to congressionalpermissiveness. is political power. But it is also true that people power is
Once those limits ended with repeal of the Fairness Doctrine political power. It has prevailed in the past and it can in the
in the rg8os,so did any senseof restraint by the major broad- present. Our present conglomerated mass media did not
castmedia. come full-blown from some untouchable deity. They came
The damage has gone beyond national cultural values. into existenceonlybecause of actions of the Congressof the
The power of the conglomerates to sustain myths about na- United Statesand the presidents who appointed the agen-
tional policies has produced growing chaos and crisis in cies that are commanded by law to regulate the nonprint
cities and states across the country. The major media for media, particularly the Federal Communications Commis-
decades have printed and broadcast the mythology that sion, under law the shepherds whose duty is to regulate
the people of the United States are crushed by the high- radio and television. In the early years of the century the
est taxes among modern democracies.The opposite is true. conservative three-person majority tore down the fences
Of all comparably developed countries, United States citi- and let the flock do whatever it pleasedwherever it pleased.
zens pay-in all taxes of every kind-29.7 percent of the There was much public protest. The two Democratic minor-
country's gross domestic product, while the average for ity members held hearings in cities that asked for them, and

zGz 269
AFTERWORD AFTERWORD

every hearing was filled to overflowing with outraged lis- newspaper managements typically hire er<pensivelaw firms
teners and viewers. whose specialty is union-busting.
The printed media are protected by the First Amend- It is not too late to mandate use of the enonnous capac-
ment of the U.S. Constitution, but owners of very large ities of the country's communications technology and the
numbers of newspapers are not exempt from antitrust law, powers of antitrust actions to diminishthe domination ofthe
especially in what is now a widespread collusion among media by a few powerfirl conglomerates in whose interest it
owners of newspapers to buy and swap papers in order to let has been to eliminate from the airwaves and often newspa-
one owner have papers covering one large regional cluster per and major magazine columns those who speak for social
that overcomes smaller, independent papers competing for justice.
readers and advertisers. It is not surprising that the major The raw power of major corporations joined with the
printed media have been weak or silent on the abuseof "the mefia conglomerates has aroused increasing protest on the
public interest" by the Iicensedmedia corporations ofwhich fnternet and in the alternative print and broadcast media.
they are apart.The samefive giant conglomeratesalso own Moreyoungpeople-once the agegroup attributed the low-
most of the production companies that create the programs est percentage of voting among those eligible - have become
that will be transmitted by the same conglomerates' net- activists, mobilizing protests,petitions, and votes. The rem-
works. They own 8o percent of cable networks and use each edy ultimately will rely on the ballot box.
of the properties to promote their other programs.a More of the public, young and old, seem to take with
As the twenty-first century progresses, so do the pos- growing seriousnesstheir exercise ofthe American privilege
sibilities of immense growth in media outlets. President granted by the U.S. Constitution, permitting every citizen
Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, and President Franklin eighteen and over, male and female, to vote for president,
Roosevelt, a Democrat, demonstrated that conglomerates vice president, and members of Congress.
and monopolies harm the common good and are not beyond Thesehave becomethe voices of hope.
the reach of law. Nor are they beyond the reach of the Amer-
icanvoters, who increasingly sensethat somethingis rn'rong
in unfair distribution of national wealth, in the growing
dfficulty of securing proper housing for middle- and low-
income families, and in a seemingly numb National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB)that once blocked punitive treat-
ment oflegal union organizinginthe attemptto provide aliv-
ing wage for the cormtry's workers. There are a number of
casesin which newspaper reporters have been illegally fired
for union activity that did not disrupt work; their appeals to
the NLRB will take-they have been told by the agency-
from three to six years for final judgment. In the meantime,

264 26i
 NOTES

NOTES r7. www.thisnation.com/question/oz8.html; www.historylearningsite.

co.uVfinance.htm
r8. American Enterprise Institute, "Vital Statistics on Congress," rgg4-
85 ed. (Washington,D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, rgg5),67,
74,tables 3-7 and y5.
rg. Center for Responsive Politics, http://opensecrets.org/overs/blio
Citations fo fhe New York Tirnes refer to the national eilition; citdtions to
.aspCycle=zooo
theWall Street Journal refer to the western edition.
20, N ew York Times, 6 Septemberzooz.
tl Ibid; www.nydailynews. com/news/story/r8669p-r7595c. htrnl
22. www.forbes.com
Foreword 23. Wall StreetJournal, r3 October zoo3.
r. U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, "Money Income 24. Ibid.: www.forbes.com
in the United States:zoorj'table A-2. 25. www.forbes.com
26. htqr ://slate.msn.com/id/r862
rbid.
CHAPTER ONE: COMMON MEDIA
FOR AN UNCOMMON NATION
CHAPTER TWO: THE BIG FIVE
t. NewYorkTimes, z4March zoo3,r5.
z. Luce anil His Empire, W. A. Swanberg, (Scribner's Sons, New York, r. u.v'.w.oldtimecooking.com/Fads/stuff_booths.html
r97z);CNNMONEY, lo Januaryzooo; and WashingtonPosf,16Sep- z. StatisticalAbstract of the United States,eoo4 tables nz6, uzg, rr3r,
tember zoo3,Az. rr32, u3B, and rr37.
3. http://media.guardian.co.uldnews/story/o,754r,941565,oo.htrnl 3. Ibid., tables uzr and rzp.
4. The NewYorke49 November rgg8, 34. 4. Plunkett'sEntertainment €t Media Industry Almanac, 2oo2-2oos
(Houston: Plunkett ResearchLtd., zooz),7.
S. Opensecrets.org,Center for ResponsivePolitics, for zooo.
6. Fortune5oo, zooz,ard'FortuneGlobal 5oq zooz, www.fortune.com 5. Columbia lournalism Review,www.cjr.ory/owners/aoltimewarner
.asp
7. Harvey Swados, ed.,Yearsof Conscience:TheMuckrakers (Cleve-
land: Meridian Books, 196z). 6. New York Times, zgJanuaryzoo3, r; New york Times, zr April zoo3, Cr.
8. Mark Herts gaard, On Bended Knee (New York: Farrar Straus 7. Fortune Magazine, 4,Lpril zooo, www.fortune.com/home_chameV
Giroux, 1988). forhrae5oo
g. Vanity Fair, July zoo3, r4. 8. http://disney. go.com/vault/read/walt/index.htrnl
rc. Index of Free Expression,www.indexonline.org,/news/zoo3o3rgt- 9. http://disney. go.com/disneyal ozlhead/Walt
unitedstates.shtml ro. www.kitzenwadl.com/site/pr83.htm
rr. S. Rendall, J. Naureckas,and J. Cohen, TheWay ThingsArett: Rush rr. ht4r://disney. go.com/disneyatoz/waltdisney/maincollection/
Limbaugh'sReign of Error (New York: New Press,rg95). waltstoryepisoder5.html
p. NewYorkTimeg 8 December2oo2,sec.4,7. rz. www.achievement.org/autodoc/eisObior; www. cjr.ory/year/ g5l6I
rg National lournal TechnologtDaily, rg Septemberzooz. ovitz.asp
.uniteil r3. www.latimes.com
14. Statisticdl Abstract of the States,zoot, tztst ed. (Washington'
D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau, zoor), table rrzr. 14. hW: / I archive.salon.com/books/log/r999/o8/r3,/eisner
15. Ben H. Bagdikian, TheMeiliaMonopoly, rst ed' (Boston: Beacon 15. Wall Streetlournal, r December zoo3, r.
Press,1983). 16. William Shawcross,Murdoch (New york: Simon & Schuster, rggz),
16. www.dsmarketing.com/usgov-amph.htm r65-67.

266 267
NOTES NOTES

rZ. www.motherjones.com/mother-jones/MJ95/murdoch.htrnl 8. www.tu-chemrntz.de I phil./englishL/chairs4inguist/reallindependent/

t8. NewYorkTimes,8 October zoo3, sec.3, r. llc/Conferencer998/Papers/Nesi.htm
rg. www.cjr.orglowners/newscorp.asp g. StatisticalAbstract ofthe uniteil States,soor, table urg.
zo. NewYorkTimes, rz Attgastzoo3,Ar7. to. New York Times, 6 Jatli.nry zoo3, r.
2,r. wwwiht.com/articles/8g5o5.htm u. New York Times,r7 April zoo3, Fr.
zz. Rod and Akna Holmgren, OutrageousFortune (Carmel, Calif.: Jack- rz. Ibid.
son Press,zoor),39. rg. ColumbiaJournalism Review,November/December zooz,
33.
zg. The N ation, 7-r4 lannry zooz. t4. New York Times, 4 April zoo3, E7.
24. Erik Barnorw, The Golilen Web(New York Odord University Press, 15. www.uta.edu/english/V/students/collab4/lori.htm
1968),z:56-57. 16. www.alternet.org/story.htrnl?StoryID=rrg54
25. A. M. Sperber,Murrow and His Life and Times (New York: Bantam t7. NewYorkTimes, zoJuly zoo3,WK3.
Books, 1986). r8. New YorkTimes, r3 March zoo3, Cr.
26. ExecutiveEnterpriseBriefingBook, October 1986,2o-2u http,//..t r9. New York Times,z3 April eoo3,Aro.
.mit. edu/ebb/prs/iokey.htrnl zo. SanFranciscoChronicle,z8 April zooz, Er.
27. httpl lwww.museum.tvlarchives/etvlM,&trnlM/mergersanda/ zt. NewYorkTimes, zz ApriJ.zoo3,Cr.
mergersanda.htm;BusinessWeekOnline, 8 May t989, ttg zz. WalI Streetlournal, 7 May zoo3,t.
28. www.ketupa.net/viacomz.htm 23. NewYork Times,r8June zoo3, Cr.
29. www.businessweek.com/lggg/gg-4/b3623oor.htm?scriptFramed 24. U.S. Constitution, article r, section 8, provision g.
3o. www.cjr.org/owners/bertelsmann.asp 25. www.clwbar.org/resipsa/jan99/coppight.html
3r. www.thenation.conr/issue/g8rzz8fisch.htm 26. www.cnn,com
gz. Wallstreetlournal, r December zoo3,r.
93. Ring Henry lV, Part II, act III.
24. Broadcasting€.rCable, r3May 2oo2, 42. CHAPTER FOUR: (rVOr) ALL THE
35. http://mefi a.guardian.co.uk NEWS THAT,S FIT TO PRINT
36. http ://archive s. cjr.or g/y earI o3lz4ists.asp
r. www.newline.com/sites/wagthedog/Story/index.htrnl
37. Ibid.
z. Details from U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics,
38. Ibid. ..Nation
39. Ibid. 3o January zoor, as reported in s Unemployment Rises,,,
New York Times, 5Jatruary zooz, Cr.
4o. EncyclopeiliaBritannica, r4th ed., zo: 826.
4r. EncyclopediaBritannica, rrth ed., r4: 996. 3. SanFranciscoChronicle,r3 April zoor.
4. New York Times, 4 Apri, zoot, t.
5. wwwwsws.org/articles/zo oz/ deczooz AoIt-d24.shtml
6. State of the Union Speech,z8 January zoo3, as released by White
CHAPTER THREE: THE INTERNET House on z8 Jaauary 2oo3.
r. http://ei.cs.\,t.edu/-history/Internet.History.z.htrnl 7. NewYorkTimes,toJuly zoo3,Aro.
z. http: I I fo .arLarmy.mil/-mike/comphist/eniac-story.html 8. www:waanan.house.gov/news_files/news_articles_jackpot_
3. Ibid. cabinet-z-24_or.htm
4. http//ftp.arl.net/z/mike/comphistory/eniac-storT.html g. NationalJournal, r5 April zoo3, r.
5. http://cyberatlas.internet.coffiig picture/geographics/print/ ro. http://bgd.senate.gov/byrd_newsoct2oo s_octzooz/rls_
o,,59u-96954r,oo.html oct2oo2_2.html
6. San Francisco Chronicle, zr April eoo3, E3. rt. New York Times,7 Septemberzooz, r.
7. WebstefsNew Worlil Dictionary of ComputerTermg 6th ed. (New rz. Sam Tanenhaus, "Bush-s Brain Trust," Vanity Fair,July zoo3, rr4.
York: Simon t+ Schuster, r9g7). r3. Senator Hiram Johnson arguing against U.S. entry into World War I,

268 269
NOTES
NOTES

Speechto U.S. Senate,rgrT,tnMacMillanDictionary of Quotations, lournalism Revi.ew,Iantary/February rggg, zo;American

CongressionalRecord, r9r8. 59. lournalism
Revieq October rg97 r3.
r4. A. M. Sperber,Murrow: His Life and Times (New York: Bantam 17. Ibid,.,zo-24.
Books,1986),4r8.
r5. Personal interview with William Shawn, editor of ?he New Yorker,
r4 May rg8t.
16. Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, War andPeace,trans. Rosemary Edmonds
(London: Penguin Books, 1978).
r7. PageSmith,A NewAge Begins:A People'sHistory of theAmerican zr. Sta-tistical Abstract of the United States,zooz, table g47;
Housing
Revolution (NewYork: McGraw-Hill, 1976),vol. z. Related Expenditures, National Low_Income Housing
Coalition,
18. The Oxford History of theAmerican People,ed. SamuelEliot Morri- August 2oo2,2.
son (NewYork: Oxford University Press,1965). zz. BusinessWeek,5 October r9gg.
rg. W.A. Swahberg,CitizenHearst(NewYork: Charles Scribner's Sons,
r96r).

CHAPTER FIVE: ALL THE NEWS

THAT FITS? 22. ww-w.americanfreepress.net/RFA_Articles/Tax_Experf
Says
-Sleeping-IRS-G/tax_expert_says_sleeping_irs
g.html
r. Henry Treece, The Crusades (New York: New American Library, 26. Trudy Lieberman, ..Lifting the Veil,,'Columbia
r96z). Journalism Review,
January/February 2oor, S?.
z. http://archive. salon.com/tech/feature/zoo rI og/ zSlarabs-media/
print.html
3. Abraham Lincoln, State of the Union Speechto Congress, r Decem- CHAPTER SIX: PAPER IN THE
ber 1862.
4. World News,Inter PressServicq www.oneworld.r"t/"*t"-"V?*l=
DIGITAL AGE
httpo/og|o/ozF o/o2Fwww.oneworld. org%zFips zo/ozFjulgSo/ozF4=Lg r. Spiritual Media, Boy Klrzweil, (Viki"g, New york,
rg99);
-o97.html www.planetebook. com/mainpage.asp?webpageid=rro
5. The Nation, r July 1989,4. z. www.time.com/time/timetoo/artists/profile/lucy.htrnl
6. M. Moscowltz, M. KaIz, and R. Levering, Everybody'sBusiness, 3. "Circulation of U.S. Dail-y Newspapers by popjation Group,,,in
(SanFrancisco:Hartrler& Row, rgSo),78et seq. Editor tt Publisher yearbookInternational, zoog gznd
ed. (irrew
7. The Columbia Encyclopedi4 5th ed. (New York: Columbia Univer York: Editor & publisher, zoos). vii.
sity Press and Boston: Houg[ton Mifflin, r9g3). 4. Ibid., ix.
8. rbid. 5 B"l-H Bagdikian, Reportsofan ExaggeratedDeath(Berkeley,
9. rbid. Calif. : Markle Forindation, rgTo).
10. NewYork ?imeg 8 June rg5r, r. 6. Plunkett'sEntertainment fy Media Industry Almanac,
2ooz_2oos
lL. NewYorkTimes,6December1975,rz. (Houston: Plunket Research,zooz), g.
t2, NewYorkTimes, rg September1973,r.
7. Ben H. Bagdikian, TheInformation Machines (New york: Harper &
r3. NewYork Times,3o August 2oo2,A4. Rovar97r),8.
14.www.fair. org/article s/suharto-itt.html 8. "Newspapers published in Foreign Cor.ratnesl, Editor
€tpublisher
r5. SanFranciscoChronicle,z4 April zoo3, 85. YearbookInternational, zoo2, sect.g, 16,
4, 77.
16.Charles Rappleye, "Cracking the Church-State Wall I' Columbia g. "U.S. and Caradian Daily Newspapers,',
NewspaperAssociation of

270
27r
NOTES NOTES

America and Audit Bureau of Circulation, zoor; Editor ft Publisher r8. www.arl.orglscomm/mergers/MergerRelease-53o.pdf
Yearbook International, 2ooz sect.r' 5' 6, 9, 3, 7' 19. Ibid.
rc. Plunkptt'sEntertainment ft Media Industry Almdnac, 2oo2-2oo3,27' 2c. hW iI I cr eativecommons.org/faq
rr. Audit Bureau of Circulati orr; Plunkett's Entertainment fi Media zr. http://en.wikipedia.orgl
Inilustry Almanac, 2oo2-2oo3. zz. New York Times,rg May zoo3, C4.
p. Plunkett'sEntertainment €vMedia Industry Almanac' 2oo2-2oo3,27' 23. NewYorkTimes. r3January zoo3, C4.
r3. Ibid. 24. wwwyout}votezooo.org/info/factsheet.htm
ra. Statistical Abstract of the lJnited States,2ool, rahle 7lB4' 25. www.freespeech.org
t5. The Nation, t7 FebruarY zoo3, 7. 26. Zne Yearbook,VoI#6, www.bookfinder.com/. . .log664gzg4g/_6k
16. Wall StreetJournal Online, z4Jarnnry zoo3. 27. Edmnnd Moris,TheodoreRex (Newyork: Modern Library, zoor),
73.
r7. www.hmco.com/news/release-rz3roz.html 28. Letter to W.T. Berry, 4 August 1822,quoted in.Leffers and Other
t8. NewYorkTimes, zTJarnary zoo3,A6. Writings of JamesMadison, published by Order of Congress, vols.,
4
r9. Bagdikian, TheInformation Machines,u. R. Fendell, ed. (Philadelphia: Lippincotr, 1865),3:276.
zo. New York Times, t March zoo3, Ar9.
zr. www.hoovers.com/ndustry/snapshot/ro,zzo4,34oo'htrnl
zz. Statistical Abstract of the United States,2oo1, table 852' CHAPTER EIGHT: ..WON,T THEY
EVER LEARN?,'
t. Kenneth A. Randall, president of the Conference Board, quoted in
CHAPTER SEVEN: REBELLION
the LosAngeles Times, 3Decembe,r rg8o, r. The Conference Board,
AND REMEDIES a policy study group, is supported by major industries.
r. TheMeilia Monopoly, st ed.(Boston:BeaconPress,r98$, 38' z. Don Carlos Seitz,loseph pulitzer (New york: Simon & Schuster,
2. http://talkshows.about.comAibrary/weekly/aso129o2'htm; S' Ren- rg24),55.Pulitzer's trustee device did not savethe NewyorkWorlil.
dall, J. Naureckas, and J. Cohen, The Way Things Aren't: Rush Lim- The paper continued to enjoy prestige and influence because ofits
baugh'sBeign ofError (New York: New Press,1995)' writers, among them Walter Lippmann, Heywood Broun, Alexan_
derWoollcott, Frank Cobb, Herbert Bayard Swope, and Franklin p.
3. http://www.tvrundown.com/views/talkradz.html
Adams. But Pu-litzer's will of rgo4 and codicil permitted relatives
4. wwwusdoj.gov/atrlpublic/guidelines/rz576.htm
(Detroit: Gale to succeedoriginal trustees, and family heirs had difierent ideas for
5. Les Browns Encyclopedia of Television,3rd ed'
Research, rggz). r8o' the paper. After years of high profits and a few years of reduced
6. lournalism Quarterly, Fall t985' 497. ones, tlre heirs hlled the most famous paper, themorningWorld,
then they kille d.the Sunilay World, and,sold the evening Worlil to
7. American Journalism Review,June 1998'46.
8. www.requestline.com/archives/May 96/ pirate its NewYork competitor, the Scripps-Howard Telegram,where it
g. Terrence Sntt}', TheLehrer NewsHour,8 January zoo3' becamethe Worlil-Telegram.
rc. WashingtonPosf,zJulY zooz, Ar3' 3. Oliver S. Owen, Natural EesourceConservation, znd ed..(New york:
rr. Giorgio de Santjllana, The Crime of Galileo (Clicago: University of Macmillan, 1975);hazardous waste data fr om Time, ze September
Chicago Press,1955). r98o,58.
rz. www.ketupa.net/elsevierz.htm 4. Grant McC orurtell., Private Powerand American Democracy(New
g. Publishers Weekly Online, tlt6l g8. York Knopf, 1966).
r4. wwvrwiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-r46.html 5. Harvard BusinessReview, January/Februfry rg77, 57.
r5. www.earlham.edu/-peters/writing/acrl.htm o- BusinessWeek,g January rgn, rcT.

16. www.arl.org/sparc; Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources SanFranciscoChronicle,ry JuIy rg7g, 4c..
Coalition, Washington, D.C. 8. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administra-
tion, lllegal CorporateBehavio4 October rg7g.
ry. New York Times,8 December 1998,Dz.

272 273
NOTES NOTES

g. Gregory C. Staple,"Free-Market Cram Course forJudges," ?he 35. Michael Gerrard, "This Man Was Made Possible by a Grant from
Nation, z6 Januarytg8o, Z8-81. Mobil Oil," Esquire, Januaryrg7g,6z.
ro. Ovid Demaris,DirtyBusiness (NewYork: Ha4rer's Magazine Press, 96. Broadcasting zg Septemberrg8o, 46.
rg74),to. y. The Nation, z4 May r98o, 6o9.
rt. NewYorkTimes, 15July 1979,r. 98. Broadcasting rz May r98o, 3o.
rz. Data provided to author by IRS. 39. ColumbiaJournalism Review,September/Octoberr98r, 26. The Mo-
rg. The Nation, rr-r8 August rg7g, ror. bil ad described an energy-saving project ofthe Benedictine Sisters
r4. G. William Domhoff, ThePowersThatBe (NewYork: Random in Erie, Pennsylvania. Mobil had asked the sisters to grant it permis-
House,1978),44. sion to use them and their project in its ads. The Benedictine Sisters
r5. SenateCommittee on Government Operations,Advisory Commit- refused. Mobil nevertheless did use the sisters and their project in
tees,r97o. the Mobil ad that ran in ten major newspapers. When the prioress
16. Mark Green and Andrew Buchsbaum,The CorporateLobbies wrote to each paper, disassociating the sisters from the ad, only the
(Washington,D.C.: Public Citizen, February r98o). LosAngeles Times printed her letter. The papers that refused were
r7. Sheila Harty, Huckstersin the Classroom(Washington,D.C.: Center the Wall StreetJournal, the Denver Post, the Chicago Tribune, the
for the Study of Responsive Law, 1979). WashingtonPost,the NewYorkTimes, the Boston Globe,theDallas
r8. Each year a national panel is asked to select the most important TimesHerald, the Houston Posf,and the Christian ScienceMonitor.
developments untouched or deemphasized by the major media. 4o. Gerrard, "This Man Was Made Possible.. ."
The panel is directed by the Department of Sociolog', Sonoma 4r. "The Big Oil Shufflei' New West,rB July ry7g, 24.
State University, California. 42. Ibid.
r9. JamesNorth, "The Effect: The Growth of the Special Interests," 43. Gerrard, "This Man Was Made Possible . . ."; Milton Moskowitz,
Washingt on Monthly, O ctober ry78. Michael Katz, and Robert Levering, eds.,Everybody's BusinessAl-
zo. WaIl Streetlournal, z7 July ryV, t manac (New York: Harper & Row, rg8o), 5r3-r7.
zt. Dun'sReview,May t977, 76. 44. Department of Energy, Financial Reporting System,performance
zz. Broadcasting z7 Apnl ry8r, 76. Profilesof Major Energt Producers,tgTg,July ry&.
23. Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Practices and Procedures, 45. Edward F. Roby, UPI Story 4z6z, 5 Jurre rg8r.
Sourcebookon CorporateImageand CorporateAdvocacyAdvertising, 46. The ad ran in eleven major newspapers, including the New york
1978,882. Times,onJune r8. rg8r.
24. Editor €tPublishen 8 December 1979,ro. 47. House Committee on Ways and Means, Recommend.ations of the
25. Editor €t Publisher,z4 November 1979,r5. Task Force on Foreign SourceIncome, 8 March rg7; House Commit-
26. StephenH ess,The WashingtonReporters(Washington,D.C.: Brook- tee on Government Operations , Foreign Tax Credits Claimedby the
ings Institution. r98r). U.S.PetroleumCompanies,24threport, ry78l.TheForeign Tax Creilit
27. Wall StreetJournal,4 August 1976,32. and U.S.Energt Policy: Report to the IJnited StatesCongressbythe
'ProfiIe," The New Yorken
28. John Brooks, b Januaryrg8r, 4r. Comptroller General(Washington,D.C.: ro Septemberr98o),parti-
zg. Bureau of the Census,Sfafi sticalAbstract of the Uniteil States,ry9o cularly i and ii.
(Washington,D.C., t98t), 487,48r. 48. Testimony ofJack A. Blum, Counsel, Independent Gasoline Mar-
3o. David Finn , The Business-MediaRelationship (New York: American keters Council, before the House Committee on Government Oper-
Management Association, rg8t), 5o. ations, r3 March 1979.Also Hobart Rowen, "Chinese Shuffle Trade
gt. Dun'sReview,May 1977,8r. Policy to Accommodate U.S.,"WashingtonPosf,z4 December rg78.
32. Quoted in Mo ther lones, February/March r98o, 32. 49. Edward F. Roby, UPI StoryAzzr, 6July r98r; UpI StoryAz7r,
33. Senate Subcomrnittee on Administrative Practices and Procedures, transmitted 7 July r98r for use rr July rg8r. The story that some ma-
Sourcebookon CorporateImageand CorporateAilvocacyAihtertising jor oil companies had written Secretary Watt to request reduction
1978,78. in acreage open for bids also appeared in major newspapers in sto-
34. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Sourcebook,58r. ries written by other reporters: Andy Pasztor, 'Ofrshore Energ'

274 275
NOTES NOTES

Leasing Plans Trimmed as Interior's Watt Retreats Amid Criti- 9. William Allen White, TheAutobiographyofWiltiam Allen White
(New York: Macmillan, 1964),629.
cisml' Wallstreetlournal,6 July r98r; Charles R' Babcock,"Watt
Defies Critics of Oil Plan for Oil Leases," Washington Posf,7 July ro. Personal observations and the Los AngelesTimes, T September
r98r. Sirnilar stories also appeared in trade papers, including Oil 1978,r.
Daily, glune tg8r. But only Roby and UPI were mentioned in the rt. Broadcasting z5 May r98r, 6g;Editor b publisher,8 Artgustr9gr, ro,
counterattack by E>oronand petroleum public relations agencies' and rg Septembertg8r, 27.
wire: "To Business rz. Ben H. Bagdikian, Reportsof anExaggeratedDeath(Berkeley,Calif.:
- Teletlpe on Exxonls national public relations
5o.
lesks, pnW3/Press Relations Wire Wash 347-5155'For Immediate Markle Foundation, rgTo).
Releaseo/ro/8r. Exxox USA Supponrs CHANGES IN OFFSHoRE r3. "Notice of SpecialMeetingandJoint Proxy Statement,,,GannettCo.,
LEASINGPnocne.u. Severalnews reports recently have misrepre- Inc., Rochester,N.Y.,z5 Januarylg7g.
sented Emorf s position on the Department of Interior's proposed r4. From memorandums to Gannett local publishers made available to
changesin the oflshore leasing program' ' ' ' FYI, UPI moved a the author.
story 8 July 8r for weekend use . . ' by Edward Roby"' The same r5. Lee, Daily Newspaperin America; Federal Trade Commission,
-"rr"g" *t. sent by printed press release to editors around the Bureau of Competition, Proceedingsof the Symposiumon Media
country: "News, Exxon Company, U'S'A" " ]uly ro' r98r' ExxoN Concentration,vol. t, r4-r5 December 1978; Editor tr publisher
USA SupponrsCHANGES IN OFFSHoRE LsesrNc Pnocnalr' Yearbooks;YaleLaw Journal, vol.74 (rg6S),r$g.
Houston-several news reports .. ." Roby was sirnilarly named' 16. Otis Chandler, quoted in BusinessWeek,zr February rg77,59.
Press release of American Petroleum Institute, Washington, D'C" 17.Editor €r Publishe4rc March 1979,16.
br.
z8 July rg8r: "NorB ro Euttons: The attached statementby Charles t8. Circulation 8o/8a rythed. (Malibu, Ca.lif.:American Newspaper
is pro- Markets, rg8o).
J. DiBona, president of the American Petroleum Institute,
vided in response to inquiries from the news media about offshore tg. ValueLine Investment AdvisorySerrice,zz Septemberr97g.
leasing proposals of Interior Secretary JamesG' Watt"' zo. From WashingtonJournalism Review,October rg8o.
zr. National Black Media Coalition, "Gannett-Combined Communica-
s2. Quoted in Editor €vPublishe44 July r98r.
tions Merger: Background and Poliry Implications" (lV'ashington,
D.C.,7June 1978).
zz. JohnMorton NewspaperResearchLette4 3o June rg79, z.
CHAPTER NINE: FROM MYTHOLOGY 23. Neuharth, speech to g3rd Annual Convention of American News-
TO THEOLOGY paper Publishers Association, z3 April r97g, re ported tn Editor ft
r. Neuharth, "Newspapers: Dominating Their Markets; Gannett: Publisher r8 October r98o, 16.
Never a Down Quarter," address to the New York Society of Secu- 24. From Gannett memorandums made available to the author.
rity Analysts, rr March 1976. 25. Cassandra'Iate, ColumbiaJournalismReview,July/Augustrg8r,
z. Frank Luther Mott, American lournalism: A History, t6gcs-t96o 5r-56.
(New York: Macmillan, rgTz), 64g;Carl Lindstronr, The Fading 26. Tate, ColumbiaJournalism Review.
American Newspaper (New York: Doubleday, 196o)' 27. RochesterPatriot, 2gOctober-5 November rg74,r
28. Jon O. Newmar, U.S. District Circuit Judge, "Memorandum of
3. Lindstrom, TheFading American Newspaper,9o'
(New York: Decision," Gannett Co. Inc. v. The RegisterpublishingCo., Civil
+. alfr"d IU.Clurrg Lee, The Daily Newspaperin America
Macmillan, rg7), t96. No. B-74-r23,ro April r98o.
Illinois University Fress' zg. Editor tt Publisher,z3lsne tg7g, 14.
5. The First Freedom (Carbondale: Southern
1968),zr-zz. 3o. New York Times,6 March rg79.
6. Lee, Daily Newspaper in America, rrz' 3t . LosAngeles Times, T SepLemberrg78, r.
gz. lohn Morton NewspaperResearchLetter,3rJaauary rg79, 8.
7. Editor €r Publisher 16February 1963'
g. Whit", quoted in George Seldes,Lords o/ the Press(New York Julian g. Editor €r PublisherYearbook,rg74and rg78, citing circulation data
Messner,1938),274. for previous years from Audit Bureau ofCirculation.

276 -t I
NOTES NOTES

34. Neuharth, address to American Society of Newspaper Editors,

z +2. CBS{V "The Businessof Newspapersj'r4July 1978.
May rgV, published by Gannett Company. 48. Editor €rPublisheti zo 1r:pnlry68.
35. Calculations by the author. 49. Lloyd Gray, "From'Moderately Liberal' to'Doctrinaire Libertar
ian,"' Bulletin of theAmerican Socielt of NewspaperEditors, February
36. Emporia Gazette,z October 1979,4.
r98r.
. ) { .Empoia Gazeffq 3o Septemberrg7g,4.
38. PublishersAuxiliary, 5 November 1979,r, 3. 5o. Ralph R. TlrriftJr., "How Chain Ownership A-ffects Editorial Vigor of
Newspapers,"/ournalism Quarterly, Summer 1967,3zg.
39. ParsonsSun,r October 1979,6.
40. Emporia Gazette,3oSeptember1979,4. 5r. StephenH ess,The WashingtonReporters (Washington,D.C. : Brook-
ings Institution, t98r), 136-66.
47.Pam Eversole, "Consolidation of Newspapers: What Happens to
the Consumer?"lournalism Quarterly, Summer r97r, 245. 52. "New Cash SystemGives Gannett Extra Fundsl' Editor €yPublisher,
r December 1979,r3.
42. Straus&ditoy'sReporf, r3 December 1969,r.
Editor U Publishenro January rg8r, 55.
43. Help: The UsefulAlmanac, tg78-tg7g (Washington,D.C.: Consumer 53.
News, 1978),398. 54. Editor U Publisher,4 December 1976,ro.
44. "Quantity of News in Group-Owned and Independent Papers: 55. Editor U Publisher,z5 December 1976,8.
Independent Papers Have More," master's thesis, Graduate School 56. Editor fi Publisher,4 July 1979,9.
ofJournalism, University of California, Berkeley, r5 June t978. 57. LosAngelesTimes,7 September1978,r.
45. Annual summariesof Editor €v Publisheratd|ohnMortonNews- 58. SantaFe NewMexican, z7 Febnnry 1976,t.
paper ResearchLetter. Employment figures for Gannett newspaper 59. Peter Katel, "When the Takeover Doesnlt Takel' Bulletin of the
employees from John C. Quinn, senior vice president for news for American Society of Newspaper Editors, February r98r, 23.
Gannett Company. In 1966 Gannett had 6,5oo employees of all 6o. Ibid.
kinds in its newspapers.In rg8o it had 15,755,of whom 4,r22wete 6r. Judge SantiagoE. Campos,"Memorandum Opinionj'RobertM.
engaged in news operations (as opposed to production, sales, and McKnnqtv. Gannett Co.,Inc., and'Ihe New Mexican, Civil No. 78-
the like). Quinn stated that the company had no record of 1966 63o C, r7 March r98r, rg-zo.
figures for newsroom employees but did have such records for 1974' 62. Campos,"Memorandum Opinion."
I applied the tg74 percentage ofnewsroom employees, as given to 63. Supplied to author by Gannett Company.
the company, to the 1966figure for all newspaper workers in the
chain and obtained the estimate of r,43o newsroom workers in 1966'
This is probably slightly in error, though not substantially, because
..DEAR
CHAPTER TEN: MR. PRESIDENT...,,
the 1966total had not yet been reduced by automation in nonnews
r. JonathanDaniels, "An Editor's Diagnosis,"Saturd.ayReviewof Litera-
firnctions, as the total of workers was by 1974.My calculation is
fure, 3o April 195,5,rr.
that the 1966estimate could vary by as much as 57 newsroom
z. Berlin correspondence obtained by the author through Freedom of
workers for the entire chain, a maximum variation that would not
Information Act.
a-ffectthe basic conclusion. Despite the addition of many papers
and new editions, the average size of Gannett papers remained 3. From annual editions of Editor €t Publisher Yearbook;Christopher H.
Sterling and Timothy R. Haight, TheMassMedia: Aspenlnstitute
remarkably close from 1966to r98o. In 1966the average Garurett
Guide to Industry Trends(New York: Praeger,rg78);Federal Trade
daily paper had a circulation of 44,5gg;in r98o circulation was
Commissio4 Proceedingson the Symposiumon Media Control, vols.
43,988.
r and z, 1978.
46. Scripps-Howard. Daniel B. Wackrnan, Donald M. Gillmor, Cecile
Gaziarro,and Everett E. Dennis, "Chain Newspaper Autoiromy as 4. Progressive, JulytgZg, gg.
Reflected in Presidential Campaigr Endorsemenrsi'lournalism 5. Frank Leeming, Katharine Graham, Joseph Costello, andthe
National Association of Broadcasters,CongressionalQuarterly, z
Quarterly, Autumn 1975, 4tt-zo'Editor I Publishen4 November 1972,
gtt; NewYork Times,29 October rg72,27;WalI Streetlournal, z6 Sep- August r98o, zr7g.
6. Nick Kotz, Progyessive,July1979,4o.
tember rg8o, r.

278 279
NOTES NO:TES

Z. Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly,.Elearings, pt.6, and Circulation Behavior," University of Wisconsin, Madison,3
in consideration of Newspaper Preservation Act. August rg8r.
8. Editor b Publishear8 April tg8r, zzz. r4. Transcript of interview with Chandler by KABC.TTV,Los Angeles,
g. Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly, Ileanngs,
r&zg October 1979.
r967-69. t5. WashingtonPost,z4|uly ryn.
ro. Christopher Lydon, "Aide SaysNixon Opposes Easing of Trust 16. Profilesof The New Yorker SubscribersandTheir Households(New
Laws for Weak Papers,"New YorkTimes, zr June t969, Bo.Weeks York: The New Yorker, n.d,.). Though undated, the book reports a
later, the Department of Commerce, taking a position on the News- r98o survey.
paper Preservation Act for the first time in the threeTear history 17. TheNewYorke4 5 October rg8r.
of the proposal, issued a statement for the Nixon administration in
favor of the bill. Eileen Shanahan, *Nixon Supports Newspaper
BiIi NewYorkTimes, z6 September1969,94.
rr. Dirks Brothers, NewspaperNewslette43t October rg7z,r.
CHAPTER TWELVE: DR. BRANDRETH
rz. Ben H. Bagdikian, "The Fruits of Agnewism," ColumbiaJournalism HAS GONE TO HARVARD
Beview, January/February 196. r. American lournalism (New York: Macmillan, ry72),z3r.
r3. Paul Delaney, "Cox Tells Papers to Endorse Nixon," New Yorlc z. Alfred McClung Leg The Daily Newspaper in America (New York:
Times, zgOctoberrg72. Macmillan, rg1il,gr7.
3. SanFranciscoChronicle,3 Januaryzoo3, C3.
4. Frank Presbery, TheHistory dndDevelopmentof Advertising(New
CHAPTER ELEVEN: ONLY THE York: Doubleday, Doran, r9e9),396.
AFFLUENT NEED APPLY 5. Erik Barnouw, Tube of Plenty (New York: Oxford University Press,
1975),r7o.
r. Nizen, quoted in Edit or &' Publisher 3 January r98r, r5. 6. Federal Communications Commission,Second Interim Report by the
z. Number ofad pages,revenues, and dividends from annual reports Office of Network Study, Television Network Program Procurement
ofF-R Corporation. (Washington,D. C., rg6S).
3. Origins ofthe Schell article, its consequences,and statementsof 7. Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, neport
William Shawn from personal interview with Shawn, editor of The (Washington,D.C., 1963),446-5g,
NewYorker,14May lg8r. 8. Individual verbatim testimony in FCC hearing is from Neur York
4. From periodic readership studies by The NewYorker and from Sim- Times,z7 September196r,z8 September196r,z9 September196r,
mons Surveys.
3o September196r,3October 196r,4 October 196r,5 October 196r,
5. Wall StreetJournal, 4June tg8t, 14. 7 October 196r,8 October 196r.
6. FOLIO:4oq Septemberrg8r, 32. g. Fortune,Sr December rg7g, To.
7. Paul Klein, quoted in Broa dcasting g January rg78, 32. ro. New YorkTimes, z8 September196r,163.
8. Broadcasting g January 1978,32. rr. Barnouw, Tube of Plenty, 169.
9. Broadcasting ro November rg8o. rz. Theodore Petersorl Magazines in the Twentieth Century (IJrbana:
IO. Public RelationsJournal, November 1978.
University oflllinois Press,lgZS),b.
ll. From Bureau of the Censug Histoical Statistics of the United States
13. Time, z8 September 1942,ir-82.
(lV'ashington,D.C., 1975);Bureau of the Census, StatisticalAbstract
14. Peterson,Magazinesin the TwentiethCentury, 279.
of the United States,tgSt @ashington, D.C., r98r). 15. "Look, Reader's Digest."AdvertisingAge, rg November 196z,r.
12. John C. Ginn, speechbefore Newspaper Forum, reported in/ohn
16. AdvertisingAge,r7 April 1972,85.
Morton Newspaper ResearchLeffe4 9 April rg8o. 17. Ben H. Bagfikian, "Newspaper Mergers," ColumbiaJournalism
13. Monograph by William B. Blankenburg, "Newspaper Olrrnership Review, March/April rgn, rg-2o.

28o z8t
NOTES

18. PublishersWeekly,rTJune 1968,49.

rg. Housing ResearchGroup, For Saleor for Renf (Washington,D.C.:
Center for ResponsiveLaw, 1978).
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
zo. Eilitor fy Publisher,r8 October r98o, zo.
zr. "Food Section Survey,' Food Editors Conference,Chicago,October
1977. Manyyears ago a fellowship from the John Simon Guggen-
zz. Editor €t'Publisher,3rMarch 1979,rr. heim Foundation permitted me to suspend news reporting
zg. Editor €t Publisher,zg March rg8o, rS.JosephN. Uhl, director of for a year in order to study the history of newspapers and the
the project, said that papers stopped carrying the reports after com-
pl sfromgrocers.
evolution of their individual, family, and corporate owner-
24. WashingtonJournalismReview,October ry8o, 46-47. ship. I spent months in the stacksof the Library of Congress,
25. Editor ft Publisher,3rJanuaryrg8r, 7, 44 receiving the benefit of its helpfirl staff. May that institution
26. httr://users.erols.com/mwhite28/waisat8.atm#smokers.
be forever protected frdm enemies, domestic and foreign.
27. Moskowitz et al.,Eterybody'sBusinessAlmanac.
28. Fr ontline, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/settlement/ Later, theJohn and Mary Markle Foundation supported ex-
timelines /criminal.html tensive research on factors that make for failure and success
zg. NewYork Times, zz JuIy t963,3b. in newspapers and for travel to all parts of the country to in-
3o. R. C. Smith, "The Magazines'SmokingHabitl' ColumbiaJournalism
teryiew publishers on why their papers had failed or, with
Review,JanuaryEebmary 1978,zgjr.
gr. Mother Jonescarried articles on smoking hazards in its issues of others,why they thought their papershad succeeded.These
April r97g and January rg8o, after which all its advertisements from grants led to my beliefthat there was a process emerging that
tobacco companies were canceled. From interviews with publisher
would bring fundamental change in all mass media indus-
of Mother lones.
tries. Anntral grants from the Committee on Researchof the
32. Press release of American Council on Science and Health, San
Francisco, z9 January tg8o. Academic Senateof the University of California at Berkeley
933,."The Deadly Balancei' Columbia|ournalismReview, Fall 1965,r3. and sabbatical leaves from the Graduate School ofJournal-
94. Editor €r Publishea z4July ry54. ism were indispensable.
35. Meyers, Iscoe,Jennings,Lenox, Minslqy,and Sackg StaffReport of
the CigaretteAdvertising Inttestigation(Washington,D.C.: Federal Many research assistantshelped along the way: Marian
Tlade Commission, May rg8r), 5. Bryant, Amy Troubh, Suzanne Donovan, Alysson lytte,
g6. Frontline, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fr ontline/shows/settlement/ DanWoh-lfeiler, Fred Goff,ZoiaHorn, Lyn Heffernan, Gail
timeline s/criminal.html
Nichols, and the Data Center of Oakland with its unparal-
leled corporate frles of world newspapers.
AFTERWORD: PARADISE LOST OR Thanks to my son, Chris Bagdikian, and to patti Keller,
PARADISE REGAINED? SOCIAL JUSTICE Roger Rosenblum, Jonathan Coppersthwaite, and especially
IN DEMOCRACY
JoshuaWaggy, a magician who saved innumerable lost doc-
t World PressEncyclopeilia, vol. r, 559. uments in Microsoft's purgatory and provided therapy for
2. www.parentstv.org/ptc/facts/mediafacts.asp
my various computers. For work on this major revision of
3. www.tcf.org/Publications/TiaVHistory.html
the entire book, Michael Levy, a professional research Ii-
4. www.creativecommunity.us
brarian, displayed a wizardry for locating arcane informa-

282 2Bg
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

tion that convinces me that if he and computers had been

around in 1930, he would have found Judge Crater. Bart
Harloe,Iibrarian at St. Lawrence University, provided cru-
INDEX
cial guidance to people and organizations who contributed
to the section on the impact of monopoly on scientific and AARP (magaztne of the American American Can Company, 166
scholarly research. Association of Retired Per- American Council on Science and
My gratitude to the editors of Beacon Press,who have sons),rz3 Health,254
ABC, 15-16,4r, zz8-zg,255. See American Enterprise Institute, xi
had faith in this work over the years, from the first edition
also Disney Company American Library Association
twenty years ago, before critiques of the mass mefia had Abraham Lincoln (aircraft carrier), Oftce for Intellectual Free-
become a cottage industry to this basically new book, the 8r dom, r43
seventh edition. that deals with new media in a new world. academic journals, r44 American Management Associa-
Accuracy in the Media, r75 tion, 166
Specialthanks to my editor on this new edition, Christopher
activism, 148-49, r5,r-52 American Medical Association
Vyce. Advance Publications (New- (AMA),25r
My everlasting thanks to my wife, Marlene Griffith, who house),rzz American Newspaper Publishers
intermpted her own editing in order to give wann support advertising, r87, rgr, zz5, z9o-56; Association, zr5
commercials, 37; competition American Petroleum Institute, r75
and frequent rescue to a husband with a receding hairline in, zz8; corporate,t9Tlr; cor- American Revolution, 87
and deadline in order to apply her penetrating eye and in- porate ideolory and, 239-4o; American Society of Newspaper
cormptible logic. FCC hearings on, 238, 24o-4r; Editors, rg4
in magazines, ztLzo, z4g-45; American Tobacco Company, 254
I recite the clich6 of acknowledgments in order to pro-
in newspapers, 233,246-5o; America Online, 4,3c..Seealso
tect the innocent: many helped but I alone am responsible political, r8; taxgets of, z3o-SB; AOLTimeWarner
for the final results. tobacco,z4o, z5o-56 Amersham (medical firm), z3
Adv erti sing Age (magazine), z44 amnesia, ror-z
BEN H. BAGDIKIAN
Advertising Council, r5,9,165 Annenberg Public Policy Center,
airwaves, ownership of , tgz, t4o, University of Pennsylvania,
259 r34
Albany, NewYork, r8o antitrust laws, zrr, zr3; among Big
Alexandrian lib r axy, r27-zg Five, r3Gj7; European Com-
Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, munity on, r4z; on printed
2r7 media,186,264
Allen, Robert, zo8 AOL Time Warner, g-4, S,27,
Allende, Salvador,gT,roo, ror 3ojz, 68, r29,127.SeealsoBig
al Qaeda, 63, 84, 9r Five; conglomerates
Aluminum Company of America. Apple computers, t2g
r58 Arab oil crisis, 168.Seealso oil
American Association of Adver- industry
tising Agencies,164 Aramco (oil company), t73
American Cancer Society, 2Er,2is Arbenz, Jacabo, 97

284 28b
INDEX INDEX

Arkansas Gazeffe(newspaper),r87 of, 5l-S3; constricted competi- rr3; conservatismof, r4-r5; Chicago Tribune, rg4
Arthur Andersen (accounting tion ol 5-6; leadership of, 5o; on Iraq, rg, 7G-8r;on Middle Chicago Tribune Company, ro1,r22
firm), to3 mutualpromotion of, 8; politi- East, 93-94; on nuclear children, effect of homelessness
AssociatedPress,zo8 cal content of, 16;power of, rr. weapons, zo; and reality on, lll
Association of ResearchLibraries, Seealso ABC: Bertelsmann; of IraqWar,8r-84; on USA Chile,97, loG-ror
r46 CBS; Disney; News Corpora- Patriot Act, 63 China,39, r74
Atlantic (magazine), tz tion: Time Warner: Viacom businessreporting, ro3-5, ro7, choices,in media, 7
Atlantic Richfield (oil company), Big Six General Electric of, zz-24, 10r-64.Seealso big business Chomsky, Noam,95
175 46, rb8, 2og-ro. SeealsoBig BusinessRoundtable, r58 Christian Crusades, 93
Atmo spheric Envir onment fi o:oinal), Five; cong[omerates; NBC B usiness Week (magazrne),rc8 Church-State separation, ro4-5
r46 bin Laden, Osama,83,84 Byrd, Richard,8z,84 cigarettes,24o,25o. Seealso smok-
AT&l r58, zo6 Birmingham (Alabama) News, 247 ing and cancer
audiencefor media, zz7-jz. See Blackwell, Alice Stone, xv CamelNewsCarayan(TVpro- circulation,23r;newspaper,rr5-r7,
also circulation; market Blankenburg, William B., z3r grarri, zg7 rzz; of The Newyorker maga-
auditingfirms, r3r boards of directors, 6, 8-9, 27, campaigns,political, r7-rg. Seealso zine, ztg--zo,22g,227.Seealso
Australia,3, 4o 5r-3 elections audience for media; market
autonomy,local, z, rrg, l7g, r98-zo3 boards of directors, interlocking, Campos, SantiagoE., zoz Citibank, ro3, 165
6,8-9,5o-9, t53 Canada,zo8,263 civil liberties, 63
Ball, Lucille, u5 Boise. Idaho. 186 cancer. Seesmoking and cancer civil rights movement, xviii
banks in corporate fraud, r3r book industry, 6, rz5jo; survival Cancer fiownal),45 Clear Channel (radio chain), r, r5,
Barnes & Noble, rzg of,rz5-27 capitalism, 6-7, 53,54, 16o r34
Barnouw, Ertk,z4z Booksin Print, r45 Card, Andrew H., Jr., 83 Clinton, William, ix
Batten. Barton. Durstine and Borders Group, rzg cartels,3, S,7, rST.Seealso CNN,45
Osborn,254 BostonGlobe,rg4 monopolies Coffeyville, Kansas, rg4-95
Bell & Howell Company, z4r Brainfiownal),46 Carter,Jimmy,4o cold war, 93, 99
Benedictine Sisters,169 Brandeis, Louis, rz Case,Steve,27,3o.,52 Colombia, South America, 96
Bennett, James Gordon, 233 Brandreth, Doctor, 233j4 Catholic Church, 93 Columbia Broadcasting System
Berlin, Richard E., zo4-5, zrt British Broadcasting Company CBS, 4r, 44-47, 85, 255.Seealso (CBS),6, 16.SeealsoCBS
Bertelsmann, Carl, +8 (BBc),3s Columbia Broadcasting Sys- CoIumbia Encyclopedia, ro-
Bertelsmann (media conglomer- broadcasters,r4 tem; Viacom Columbialournalism Review,g
ate),3, 28, 3b,4Z-So,b2-b3; broadcasting:in Great Britain. z5g; Center for ResponsiveLaw,246 Columbia Universrty, 17o
as partnerwith AOL Time licensing for, r38; ratings o{ 8; Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Combined Communications
Warner,5; sale of Random rights of,38; unlicensed, r4r; 63,97,ror C oration, r87
House, rz6. Seealso Big Five; vs. newspapers,l2o Century (megaz.ine),rz, 14 commercial media, 258-6o
conglomerates Bro adc asting Magazine, zz8-zg Chandlea Otis, ro5, 186,z3r commercials, 37,2gg-4o.Seealso
Betlrlehem Steel, 163 Broadway Books,35 Charlestown Prison (Boston),xv advertising
bias, xix; against big business, 163, Bronfinanfamily, z4 Charl ott e (N orth Carolina) Commons Movement, 147-48
165,168;institutional, xviii; Brookings Institution, 196 Ob server (newspaper), z55 Communist Pnty,gz
massmedia, xix Brooks, ]ohn, 248 Chayefslcy,Paddy,z4r community control, z, rr9, r7g
big business,bias against,163,165, Brown & Williamson Tobacco chemicals,r55 Commrmity Publications, Inc.,
r68 Corporation, z4o, z5r, 256 Cheney,Richard, r5,75 r9r
Big Five,3-6, 9, r3z,264; antitrust Bush,GeorgeH.W, r3,8o,84 ChesteaJeff, ro6, r5o compact disks (CDs), 65-66
action among, r36j7; boards Bush, GeorgeW., xi, r3, 76-84, ChicagoSun-Times,rg4 competition, 5-6, 186,zz8

286 287
INDEX INDEX

CompuServe,3o Cox (newspaper chain), rg7, 2r4, digital world, 2, r2g, r2g encyclopedia, Internet, r47- 48
computerc,55, 6z-63, rgo, t4S, 2Bo; 2t5 Dillea Barry, 8,29,34 energ' crises, 167
newspapers and, t:.4,rr7.See Cuba,88-89 Dinigro, Tony, r75 England, 39. See also Great Britain
also Internet culture of corporations, 157-6o DirecTV (satellite system),37,4z Eniac (Electronic Numerical Inte-
Cond6 Nast, 243,244-4i Cumulus (radio chain), r5 Disney,Roy,35,36 grator and Computer),57 58
conglomerates,5, 17,24,64, rr5;' Disney, Walt,3zj3 Enron, 53,ro3, trz
influence on public system, D allas MorningNews (newspaper), Disney Company, g-4, 28,gzj7, environment. natural. xii
258; magazines )n, rzz-24; 247 52,7r. Seealso ABC; Big Five; Esquire (ma$azne),244
reform of, r2-r3, rs, r3B-34, Dana, Douglas, xv conglomerates Eumenes II of Pergamum, rz8
r4g-5r. Seealso Big Five; Dana, Mary, xv divorce, disclosure in, zz European Community Monopoly
monopolies; Irusts; and indi- Davis, Richard Harding, 89 domestic issues,20-21:homeless- Commission, r42,r4S
vidual meilia corporations democracy: new media in, 74, 87 nessas,75,76 Evolutionary E cologt Research
Congress,U.S.,82,263 gT-98,ro2, 13; role ofgovern- Dorgan, Byron, r (academic journal), 146
Constitution, U.S.,265; Fourth ment in, r4 dot.coms,6o,6r Export-Import Bank of the United
Amendment of, 62, 63; Democratic Media Reform, r4g Douglas, Mike, zzg States,4o
Twenty-sixth Amendment of, Democratic Party, ix, r8 Dummies computer series,r45 Extra! (magaztne),n
D emocrat (newspaper),t87 Dunifer, Stephen, r4r E;o<on,168, 1Tg,174-'75
48. SeealsoFtrst Amendment
consumermovement, 159-6o demographics, 224, 292.Seealso DVDs (digital video disks), 6G-67
consumers, rS7,249. Seealso audience for media; circula- Fairness Doctrine, t3g-4o, z6z
audienceformedia tion; market Eaxthlink,68 Fantasia (film),33
content ofnews and advertising, DeNiro, Robert,75 East Timor, 97, roo, ror-2 fashion, in newspapers, 248
230-31 Department of Defense,U.S.,r59 e-books,rr4, rz5 Federal Bureau of Investigation
Contras (Nicaragua), 97 Department of Enerry, U.S.,r7r E conomist (magazine),Sg (FBI),6s,r+g
Copley Newspapers (newspaper Department of Health and Human editorials, rg8 Federal Communications Com-
chain),t97 Services,U.S.,253 Editor €yPublisher (megazine),t86, mission (FCC), r88, 254, 263;
copyright, 64-67, 7o14 t47, r48 Department of Housing and Urban 255 on advertising, 238,24o-4r;
corporations: advertising of, Development (HUD), ro9 editors and advertisers, zz5 chalge in, 138-42;on owner-
167-7r; culture of, 157-6o; Department ofJustice, U.S.,xvi, education, zo ship, 16,ro6, r3rg
Egrpt, library in , r27, r2g fiberoptic cable, 37, 257
fraud by, ro7, r3r; ideolory of, 32,157-58,r88; AntiiTrust
2gg-4cl.interlocked, 6, 8-9, Division of, r3e, r36j7 Ehrmann, Herbert, xvii Finn, David, 165
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 156 Firestone Tire 0+Rubber Com-
5r-5,3;political contributions Department of the Treasury, U.S.,
from, r5r; power of, r4; as r73 Eisner, Michael, 16,e8,g-36 pany, r58
sacredcows, r54.SeealsoBig Der Spiegel(magazine), 5o elections: campaigns in, r7-rg; First Amendment, U.S. Constitu-
Five; conglomerates;and.indi- Detroit Free Press(newspaper), 186 choicesin, rzz; media power tion: on copyright law, 7r, r84;
vidual corporations Detroit News,186 in, to; voting in, 17,25,29, on democracy, ro; exemption
correspondents,94, rg8 DiBona, Charles, r75 r4U49,264-65 from, rgz; printed media pro-
cornrption,235 digital commons,r4T-48.Seealso Electronic Commons, 147-48 l-ectionunder. 264: responsi-
Cosmopolitan (magazine),rz Internet electronic media,26. Seealso bfity of news me dia vnder, 74,
Costello, Joseph,zo6 digital corporations, z7 Internet; radio; lelevision 9Z 169
Council for a Livable World Edu- Digital Millennium Copyright Act e-mail, 6o; spam through, 67-7o. Fischler, Hersch,49
cation Fund,94 of1998,7r Seealso Internet food sections,newspaper,248
Council of Economic Priorities. digital telemarketing (spam), Emporia (Kansas) Gazette (news- Ford, Gerald. roo
r69 67-'To paper), r8r, r8z, rg4-95 Ford Motor Comp arty,7, r1r

288 289
INDEX INDEX

foreign aid, 94 George Washington University, Hearst, William Randolph, rz, institutional bias, xviii
foreign policy, 94 r96 38j9,89-9o, r8o intelligence, xviii
For tune (magaztne),176 Germany, 8o, 263.Seealso Hearst Corporation, zor-5, zro-rr, interlocks, 8-9, rz, 5r, 136
Fouraker, Lawrence K., 163 Bertelsmann 2r4-r5,2r7 Internal Revenue Service (IRS):
Fourtou, Jean-Renee,z3 Gingrich, Newt,4o Heritage Foundation, xi change in income tax, rr2-r3;
Fox (TV network), 15-16,368, Glance, Stan,256 Hersh, Seymour,84 on Gannett, r72, rT3;on tax
40,4r Godey'sLady Book (magaztne), z4g Hess, Stephen,164,r98 evasion,r58
France,b, 50,80,82 Goldsmith, Rick,95-96 Higfrtowea Jim, r5 International Atomic Energ' Com-
Frank E. Gannett Newspaper Goldwater, Barry, zr1 Hitlea Adolph ,57. Seealso Nazism mission, T6
Foundation, r7g. See also government, 4, rD2,2o8.Seealso Hollins, Fitz,z6z International Business Machines
Gannett Company, Inc. specificbranch;department Holmgren, Alma, 43 (IBM), rz9
Franken, Al,4z Grace,J. Peter, 166 Holmgren, Rod,43 Internet, xi, 56, 58-62, rr4; and
Frankfurter, Marion Denmaa, xv W R. Grace Company, 166 Holocaust, 25,48 books, re5; on copyright, r47;
fraud, corporate, b3,1o3,ro7, rt2, r3t Graham. Katharine. zo6 homelessness,zo, 75, 76, tog-rt, language of, bg-6o; organiza-
Freedom Newspapers (newspaper Graustein. A. R.. r8o rr3-r4 tion ofprotests via, z6o; spam
chain), r97 Great Britain, 39, 87-88, gg, u9, 2S9 Hoover Institution. xi on,671o. Seeclso computers
freedom ofthe press, r89, rgz, Great Depression,rz-r3, zo5 Hormel Meat Company, 7o Investigative Reporters and Edi-
276-17 Grocery Manufacturers Associa- hostile takeovers, 45-46 tors organization, 164
free enterprise, criticism of, 236 tion, z44 Houghton Mifflin Company, 23, rz7 Iran,8z
free market, 13,5S-b4 groups, newspaper, 178*79 Housing ResearchGroup, 246 Iraq6z, z6o; GeorgeW.Bushon,
Free Press(Northampton, Mass.), Guatemala,gZ, gg, roo H ouston Chr oni cle (new spaper), tg, 76-8r; reality ofwar in,
r49 Gutenberg,Johannes,26, 6r 247-49 8t-84; U.S.patriotism in,85,
Friedman, Milton, r57 Gutersloh, Germany,4T Hudson Institute, 168 86; weapons of mass destruc-
Friendly, Fred,45 Guzman, JacoboArbenz, gg Hudson Vitamin Products, z5z tion in, 76, V, 79, 82, 83.See
Funk &Wagnalls, 245 Hughes Electronics, 28, 37 also Hussein, Saddam
Hadden, Briton,3 human environment, ro Islamic world, gr, 93
Galbraith, John Kenneth, r3 Halverstadt, Albert N., 238j9 Hussein, Saddam,r9, 76, 8z-83. ITT (telecommunications firm),
Galilei, Galileo, r44 Hamrick, Daniel, rg5 Seealso Iraq; weapons ofmass r58
Gannett, Frank E., r78-8r "Happy Birthday" song copyright, destruction ITV (Japanesebroadcasting firm),
Gannett Company, Inc. (newpaper 259
chain), 6, rzz, r78-aog, z3r; Harcourt Brace General, r44 ideologr, corporate, 23g-4o
dogma of, rZ8{9; Miller as Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 245 I Love Lucy, rr5 Jackson, Gardner, xv
head of, r8r-83; powertrusts HarperCollins Publishers, 4r Immelt, Jeflrey, z3-24 Jackson,Stonewall,88
and, r8o-8r; in Rochester, Harper's (magazine),D, 14,245 Imus, Don,47 Japan,broadcasting in, z59-6o
N.Y.,r8o, r83,r87,r88, rgo. See Harris, Jay,ro6 independence. Seeautonomy Jews, Bronftnan rescue of, z4
also Neuharth, Allen Harold Hart, Philip A., zr3 In ili anap olis Star (new spaper), z47 Johnson, L1'ndon, zrr
Gates,Bill, rzg Harte-Hanks Century Newspaper Industrial Revolution, r55 joint ventures, 3r, 36, r37
General Electric (GE), zz-24,36, Group, z3r In Fact (Seldes),96 Jossey-Bass,Lasser tax guides, r45
46, r58, zo9-ro Hartford Times, r7g, tg3 Infinity Broad casting, 46,47 lournalism Quarterly, 196,r97-g8
General Mills, ro5 Harvard BusinessReview, t57 infotainment, 23b journalists,8o, 96, 165,168;criti-
General Motors, 7 Harvard Graduate School ofBusi- Inquiry into the Nature and Causes cism of, 16z-64
Geniusof Arab Civilization, The ness Administration, r57 of theWealthof Nations Journal of ComparativeNeurologt
(Mobil oil), 168 health care. universal. zo (S-tth), S+ (wiley),46

290 29r
 INDEX
INDEX

Kansas,r8r Library lournal,45 mass media, beginning of, xiii-xira Hearst, r8o; and interlocked
Karmaztn,Mel,46-47 licensing, r38,r4o-4r to-ll firms,9; on journals, r44; on
Katzenberg,Jefirey,35 Lies, and the Lying Liars Who TelI Masters,Kim,35 newspapers,t85-86, r87;in
KaZaA (CD dounloading firm), 66 Them (Frarken\, 4z M attel (toy manufa clur er), 7z world economy,ty. Seealso
Keller, Kristine, 196 Life (magazne),g,tzg Matthew Bender, r44 Big Five; conglomerates;and
Ken (rnagaztne),244 Limbaugh, Rush, r5, r34, r35 Matthews, Leonard, 164 individual media corporafions
Key, Francis Scott,88 Lincoln, Abraham, 94 Mauldin. Bill. zor Monopoly Commission, England,
Kqn to theKingdom (Masters),35 Lindstrom, Carl, r7g May, William F., 166 39
Kimmelman, Gene,38 lobbies, 9, 2o9-ro MediaDecisions (publication), 167 Moore, Aaron, 9
King, Bruce, zoz local autonomy, 2, r1g,rTg,rgS-zo3 media disease,z5z Morgan, J. P.,rz
Kin gspor t (Terne ssee)Times-Newq London, dailypapers in, rzr Memphis CommercialAppeal J. P. Morgan bank, ro3
2c,6 London Times, 39,r5g (newspaper),247 Morrow Books,35
Kissinger, Henry ror, zo9 Look (megazine), ng mentally ill, ru Morse, Samuel, 56
Klein, Paul, zz8 LosAngelesHerald Examine4 247 mergers,3-4, 3ojl. Seealso Mo ther Jones (magaztne), 254
Kleinrock, Leonard, 55, 57 Los AngelesTimes, 34,ro4-5, 169, conglomerates Motion Picture Association, 67
Klinkenborg, Y erlyn, rz7 186,t93; target audienceof, Merrill Lynch, ro3 motion pictures,6, 42. Seealso
Kluge, John,47 23t Messier,Jean-Maie, zg, 24,5o specificfilm stuilio
K-Mart advertising, r9r-gz Lott, Trent,75 MGM motionpicture studio, z5o Mount Everest,59
Knight-Riddea rc6, nz, t86 Low, David,3z Mickey Mouse copyright, 7r Munsey, Frank, r8z-83
Koslowski, Dennis, zz Luce, Henry,3,3o Microsoft, 691o, rzg, r44 Murdoch, James,5z
Kovach, Bill, roo L1'nch, Jessica,TZ-T1, 8t Middle East, 8o, gg-94. See also Murdoch, Lachlan,5r
Krug, Judith F., r43
Iraq Murdoch, Rupert, i, 15,28,37-43,
Kurds in Iraq, 8z-83 McCarthy, Joseph, xvii, xviii, 85 Miles, Michael,5z 5r; citizenship of,4o
Kurzweil, Ray, u4 M cClur e's (magazine), rz military-industrial complex, 156 Murdoch News Corporation, r5,
McKinney, Robert, 2oo-2o3 Millennial Housing Commission, 37 properties of, 4z
labor unions, 8,264-85 Mclaren, Richard W., zrz, zr3 lll Murrow, Edward R., +S,8S
Laemmle, Cafl,z4 Madison, James,88, r5z Miller. Colin. zo8 Muslims,9r, 94
Latin America, zo8.Seealso Magazine Publishers Association, Miller, Jonathan, zo7 mythvs. Irfih,ry718
specificcountry 232 Millea Paul, r8r-83
leadership, Big Five, 5o. See also magazines:acquisitions of , oz--24; minorities, hiring o[ 187-88 Nader, Ralph, 159-6o
boards ofdirectors advertisementsin, zr8-zo, Minot, N. Dak., r,3 Napster (CD dorvnloading firm),
leadership,power and, rg 249-45, 21g-i4l Time, Inc., Mitchell, George,5z 65-66
Leeming, Frank, zo6 market control of, 6 Mobil Oil, fi8-.7r,r73 Nashville. Tenn.. soo
Left, the, xi Marathon Oil company, l7b Modern Medicine (periodical), 245 National Association of Broadcast-
leisure time, poll on, 6z market: control of, 6; editing for, Mohn, Elisabeth, +9-5o ers,9,r39,206
Leow's Investment Comparry, 46 225-26; share of, 54; survey Mohn, Reinhard, 28, 47,49 national debt,4
Letters ofSaccoand Vanzetti of, z4g. See also audience for monopolies, 4,54; academic,t4z; National Industrial Pollution Con-
(Frankfirter and Jackson media; circulation antitrust laws against, 1369, trol Cor,rncil,r58
eds.),xv-xvii Markey, Edward, z6z r 42, t86, 2ry,264; book, v7 -e8; National Institute of Mental
Leitn,Cerrl,zT Marx, Karl,53 computer, rzg; copyright as, Health, z6r
Levin, Gerald,3o,3z Massachusetts, xv-xvii 7o; of daily pap ers, r2r-a2; National Journal, 8o
Levinson, Barry,74 MassachusettsInstitute of Tech- exemption from laws on, zro; National Labor Relations Board
libraries, 143,145-46 nolog' (MIT) Press,168 failure of, rg4; ofGannett and (NLRB), z6+

292
293
 INDEX INDEX

National Low-Income Housing Scripps-Howard, rg7,2r2, NHK (Japanesebroadcasting Panax (newspaper chain), rg7
Coalition, ro9 2r4-ri,2r7; Times Mirror, 186, firm),259-6o paper: books on, r25-3o;ys. com-
National Petroleum Council, r58 z3r; William Allen White in, Nicaragua, gT puters, u4. Seealso magazines:
Nation (magaztne),xi, 49 r8r-83, rg4. Seealso Gannett Nixon, Richard, r54, t56, zrr-r7; newspapers
Nazism, 28,48-49,57 Company Inc. ; Knight-Ridder; and antitrust law, 2c,4-5, 2ro, Parade (magazine), rz3
NBC, 16,23,4t-44, 46-47, zro, zz8 Neuharth; News Corporation zrr-r4; media oln,2r4-rT Paramount Fictures, b, 6
Needham, Harper & Steers/Issues Newspaper Preservation Act, zo5, noncommercial media, 258-6o Paris, daily papers in, r2r
and Images (advertising zrz, zt3, zt5-r6 Norris, GeorgeW., r8o Parsons, Richard, z7
agency), 163 newspapers: advertising in, 233, nuclear weapons, zo Parsons(Kansas)Sun (newspaper),
Netherlaads, the, 44, t 45 246; antitrust on, 186,z6+; 195
Netscape,3o circulation of, rt1-r7, r22; Oakland, Calif., r88 Pastore,John O., z6z
Neuharth, Allen Harold, r83-g4, endurance of , rr8-zz; food sec- O'Dwyer, Jack, r7o patriotism, U.S.,in Iraq, 85, 86
196;on freedom ofpress, tions in, 248; Gannett market Official Airline Guides,The, t44 Pearson,Drew; zo8
r9z-94; with Gannett on WaIl control of, 6; in Great Britain, oil industry, 16516; ads o{ 1691o, Pentagon Industry Advisory
Street, 183-87;modern myths rrg; ownership o{ rg4; on r75;in energy crisis, 167-68; Council, r58
of, r88-gz; on NewMexican smoking and cancer, 24g-5U news headlines on, 169:prices Pentagon Papers, 2r4, 222
case,200-202 social role of, x.ti. Seealso in, 165-66;taxes of, ryr74, PermissibleLie, ?he (canceledpub-
New Deal, rz, zo5 newspaperchains, anil indi- t76. Seealso individual oil lication),245
S.I. Newhouse (newspaperchain), viduaI news corporations companies perquisites of corporate le aders, zz
245 Newsweekmagaiute on carcer, gb3 oligopoly,5 persistenceof media, zo-zr
New Line Pictures, T4 New Yorker (magaztne), The, 84, 86, Ontario Federation oflabor, zog Peru,66
N ew Mexican (newspaper), zr&-27; adverlising in, zr8-zo, Oprah (TV show), r35 Pew Foundation, 6r
200-20I z3z; circulation of, zrg-zo, zz3, OrangeCounty Regrsferreport on Pinochet, Augusto, gZ ror
New Mexico, zoz-3 poverty, u3 Pitney Bowes, r57
New Orleans, battle of, 88 NewYorkHerald, z3g Organization for Economic political action committees,zog-ro
NewOrleans Times-Picayune,247 New York /ournal (newspaper),89 Co-operation and Develop- politics: campaignmoney in, r7-r9,
news: and business,ro4-b; content NewYorkPost, gg,40 ment,263 r5r; media power in, z5-e6,
of z3o1r; errors of, 96; local, New York Stock Exchange, r84 Organization of Petroleum Export- z8-zg, 258-59, 263;spectrum
186;serious,lg4-98. Seealso NewYorkTimes, rg5;ads in, 169, ing Countries (OPEC), 5, 7 of U.S.,ix, t6,r22,26c
journalists rg3; on Chile, ror; on East OutrageousFortune (Holmgren and postal service, U.S.,6o, 68-69
News Corporation, 3, 5, g, rS, 42; Timor, roo, roz; on FCC, to6; Holmgren),43 poverty, rr3.Seealso homelessness
board of, 5r. See also Big Five; on Guatemala,gg, roo; on Ovitz, Michael,28,34 Powell, Michael, 16,ro6
Murdoch, Rupert I. F. Stone,95; on Iraqwar,8r; ownership,40, 136;of airwaves, power, ro, g z5-26, zro; of media
news media,74,85,87,97-98,roz, Pulitzer Frizes to, rg4; on rg2,r4o,259; consolidation of, corporations, 4-t5, z8-zg,
rr3, 162;Internet and, 57 VietnamWar. zzz 16;newspaper,r94, r97;televi- 2c,5-6, 262;official hierarchies
Newsof theWorld, 43 New York Times Company, rzz, sion, 23, 42.Seealso cong;lorn- of, r9; political, 28, 258*59,263
newspaperchains, t;-zog, r8z, 245 erates; copyright; monopolies Prentice Hall (publisher), r48
r85, r93,195-98,213-16; New York Times Index" z5t price fixing, zu
antitrust on, rr-rz, 186-87; New York Times Magazine, 225-26, Padover, Ted, rr4 prices for academic professional
autonomy in, r79, r8o, rg8-zo3; 245 Paley, Sam,4-44 work, 145-46
Cox, tg7, 2r4, 2rS;local news NewYork University Press,168 Paley,William,43 Printer'sInk (tradejournal), 255
coverage in, rg5-98; mlths NewYork World (newspaper),89, Palmer, A. Mitchel], xvi, x:vii privacy, 26,62,69
andtruths of,w-78; r53-54 Panama, gT Procter, Harley, zg7

294 295
 INDEX TNDEX

Procter & Gamble, 236-4o Reno. Nev.. zoo Schell.Orville. zzo Sohio (oil company), r75
Pr ogr es sive (magazine), xi Republican Party, tx, 18,zrz Scholarly Publishing and Acade- Sony,46
propaganda,97,16lr,rg7 research and development, r43 mic ResourcesCoalition South Braintree. Mass..xvi
Providence, R.I., xv Ribicoff, Abraham. 166 (SPARC),146 Soviet Union, 92-93, 96, 9Z
Prudential Insurance Company, River side (Calrtornia) Press- Schonberger, Eli, z5z spam on Internet,671o
240 Enterprise (newspaper), r93 Scripps,E.W., tz Spanish-American War (1898),88
ftolemyVof Eg.ryt,re7-28 Roby, Edward R.,r7r16 Scripps-Howard , t97, 212,2r4-r5, SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and
public broadcasting, r4z, 2b8-6o Rochester,N.Y.: Gannett in, r8o. 277 Academic Resources Coali-
Public Broadcasting System,169 rB3,r87-BB,r9o, r99, 2or Seagram alcohol, z4 tion), 146
public information, control of, roz Rochester,N.Y.,Pafnof (news- Seaton, Richard, rg5 spending on media, rg6
Public Relationslournal, zzg paper), r9z Securities and Exchange Comrnis- sports channels, 3738, 4r
publishers, newspaper, rr7-r8 Rockefeller, John D., rz sion (SEC),ix, r3, ro3, r7r; on Stanford Research Institute, 55
PublishersWeekly,45 Rodriques, Ron, r5 AOL Time Warner, 4,S, 82; Stanley, Morgan K., r53
Pulitzer, Joseph,rz, 89-9o, r53 RollingStone,zz4 on public airwaves, r3z State-Church separation, ro4-5
Pulitzer Prizes, r94 Roosevelt,Franklin D., x, r2-r3, Seldes,George,9b-96 Steffens.Lincoln. rz
hrrdue University,249 gT-58,264 Septembern, zoor, 63, 83,gr-92, Stern, Howard,47
Roosevelt,Theodore, x, rr-r2, rS, 98, r3r, r43 stock market, 8, 6r, 16r
Quinn, JohrrC., zoz 89,t5z,264 Severeid,Eric,33 Stone,I. F., 95
.Roofs(TV program), z4z sexual revolution in magazines, rz4 Stone, Lucy, xv
racial tensions,156 Rosenthal, Benjamin, r73 Shawn, William, 22r, 224-27 Suber, Peter, r45
radio: chains,r, 15,r34;lowlower, Rosenzweig, Carol, 146 Shell Oil, 163 suburbs, impact on daily news-
r4r-42; TV networks and, 6 Rosenzweig,Michael, 146 ShermanAct of r8go, 2r3 papers of, 116
Radio Free Berkeley, r4r Ruder and Finn (public relations Shortway,Richard,245 Suharto, ror-z
Radio €yRecord.s(magazine), r5 firm). 166 Simon & Schuster, 6 supermarkets, magazines in, rz4
Random House, rz6 Rumsfeld, Donald,8r Sinclair, Upton, rz SupremeCourt, U.S.,73,zu
RCA ftroadcasting network), 46, Slate (Internet magazirle), 84 SurgeonGeneral, U.S.,z5o, 2SS,26r
158 SacramentoUnion (newspaper), Smith, Adam, 7, 54 sr.rrveys/polls,16,zr, z3o,256
Reader'sDigest Association, zz6, 247 Smith, Howard K., 255 Sweden,263
245 sacredcows of massmedia, r54, Smith,R. C.,253 Switzerland,49
Readef s D i gest (magazne), 2 45, 162 smoking and cancer, 25o-br,
254 St.PetersburgInd.epend.ent-Times, 253,256.Seealso tobacco takeover, hostil e, 45-46
Reagan, Ronald, r3-r4 r93,247 advertising talk shows, 8, 15-16,r4o. Seealso
real estate coverage in newspa- Salem,Ore., r89, rgr Smokurb cigarette substitute, z5z Limbaugh, Rush
pers,247 SanFranciscoChronicle (news- Socal (oil compary), r73 Tarbell. Ida. rz
recording industry copyright and, paper),7o social force, electronic medi a as,26 Tate, Cassandra,rgz
oo San Fr anciscoExaminer (news- socia.Iization, z6r taxes,xii, rrz, r58, z5g,z6z-63;
Redstone,Sumner, 28, 46-47,5z paper),38,zro socialjustice, ix ofMurdoch, 39, 40; on news-
Reed Elsevier (academic pub- SanloseMercury News,ro6 social order dependence, xix, x:vii papers, lr9; ofoil companies,
Iisher), r4z, r44, r4S,146 SantaFe, New Mex.. zoo social programs, 21,llo r7r-'14
reform, media, rz-r3, 15,133-g4, Saturd.ayEvening Post(magazine), Social Sciencesand Humanities technolog', z, 9; communications,
r4g-50 r23 Research Council of Canada, tla
religion, missions of, 93 SaudiArabia, 83,84, 9r, 169,r73 r49 TelecommunicationsAct (rgg6),ro,
Remingfon, Frederic, Sgrgo Schell,Jonathan,zzo Social Security, x, r3 r37, r4o

296 297
 INDEX INDEX

telegraph,56 UNESCO, r5o violence on television, 4r, z6r-62 weapons of mass destruction,76,
television (TV), 8; advertising on, Union Oil, r75 Vivendi (media conglomerate),5, n,79,82,83; nuclear,zo; U.S.-
18,236-4r,z5r, 254-55;effect Union Pacific railroad, 163 24, 25, 5o, r27 supplied, 95; World War II,
on megazinesof, rz3-z4t in unions, 18,26445 Vivendi-Universal, z3 57-58
Iraq, 8r; nonescapist,z4r; Uniroyal, r57 Vogue,244-45 WeeklyStandard (magazrne),i, 15
ownership of, zg,4z; violence United Features, zo8, zt4 Vondervan (bible publisher), 43 Welch, Jack, zz
on, z6r-62 United Fruir Compary, 96_9z 99 voting, r7, 25, zg, 264-65; by youth, West, Frederic, Jr., 163
television (TV) networks, 6, 4r-47, United Kingdom, 43,z$g r48-49 Westinghouse Corporation, 46
zo7. Seealso .P'BC;CBS; CNN; United Nations, 76 Whelan, Elizabeth,254
FO& NBC United PressInternational (UPD, WagtheDog(film),75,n White, WilliamAllen, r8r-83, rg4
Temple, Arthur, 176 zo8,2r4; on oil industry r7t-76 Waldheim, Kurt, z5 Whitehall Laboratories, z4o
Temple-Eastex, 176 USA Patriot Act (zooz), 63 Wall Street:crash of 1929,r3; White House, zr5.Seealso specific
Ten SecondsCompetition film fes- USAToday, rg5-j0 on daily newspapers,rt5; on administrations
tival, r5o United States,z; in cold war, expectedearning on books, Wikipedia, 147-48
Texaco, r73 9s-93, 96; hostile news o{ 98; rz6; focus on shareprice, ro4; John Wiley and Sons, t44, r4S,146
Thatcher, Margaret,39 Islamic view of, 9r; media Gannett on, r83-8b,rgo, rgg; Willes, Mark, ro5
Thomson (newspaper chain), treatment of, 9o; political on monopolies, 186 Willis, Paul,244
2o8-9 spectrum of, ix, t6, rzz, z6o; as WalI StreetJournal, rg5-36,zzz, Wilson, George,8o
Time, 9,3o, 54, 2og, 2Ss weapons source,95. see also 225-26; criticism of big busi- Windows (computer program), rz9
Time, Inc., 3-4, 6, 3o, 52,176, Constitution, U.S.;anil specific ness,16r;Mobil ads in, 169; Wister. Owen. rz
209 gover nment aI depar t ment Roby i", r74; on security firms, Wolfovritz, Paul,83
Tirne-Life empire, zz6 U.S. Army on Lynch story 78-79 107 Wolters Kluwer (academic pub-
Times Mirror C any, 186,z3r. U.S.District Court, New Mex., Walt Disney Company. SeeDisney lisher), r4z, r44,r4S
Seealso Los AngelesTimes 202-j Company women, Gannett hiring of, 187-88
Time Warner (media conglomer- U.S.PostOftce,6o War and Peace(Tolstoy),87 WorldCom, ro3
ate), 3-4, S, 27, 30-jl2, r2Z, Universal Pictures, z3 Warner Brothers,3o world economy, r37
rz7. Seealso Big Five; universities,instructional erial Warner Communications, 4. World Health Organization, z5o
conglomerates needs of, 158-59 Seealso Time Warner World-Information Organization,
Tisch, Lawrence,46 University of California, Los War of r8rz, 88 150
tobacco advertising, z4o, z5o-56. Angeles (UCI-A.),SS wars, 76; deceptionsin,8G-go. World Trade Organization, r33
Seealso smoking and cancer University of Pennsylvania, 57, 58, Seealso specificwar World War I, rz
Tobacco Institute, z5r r34 Washington, D. C., newspaper World War II, 44, 9z
Tolstoy, Leo,87 reading in, rzr Wriston, Walter B., 165
Toronto Star (newspaper),248 Van Deerlin, Lionel, zo5 Washington, George,87
trickle-down theory 13 VanityFair,84 WashingtonPosf,169,r94, 2c,6,222 Yeaman,Addison,256
trusts, 12,r53,r8o-8r. Seealso Van Nostrand Reinhold book WashingtonStar (newspaper),249 youngpeople, politics and, 48-49,
antitrust laws; congfomerates; publisher, r45 Watergate,disclosure on, zr5 r5r-52
monopolies VanN uys VaIIey (C drtornia) Newg Watkins, StephenE., 2ooeo2 Young & Rubicam, 188
truthvs. myth,ry718 247 Watt, James,17415 Youth Vote Coalition, r4g
Tucson, Aiz.,zoo Viacom (media conglomerate), 3-4, Waxman, Henry,256
Turner, T"d, +S E,28,4g-47,52.SeealsoBig wealth: distribution of, xii, rr3;
TV Guide,zo7 Five; CBS; conglomerates influence on American politics
Tyco, zz, ro3 Vietnam War, 86, 156,zzo of, x

298 299
trE
ci:t
E
-

-,

:V
8EA( ()N

I \O
 Cover design: lsmc Tobin

--__--]