Fiction substitutes for fact,

news is carefully filtered, dissent is marginalized

Supporting the powerful

substitutes for accurate reporting

Wars of aggression are called liberation

Patriotism means going along

with governments that are lawless

So-called balanced journalism smuggles in values

conducive to the commercial aims

of the owners and advertisers,

as well as the political aims of the owning class

And as their power grows, so does their control

over what news and information people get as well as

a tsunami of sports and entertainment

to divert and distract from what matters most

America's mass corporate media are capitalist-run. But, then, so is the State.

Therefore, we are indoctrinated by the 'State' media, where concentrated economic and political power sets the outer parameters of permissible discourse.

For more than six years, America's media have made frequent references to ‘the war on terrorism’ and ‘the war on terror’.

The media have relentlessly promoted such official buzzwords as though they were objective realities instead of terms devised to manipulate the public for endless war.

It's not only the right-wing media who are the front men for government policy. The liberal media are fully participating in the hate campaign against Iran.

The media are part of an establishment that benefits from war-mongering, militarism and the demonisation of enemies.

US policy in the Middle East is driven by Western corporations’ desire to control oil resources on their terms. That means mass violence, intimidation, punishment of ‘rogue states’ defying US-UK control, and so on.

There are also huge profits to be made from waging perpetual war. As has been observed the similarity between a factory manufacturing diapers and one manufacturing cruise missiles is that the manufacturer goes out of business if the product isn’t used.

All it needs is for a critical mass of journalists to “normalise the unthinkable” to use Edward Herman’s phrase - to create a sufficient level of fear, doubt and deference to those proclaiming the urgent need for mass violence. Herman has written:

“There are almost no holds barred, and almost nothing in the way of subversion and military attack that the mainstream media won’t normalize.

"After all we are WE, the good and necessary policeman in service to global interests.”

When we take a step back from the propaganda we can see that this constant emphasis on mass violence as the solution of choice to the world’s problems is psychopathic.

Reviewing David Cromwell and David Edwards'

"Guardians of Power" [Original]

Today, the media is in crisis, and a free and open society is at risk. Fiction substitutes for fact, news is carefully filtered, dissent is marginalized, and supporting the powerful substitutes for full and accurate reporting.

As a result, wars of aggression are called liberating ones, civil liberties are suppressed for our own good, and patriotism means going along with governments that are lawless.

The authors challenge these views and those in the mainstream who reflect them - the managers, editors and journalists.

Their aim in Media Lens and their writing is to "raise public awareness" to see "reality" as they do, free from the corrupting influence of media corporations and their single-minded pursuit of profit "in a society dominated by corporate power" and governments acting as their handmaiden.

They note that Pravda was a state propaganda organ so "why should we expect the corporate press to tell the truth about corporate power" and unfettered capitalism when they support it? They don't and never will.

The authors go further and say their "aim is to increase rational awareness, critical thought and compassion, and to decrease greed, hatred and ignorance (and do it by) highlight(ing) significant examples of systemic media distortion." There are no shortage of examples.

That objective is highlighted in their 2006 book, "Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media" and subject of this review.

It's a work distinguished author John Pilger calls "required reading" and "the most important book about journalism (he) can remember" since Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman's classic - "Manufacturing Dissent."

Cromwell and Edwards "have done the job of true journalists: they have set the record straight" in contrast to the mainstream that distorts and corrupts it for the powerful.

Their book is must reading and will be reviewed in-depth, chapter by chapter, to show why. It's also why no major broadsheet ever mentions it or its important content. This review covers lots of it.

The Mass Media - Neutral, Honest, Psychopathic

Years ago, journalist and author AJ Liebling said "The press is free only to those who own one." He also warned that "People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news."

"Guardians of Power" lifts the confusion powerfully. It starts off noting that the term media is "problematic."

It's the plural of medium suggesting something neutral, and news organizations want us to believe "they transmit information in a similarly neutral, natural way" which, of course, they never do.

Why? Because corporate giants are dominant, and large corporate entities control the media.

The authors thus argue that the entire corporate mass media, including broadcasters like BBC and the so-called mislabeled "liberal media," function as a "propaganda system for elite interests."

It's especially true for topics like "US-UK government responsibility for genocide, vast corporate criminality, (and) threats to the very existence of human life - (they're) distorted, suppressed, marginalized or ignored."

Cromwell and Edwards present documented forensic proof to set the record straight and expose corporate media duplicity.

Doing it requires "understanding (that) curious abstract entity - the corporation," more specifically publicly-owned ones.

They're required by law to maximize shareholder equity and do it by increasing revenue and profits.

Corporate law prohibits boards of directors and senior executives from being friends of the earth, good community members or whatever else may detract from that primary goal.

Social responsibility is off the table if it reduces profits, and executives who ignore that mandate may be sued or fired for so doing.

That led Canadian law professor Joel Bakan to call corporations "psychopathic creatures" that can't recognize or act morally or avoid committing harm. It shows up at home and in foreign wars of aggression with Iraq as Exhibit A that's the focus of three of the book's 13 chapters.

The Propaganda Model

First, an explanation of what Chomsky and Herman called the "propaganda model" in "Manufacturing Dissent" and that Herman later wrote about in "The Myth of the Liberal Media."

It works by focusing on "the inequality of wealth and power" and how those with it "filter out the news to print, marginalize dissent (and assure) government and dominant private interests" control all information the public gets.

It's done through a set of "filters" that remove what's to be suppressed and "leav(es) only the cleansed (acceptable) residue fit to print" or broadcast on-air.

The media is largely shaped by market forces and bottom line considerations. They also rely on advertisers for most of their revenue and are pressured to assure content conforms to their views.

More generally, the dominant media serve wealth and power interests that include their own as well as other corporate giants.

They thus rely on "official sources" for news and information and ignore others considered "unreliable." More accurately, they ignore the unempowered who have no say or whose views are out of the "mainstream."

Media expert, Robert McChesney, explains the dilemma by saying publishers know their journalists must appear neutral and unbiased when, in fact, that notion is "entirely bogus" for three reasons:

-- to appear neutral, journalists rely on "official sources" as legitimate news and opinion when, in fact, they're not;

-- a news "hook" or dramatic event is needed to justify covering a story, but the power elite does the selecting to serve its own interests; and

-- advertisers apply pressure so content favors or at least won't offend them.

McChesney also explains that "balanced (journalism) smuggles in values conducive to the commercial aims of the owners and advertisers, as well as the political aims of the owning class."

And as their power grows, so does their control over what news and information people get as well as a tsunami of sports and entertainment to divert and distract from what matters most. Edited Version of Article