Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sixth Edition
Ben H. Bagdikian
With a New Preface on the Internet and Telecommunications Cartels
Beacon Press
Boston
Beacon Press 25 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892 Beacon Press books are published under the auspices of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations 1983, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1997, 2000 by Ben H. Bagdikian First published as a Beacon Paperback in 1983 Second Beacon Paperback edition published in 1987 Third Beacon Paperback edition published in 1990 Fourth Beacon Paperback edition published in 1992 Fifth Beacon Paperback edition published in 1997 Sixth Beacon Paperback edition published in 2000 All rights reserved Printed in the United States ofAmerica 05 04 03 02 01 00 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bagdikian, Ben H. The media monopoly / Ben H. Bagdikian 6th ed. p. cm. ISBN 0-8070-6179-4 (pbk.) aspects-United 1. Mass media-Economic States. 2. Monopolies-United States. I. Title. P96.E252U625 2000 338.473022230973--dc21 96-29825
AS
THE
UNITED
STATES
ENTERS
the
twenty-first
century,
power
over the American mass media is flowing to the top with such devouring speed that it exceeds even the accelerated consolidations of the last twenty years. news, that with For the are their among first time in and daily the worlds hundreds anything create U.S. history, the are countrys controlled two the seen an most widespread by six firms of them controlling in their before. foreign. handful size Their cartel. bigness are itpolitical alarmTheir ever of and incommentary, entertainment largest of the the
corporations, new world force the firms, has of While worst giants of the a
Even with the dramatic uncounted and power interlocks are for The of American communications tricate self and ing own before behavior The ing. of but that most years, nomenon glamorized tional a small deficit it For is global There cause social. success foreign
cyber world
corporations
pernicious economic countrys and against each the White intrinsic upon as a and
in writing the media laws power permits them values. national House and
corporations in
general
concentrated
become with
socializing and years, personal on the and their seized use attention American the its in in impact
generation
models
mainstream
news
national
importance. overblown on
politicians
what
get
economy
mainstream infrequent
wealth
American of
history
percentage
the
producing become
and and
self-serving brutalized.
commercialized
entertainment,
entertainment changes modern and because what never invented artificially dominant language the risen, and and the new and in
beyond New The before. novel In the tries fights is more data.
language invented
emerged
Internet
and
owners
once-private in has
locker-room There reported New and well with dented audiences typed printed made for ents, sad their ignored as the and are
changes.
mainstream
news,
with the
context
Times,
for one, has looked at some social phenomena it had both television When and to rewards sharply has media. both there and is are admirable as those stunning entertainment. equipment access money so mass made the brutal presentations drama history, added,
sometimes
information the
self-expression.
escalated
material media
overwhelmed and to
positive
electronic have
themselves resistant to
revenues
sponsors
lower vastness,
Internet, industry
changes
individuals, source of
from an
selling
at home.
effective
formidable
information
But it has been overblown as the final liberation of the individAdvertising the tastes, diversity low seem American a parallel mass among an grow exponentially, cyber world is and in taste number narrow has its and of system becoming
embedded
population and
remarkably
geography,
ment. But more than ever, the major media have treated the public as a homogeneous countrys entrenched tions, ited to with a limited the intelligence. and wealthiest widest disseminators of news, small commentary, worlds of ideas
Electric,
Viacom, other
telsmann,
Bertelsmann
Germany 500
and News
in Australia,
Magazines
largest Big
corporations in
industries Canadian
on the prowl and AT&T, (not mass) on their amalgam General next remains the the Internet Time at $350 in any a
order to join the providing six COrp, media early said still a Warner,
Six-like Sony,
a Japanese
telephone
company
communication. annual media revenues, of CBS firms even and Westingsix an and have anall combined. with These
The top house), News annual The nouncement ica pany, while would torys Online, Time six become (If the in
firms, Disney,
ordered solely (an and the firms stunned acquire AOL all mass valued
number
largest form
Amercomsix histhis
it would dominate
media of those be in
Consequently, would
media,
largest merger,
enterprise. elsewhere
references
government
intervention
events, the new company, like all mammoth players in a field, is likely other giant media firms, like Disney, Viacom, similar AT&T, like and becomes AOL mergers and with Internet World, and MCI affecting and eBay. and and News giants known is the most Internet, of AOL was other a midst joined a a seen. in the communication commonly The ever prospect
Microsoft, operations giantism tising service ful lishing, Time ping could the landscape. global
Amazon.com, power more on music. the focus in and about was that
concentrated
beyond becomes
inescapable as
Warner force
computerized
MSNBC described advertising and clearly global mouse television Warner mall be of in
What was
their joint
announcement
of the media
instantly set.
computer the
executives prises, alliance example, burgeoning The scribers, magazines CNN, Given whether forced power ers new ture of Time a to the The byproduct. handmaiden of The crucial democracy 20
leaders owns
AOL,
Compuserve
with
Sun
e-commerce. merged million and 75 and reader, deal world lasting this As of the size deepen its have homes holdings million Time the are the of a global Warners $40 cable million TNT. vast a never and by TV with has social further the homes, Expected
TBS,
Warners
viewer, movie-goer, communications seen dwarfs the dangers and of the like before. political case
would
implications as of the
are
news of more
merely
industrial
dramatized
mergers
deterioration
of news
owners
immense
means
some remote
media
subsidiaries,
become
degree
have
lines
selecting
ethical
striving
Symbolically, tors, has now largest billion satellite from The in each the speed power other, they on
corporation
entered the mass media field. broadcasting America of in from and the as companies Online, cyber the joint some Internets
high-capacity
expanding six.
influence cooperate profits cable, and the most and Center lean a the their in is
stated by counting them themselves programs dia world. right, ers. the eral, ative, three Thus, mentary inevitably extent, In News Their ignoring 1999, political divide television, reporting are political the ideologies
they own
companies
politically
views
liberal,
conservative,
self-identification. concerns. commentary elections, weaken media, Now broadcast and the have that news, to that
seldom interests
narrowness
media
reportage choices
a narrow
of genuine sustain
since meaningful the Major always these stand ing news. accepted been industries that or With they keeping foundation of
mass including
comfortable the in
it is not surprising that their newly acquired staffs have come to underemployers out of The by downplayand broadcast the has overbecomes unwanted what
time,
social-political
definition
emerging
picture
concentrated
private
creators
mind
created
guaranteeing Amendment
twenty-first
guaranteeing
citizen upon
speech
would,
appalling
dependent
speakers
wealth.
Enter: The
the puter cess ing voice less cyber that vidual of business private pitches. crous sented right articles, individual and to a the
Internet
the Internet was mass to are bodies can and connection vastness Internet Civic before for passing each month, Thanks advertising, to be has from also seen its is continually individuals the and ever celebrated as media the outside new provided and have an a display a welcome electronic gratification unlimited their goals potentially e-mail, permits in liberation of with a comacone at own speed. indipresence from modem growing on thousands. than powerful systems. Anyone medium.
In the beginning,
of the
Individuals
expressof pro-
pagandistic anonymous
large-ifmostly messages
uncertain--audience. Internets system each participant, the to instantaneous reassuring. intrusive designed space ads for and permits
replies the
at the
of the
looks
less
heavy
invaded
on-line
cramps.
Internet book
problems
protection,
anonymous
person
photographs, form,
recordings,
property on the Internet that other anonymous users can copy and reissue. Whatever its ternet ity. have remains Except The had home modems, for acculturated the present and future power by years rapidly and among the centurys ago, as end, only a future formidable. it most society anxieties as television growth Though fifty minority devices every news
large major-
computer-plus-Internet. media.
Internets
versatility-10,000 new
day-have created
Internets
twenty-four-hour contain
metropolitan
At the same time, the Internet has created its own version of the magazines slower, change time, the Many for that and messages all of Matt with zines. without traditional Their and new also their hierarchically
grandparent,
distributors,
created by
anyone
training creates
lack of concern is
Consequently, beneficial,
broadening, directed at
hateful,
plainly
potential standards,
audience. despite papers, An Internet Drudges their fearful awareness of electronic capricious have Drudge, scoops,
rush his story onto the Internet, even though his print editors wanted another week to verify facts. couraged print The the Uncounted through Services use of what The mid-1999, the and the lower costs of the Internet, U.S. Postal has now Service. penalties to jargon medium example, with Clearly, the competition to sell news has enfit to print. affected for letters the speed by sent and Postal privacy, advantages uses. By over Airline softe-mail. has own prefer But for also e-mail been to significantly office enjoy first-class sources to lower their standards of what is Service its which thousands Postal electronic post
while
individuals of
of the Internet, they lack the protections severe mails new violations extort, as on, three made is or defraud, marches at least ticketing threaten, mail.
first-class and
Internet for
denigrates
were central as
groceries computer
Internet,
deliveries
warehouses.
other transportation
growing,
comparable
bricks-and-mortar library
is why computers are often the first objects seen upon entering libraries). By mid- 1999, though fewer than half of homes, fices The had 35 access percent to the the system, the using (individual displays), equivalent of the 800 million schools, traditional it to Internet contained 2.8 Internet used million
of Americans fees
more than $500 million a year in credit card purchases and spent even more annually foseek, site bers when button. that is, is that never far information paying and more in monthly facilitate displays. predictable, than They with marketing do for is for Internet particular the per total have services, in to potential flocked (but like Yahoo the the that sets, merely a British vast new the has audience finding locations arrays for
Though rates it
advertisers
medium, Internet,
usual
unguaranteed)
because impulse
recognize by
interactive
opportunities
pressing
growing
market resales).
(with adult,
sex-oriented,
half the
Technology and
Thanks cable, pers, owning nications cial pete to the all the lines these new
Monopoly
electronics, and few and of each and including forms the of Internet the and interactive By socombetween programs, media, far a traditional media-like newspablurred. mass firms, would have commu-
that
exceeds
action Under
capitalism, shared
forcefully
interlocked contemporary ative cartel. As Politicians trol how But not voters. history. tional could
directors, capitalist
book,
power
political who
handful always of
be presented-or media
Media
power has
combination
corporate match.
reached
dimensions
xvi /
difference
significant
newspapers
magazines newspaper
political
counter-
promoted
workers. instruworst natural that inand has first abolition to more as of the the
left
earlier major media was policies and status protect sanitary media
enactment
of national
environment,
communi-
major
formed a large enough portion of the electorate that these new laws regulations were Today, disappeared. and analyses major political centration linking searching ment of about Positive tinue Times industry, cessful doctrine to human has major to be is workers media. that As important political the country absent to in about media, the big big for the variety enters is of social justice the among mainstream century, the For media the
in the nation. news of this countries, the statethe confor York for Suc-
of progressive ideas and groups are close to absent in the Similarly dangers other American hands media money of of democracy. a and relatively
its different. A March 16, 1997, New York Times story noted, The confew-along with same money, government power-has raised applied to example, added pay the New problem workers. were not
Russias
young
democracy. The
could justifiably be labor unions, for Even 1998, serious more pay the
United States today, but it never is within the big money, big media. accomplishments rarely that reported full in the standard news. In April of created in raising main a enlisting worker media
depicted as
reported corporate of
which was
having
strategies Apparently,
sympathetically.
bedrock does
prices labor.
edition
each three
acquired companies
firms that
communications.
firms mass
of the
of them
acquired
acquired
ultimate
mechanism
telephone
company
satellite
compete.
economy
nopolistic pathetic larger have $1.5 lion, the even houses came was total In
control
have merged
largely 1999, is
valued valued
largest merger in world history. stockholders merger. in larger. become like and that often the merger has
In many of the mergers, ironically, and after sometimes investment bedeal of in executives
arranging
Viacom-CBS
world,
Globalization corporate favor is and to significant paid the For 1990s pouring and can bankers was corrupt. have
all-purpose of
displacement
workers
abused workers replacement the the crash the World of known after the whose folly through U.S.
overseas to
American
contributions
Bank,
encourage
abroad. the to and Asian U.S. the greed origins tigers world by as the are leading lending institutions collapses,
economic
trillions
predictable
rescued
from special
government,
funds
xviii /
American report nancing, ness lysts is the
international
When
pending,
business
quotes
concerned
look at prices or the past history of the impact of such deals on the ordinary consumers. York largest Mediaone. winners. look would mal. more tion gone time dinary at Times cable The Papers the that the On June 2, in 1999, the such a full-page AT&T already the had they ad in the New of yet TCI, will the be to disreduchave another, proclaimed company ad can of the and phone rise major the even most fate that AT&T, owner acquired are also events. has which no news. failed regularly media general the If, to bills
stated accept
consumers
obligated been
Examination promised
show After
bills. become
that in
predicted
time, and
emphatically
corporate
promises
consumers
amnesia.
communications Republican firms in legislative the more to than the but radio.
According bers of the and closed cations age years and news to nications
freshman
1994 Congress, key to a new Republican majority of House heads ask with law Congress 1996. of That telecommunications leaders the acceptance, Act the in the and rewrote wanted in desired what media communipacksixty largest that is and Telecommu-
conference
industry,
disastrous
industrial
history. Public
public, who
ownership
a whisper
news
Congress
television to
buy expensive new service. Commission, the federal court the Department from
Federal a
conservative power
system prices.
achieved nally
giants
arise to Internet
munications
satellites,
invented
practical
with
taxpayers
money.
Disneyland
When comes dividual of the The Products magazines, ney jor fans Disney one the large delight Each firm controls all forms love a firm of the major a media, it beof of Wall part Streets of synergy, feeds combination to its books, once other
two or more forces that creates a result greater than the sum of the inparts. same division of such for a Just five business describes of toys, and is parts corporation. Company, offering software, example, array art, example Consumer apparel, to Disgentle a maeleven memofather of out or in a a Disney as dazzling one
Disney computer
animation
around the world. product, and to might can from (the Nast studios, thousand on with a line
appeal of A. A. Milnes Pooh magazines, fourteen rabilia, them 2003, retail painted daily sold videos, cruises, Disney all, the store, art The to hundred from Pooh Mickey public one scene
Pooh Bear has now been parlayed into hundred retail different stores on than trinket $2,500. of the books, Disney Daily and radio, record clothes books, Disney the runs In a dollar of LEGO Disney from the toys based on The Lion copyright ears for Mouse Pooh.
More than
mouse King
Mickey
twenty-two Conde
subsidiaries Womens
Wear and
programs, childrens
characters
comics-bring the
companies
Disney cruise impressive corporations effect may affluent than be. and
harvest images,
society
Disney corporation
globally. influences
former mixtures
of entertainment, ability
dilutes
grounded growing
Every century day hands serve cies the of from Some pre-CBS heavy obey raged as
from comic
dreadfuls
multi-media dimensions regulatory Electric major are are the come of in and At that solely
entrepreneurs
serious
pressure
hibernation. and the of to outbecame world ordered, whose Time first Warner, the repellent book $340 Viacom) owners expected often public. from enof news-asnow-common 1983, the time, in fifty the
acquired
journalists
think
of themselves
loyalty
Viacom
tertainment entertainment
further equally
spread
hybrid
advertorials. edition ofthis most was of a the published medium deal. every mass million market biggest dominanews-
dominated
history
gain market
share
of them.
second to in
twenty-nine.
1990, ten
fourteen.
biggest
billion
million,
seventeen
corporation,
There was reason enough, dominant culture, there individual is the years with that firms had commerce, an even
and more personal groups smaller Warner all is the than It corporate troubling firms the them and number deal), the AOL-Time power earlier. their raises
communications
overwhelming about in
of these
interlocks questions
democracy. leading and so as dominance of so a in to medium Street media. into a enthusiasm control Wall many investors
money, firms
supported
dominating prevent
large
enterprises
necessary
vestment houses
became stock to
entertainment will reach the pressure only ever-higher Newspapers, stability to maintain to
also to do it rapidly. This process is at odds with healthy and durable media need industries. long-term and broadcasting, accumulate steady audiences.
nurture
creativity,
xxii /
process keyed to the The ing impact, has creasingly decades civic quiring mandating new as mass
mentioned
positive
circumvention
1996
childrens
educational
programming. but They a tion the sive Corporate interlocks in one conspicuous fight in each other advertising, than for year U.S. but cause big media firms to cooperate, they compete and compete ferociously. share of the $80 billion competieluThe all-out paradoxispending by for that but less of their in means advertisers consumption competing level is own
the biggest possible reflection trillion in at a year modern the audience the
population. For of
media this
seeming
competition in the of money. but In means changing this changes and to instant in
capture
cal than it seems: the losers in this competition still make a great deal But in the corporate the frenetic race for eyes pursuit culture ethos, not just high profit, companies prevent commercial social adopt rewards and any from for political to make the highest profit, to be Number One. attention, in of and order the freeze viewers Their has countrys viewers
channels. the
huge
fixation
produced
significant social
values. has trivialized printed culture with increasing shock. ideas, every endless toilet The and possible humor result is
The pressure to capture instant attention broadcast news. It has coarsened popular gutter talk effect of is and to other diminish Instead, of of devices reliance it human words in with spent US. his designed to on talent,
obnoxious not just because it is crude and vulgar, though it is that. Its inherently permusex aphis lobattractive entertainment. violent for usual, $3.2 and overuse substitutes beings, and
destruction
seventh-grade bottomless on
contempt
led the way with his Fox network and movies. Worth an $800,000 law Washington others. waivers denied Murdochs
obtained
of its affiliated may own satellite of holdings and for all he his
percent of a broadcasting will able to to paid The but a According billion has not
three-quarters British
profits,
bookkeeping British But getting When verted the the news worlds politics, day been ented they in
influence,
taxes. contempt for public taste Murdoch governor canceled. When coverage, that market offend a and TV, in down burlesque cheap, The effects grovels of Hong Murdoch the when against crudity for a Murdoch his has if it Kong issued Murdochs HarperCollins and his will book after an ruthlessness him contract Hong Kong apology on what China to make richer. with reto with his the
protested, retiring
China, was its It would trend in and and are II and to China
Chinese
expressed had
canceled own
Murdoch
largest he
potential
communist
The
violence mainstream a
movies on air,
achieved by a teenager masturbating with character by turned Jersey are scriptwriters would For have advertisers sex artistic modem original, of massive War replaced scripts
vomiting
drinking greedy
been New
houses. are is, that violence of promoted less is can expensive cheaper impose slaughter.
whose
corporate literally
violence thanks
creative,
explosions
Armageddons
democracy with
unrelenting
episode
stemmed
Independent
Prosecutor
Kenneth
investigation
xxiv / Preface to the Sixth Edition the orchestrated leaks to the news media involving intimate episodes between self-indulgent President Clinton and a libidinous young White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. Prosecutor Starr is not the first puritan who would wallow endlessly in sexual detail under the protective claim of serving a higher purpose. The possible impeachment for the Presidents lying about the affair gave the prosecutor a socially acceptable excuse for months of emphasis on erotic acts, all their possible variations, the precise location and physical positions of the partners, whether they had been orgasmic, and other tours of erotica. But if the Office of the Independent Counsel seemed obsessed by details of consensual sex acts, the countrys news media did not need to make them the top news for almost a year. The private lust of presidents has dotted U.S. history, but in the past it did not displace the nations serious business in the news. Yet Stans interminable investigation and leaks dominated most news outlets, including the New York Times, usually reported on page one and usually without attribution to any identifiable source. The Associated Press assigned twenty-five reporters to the story. On network television for 1998, there were six stories about the Oval Office encounters for e-very one story on that years election campaign. Along the way, there were comically pretentious arguments over whether the United States Constitutions provision of high crimes and misdemeanors for removal of a President included concealment of consensual oral sex. The major media seemed as obsessed with sex as the President and Prosecutor Starr. In the midst of the extended reporting, commentary, and solemn analyses of the whole affair, an editor of the supermarket checkoutcounter scandal sheet National Enquirer said plaintively, The New York Times isnt leaving anything for us. The media sex obsession further lowered public respect for the major news media. The public watched the proceedings avidly, but they knew it was a sleazy substitute for important news. From start to end of the coverage of the scandal, public opinion surveys seldom varied from showing that 50 to 70 percent of those surveyed said that whether or not the sex stories were true, the news should turn to more serious issues. The prolonged fixation on private sex acts in the White House was the product of more than fifteen years of degraded news stan-
the editor of a midsize Illinois void, gossip, became and know her a media and That a firms process on on poured quickly for important choice most the in
daily paper as saying, If a story needs sex, back-alley political issues. and public language, standards. reporting. past too Private voting often but not came his lives records, to or private-life
a real investment of time and money, we dont do it anymore. general lowering candidates relevant pressing of journalistic political ideas, Voters issues.
enveloped
substitutes candidates
proposals thoughts
of breakfasts
bedmates,
influence this
whenever
embarrass-
offending referred
company,
journalism, The was secular ofthe other countrys influence The the State.
of Separation
followed
advertisers
news
chair took He
of its flagship paper, the Los powerful the Los dailies. Angeles
on there would be no more Wall of Separation of Church and State in Times. American Journalism Review, Every time they point it out, I get a bazooka and tell them if radically reorganized every section of the paper, includ-
they dont take it down, Im going to blow it down. Willes ing the main news section. For the first time in modem newspaper his-
co-editors, Willes
one
department a time
paper. 25
slightly,
other big
dailies York
price to circula-
York $1.00
cents in New
increase
tion by 50,000 in the next year, but it turned out to be no more than 17,000, and his paper lost clearly, stock Wall had a few percent in revenues. loved in paper, later, Willess price. in November with other 1999, Otis Chanof his staffs to had a who, members latest news an single move. Two years later, But Times-Mirror dler, family, panys stupid the the former is stock, and Street tripled months of the damning special act growth that and
Nevertheless,
a beneficiary of a trust that controls letter that corporate and the of this the
a majority
involvement future When side business, Management conduct with ular ment process ever lets. an a news edition seeing and since The
unprofessional
deal to split advertising profits of a regular editorial section with an outit became the last straw for the papers angry agreed source of the the an Los to had paper let the papers of media how reporter, the it agreed and the an unobstructed investigation happened. without The that Times the result has news staff. David that top news of Shaw, deal full the
profit-sharing
Furthermore, the been have 20, normal a seeping gained report 1999, the
report would be edited by a recalled retired editor and printed in a regeditors into manageof a outpaper. news quagbusiness report. attitude Angeles in was step-by-step control was edition chairman separation within dissection news
corporations
investigation
December
shredded
mire had lost their ethical map. The result, in Mr. a tangled tale of ignorance of greed deadened of Separation and represents and arrogance, and of judgment, sensibilities centuries Before
Shaws words, was: of blind loyalty and standards. purity in anyone between
publishers.
Willes,
editors
Consequently,
his swag-
virtue.
Papers
around Colorado,
Kansas, Willes
and an virtue a
1999,
Herald News advertiser the did paper continued had his the not
told
advertisers
advertisers
business. pure evil. After often become public its to two-hundred-page stories, of his In policy 1999, throwaway admirable for a public Philip fact a the
publishers. and
cynicism
toward
contamination
Mercedes-Benz, like all the articles show no become
and charged a cover price, but in publishers at record of a that this information products. lows. it cynical is When receives,
Surveys
vulnerable to loudly
pitfalls
citizenry. they
attend to.
imposed
easier for politicians to issues. years from of the 1995 debate national to
distract the public with false were and a time that debt by
legislative
crisis
reduction
xxviii /
selected levels It thorities rhetoric mation
easily solved by even a minor restoration of past progressive function is views and to a to income of the news equally and make clear realities the
government
But it
essential to
who from
of Congress,
best known
authorities. respected, deficit the he current pointed middle-of-the-road this and that crisis growth the entire an in size out citizens economist, period of the debt was nawas during
in the form stream ernment from the population. that probably At any the tional sis. the
of Treasury bills
held by
and banks,
But his findings were not discussed of and Lester in 1999 country without congressional wealth poor of working Thurow, in obsession was to the had or really the with richest
period class
cutting levels
programs, middle
the countrys
being
transferred
of Technology, distribution
so great in magnitude
of its time
wealth
made
States
had and today still has the widest gap between its rich and nonrich of industrialized media and debate were in significant All country. this social through that crisis are the data distracted some the deficit and of addiconcriwere FAIR public on disturbing should programs publicly Here solve
developments enumerated
influenced
gressional reported (Fairness 1. percent 2. net worth holds making fifths with 3. of
available
August
publication
the
of households was
owned 20 headno
crisis
hitting
1 percent had doubled its share of that wealth. ago, debt. negative dollars of American crisis, doubled. blue-collar thirty years workers ago, and were fourthe households number had During the wealth than of house-
congressional they
debate, did
less
politicians went
needed to that
ing cap. And now to the rich. Something the and tions billion million ness tries AT&T, the period United This two Barlett included Too cal City and altered It rations, for If had been the would of and to media mainstream welfare continued individuals and actual foreign General 300,000 States. was
they insisted that it be done in ways most beneficial was while for get the of occurring cutbacks poor. the This of and were During welfare total was the in for Motors people magazine reporters went made this from the largely in time, the taxes form unreported social large paid of tax their in
programs corporaby 60
benefits
corporate
taxpayers-$l25 forgiveinduswere in same the which Donald credit, the it loYork crisis Game corpo-
worth-the equivalent
income
families.
payments toJcorporations countries. Electric, as jobs revealed Steele, for in well Some and as General working a Time
corporate industries.
business),
other big
the
best-known James in
country,
subject.
a box
magazine
substantial
incentives corporate
build
kind the
about
nonexistent
and bettered
false
Start classes
cut back to
genocidal
Kosovo
large-scale
xxx /
continuous shrinking In news writing Ill put
coverage the
foreign
television 1980s.
they
1998
simply:
coverage
bombs,
disasters, American
news most
other profound flaws War, as line. by major closely Where they United and were and the as the
Cold Kremlin
ideology Guatemala:
politics,
threats
required
opposition
States.
Nicaragua,
atrocities United
violence was
described
mainstream democracy.
media
The main The 1999 front-page Chile the lence through lendes years larly New an news
done
detention
Pinochet
for weeks regime. media been Allende both for main terror But that
could be tried for his death squads and the terror in during there reported the nothing Pinochets United support way has for of the
destabilizing
regime
mocratically
elected
and
Al-
seventeen simithe in
squads. terror media. the fate in It of Guatemala was a of still been for village and death possible
responsibility
of February 7, describing by
1999, to print in its Sunday magazine Guatemalan children, kidnapping mass squads-
8,500-word
article of
wrenching
disappearances
government-sponsored
name leaders
of suppressing support of
leftist
those
atrocities
financial
United
squads) had been brought to the Armys in York mala, than and scure news the draft tory a Americas.
United When
the U.S.
Congress
1999, it was reported in a brief item on the second page of the New and largely twenty of how the by 1999, ignored in years after the did Latin other main media. these New events York had Times and occurred describe forces. in in Most Guatemore torture of until
in August phrase
United
States
had
trained
supported
disappearances footnote,
American security
the rest of the media kept this ugly part of the American record an obif they reported it at all. have then a disreputable years after This Cold the Cold is not War record end, of the distorting second in of hisrecord If the news is the first rough draft of history, the major American organizations first draft, and of their are Wars
countrys to
a promising
the light
mistakes
expensive
corporations
themselves media).
newspapers through
magazines
history, if the
devices
Average even 62
households
a time
when
households.
daily
newspaper
circulation
dramatic.
ple listened to radio news while they drove home from work television. Nonetheless, profits War fifteen continue to get the highest percentage newspaper ownership after by the rest Jones, percent same cable Many dailies. local in shots owned of industry World local of newspapers, families large New in of dollars
media, 20
1946, dailies
associates.
percent
countrys are
hundred are
owned,
owned by Mirror,
chains, whose top Knight Ridder, Co., without that and book, multitude news when is margins and cities. Times own are, aware profit
rank
Gannett,
Ninety-nine also sion soon States, questions utably matic tempts use, young their what of In owners and
newspaper
exception, their than televitheir will United vital disrepmelodraeven atland when
of electronic properties
newspapers. abandon to
predict
owners the of
daily
coverage possible, on
other medium
systematic
reporting
policing, papers
and other relevant civic news, it is likely that members of todays cyber-oriented children the liberal the are past, journals generation born. local like alternative EXTRA!, news bought up political and and as critics In weeklies The for and the not their The only seen most communities Progressive local in source their alternavigorous press. had Nation, daily
do nationally.
In the 1960s,
these weeklies
antiestablishment
nearby metropolitan dailies. tive weeklies had been ally without their past supporters tory $11 Many of the
have
revenues
annual single
recombinant
molecules,
National the
Geographic circulaAugust
Illustrated to and
Illustrated for
continued
1999, when Disney sold its Fairchild group to Cond Nast, it further magazine Cond among and conglomerTime Warner, Hearst.
concentrated ates,
networks-ABC, CBS most percent percent the and most of of all top the are
audiences
twenty-five older,
stations.
network eighteen
audiences youth
of advertising
market,
thirty-four, apt to
panded to those as ancient as forty-nine years old. listeners spend the share years, has and There work, older shares the 67 also three, network percent, cable are ABC, owned broadcasters the six of audience deepened younger (Warner increase systems cable. Comcast, of
most money.
with most of the energy fighting networks: and and NBC. operators by CBS,
loss being gained by cable. This of broadNetthe for of for WB The viewers. Paramount plus fight their Brothers), fuels have top and the
heightened now
and
Fox, UPN
(United
Viacom),
of a total TV audience that shrank by 9 percent in the season. million radio The by ten largest connected have 42 cable to households The cable The
three-quarters Cox.
followed
Time
Warner,
broadcasters
percent
television
Though many of the young seem to prefer their computers, billion for Profits high, radio, for money none networks for local and of these media their affiliates how given are little ready to
TV ads abandon.
1999 would bring in almost $37 billion, $11 billion for cable, and $16 remain almost effort obscenely expend
especially
stations,
they
xxxiv /
or programming
overboard
Networks,
This is a business where if you are a birdbrain you have a thirty-fivemargin. broadcasters forty-to-sixty-percent margin. And you get it for free. . . . Advertising Before for the the 1999 football money Super game, radio the The Radio, most who hundreds television flows said has heard number for largest has of it lemming-like Fox, charge mainly a would to major had per sports the events. franchise for a is fithe NPR are
Bowl XXXIII,
commercials. Commercial dozen one last nanced National programs growing ual fixed reason by five why the years. Public during informal to become uniformly Public (but seven of of not of in has about to formulas throughout Broadcasting the only) day. radio by continue niggardly have their by more far In hundred country. doubled broadcasting addition, and there
of households
tuning
stations
Corporation
noncommercial
radio,
stations
their create
broadcast alternative networks stations. and radio and stations cause when Even content or the are heard the
networks
stations
individ-
broadcasters Noncommercial
mailing studio-quality to endure smaller to despite appropriaaudiences audiences lust after that than and octheir ofcomstations inis adsales fractional broadcasts
audiocassettes congressional tions. than can them. curs Though the Their in
suspicion,
noncommercial commercial enough to is the the that broadcasting contenders. fact that there
broadcasters, increased
commercial surveys
undoubtedly
important nonstereotyped,
superior some
seldom most
mainstream of average
noncommercial
audience elderly
medium, industry By
of money, though less than before the motion picture per capita. 1999,
advent
thirty-three
Cineplex, Carmike, are now Brothers 20th-Century billion followed 1999 have sales not have and scenes. been were and other a by movies),
production Disney,
(paramount), makes
20th-Century United
MGM.
there added
26,000
multi-screen
movie
revenues
a total
showings rentals mention in theater in in tied pigs. medium, The U.S. and
Blockbuster media
drinks
deliberately
saleable
scripts timing
created a crisis
CD-ROMs, control
another percent
media.
markets),
Warner, the
commercial
and at the
bank.
of parents, pro-
sponsored
the Benton
Foundation
commercials
childrens
television. American of two hours is school. Medical and Association watch also usual and the never so compared major because in the little Stanford in Whole the said annual with targets there the seventeen are than of has
12,000
parents
others
generation. Center the adult the tor, ciation viewing tance the atrics viewed Video come of of has an game ever
William Damon,
cohort of kids
attuned
neighborhoods educaAssoof And Pedihave alone. beanatomnot . . the . accepof will have
are adultless as single or both parents work during the day or much of Television of a on on increasingly voyeur, is commission television attitudes By age national parent. levels instructor, baby-sitter-and substitute absolutely are and 18, acts In
report
violence
There
doubt that higher with aggressive young on films violence ages, to the is music
correlated increased
Committee
of the the of
average
television
cartoons, movies,
ically precise murders, deaths only cause remediable quickly complex ing sion real ads to at and
the number
problems, because
aggressor two
Accord-
Academy, interactions.
under
development billion
heavily spent
human
Nevertheless, directed
commercials
children.
Books-Grandfather
In the age for have of foundation increases all
of
the mass
Them
Internet, more media,
All
for in more alive, recent than 2,300 years the sales remain though years. annual
books, modest
become
revenues. Between
as image-
1982
1997, book sales rose from average of less had most revenues are
1.7 billion to 2.2 almost 80 $2 by sales of, two three permillion far in of the the the
of the profits;
a year each. book of publishers all Bertelsmann, book Thus and Viacom Corp. (owner largest world, other firms News worlds magazines, radio service publisher publishing Crown, Dell, merged lished and theon none history, ers they and With while books Press, in has in with firms, are Corp third English-language Disney, and News in
followed
Warner,
among
Simon based in
Schuster),
Bertelsmann in the
Germany is
Bertelsmanns
marketplace with
largest
substantial on-line
countries.
in the U.S.
Internet
provider that
purchasing
Anchor, of
Delacorte. number with of has shredded. the once as prestigious consolidated a book and small Pangiants, publishand and ancomhold emergence Medium of titles have each been
publishers
independent. process
Contracts eliminated
authors
canceled
Andre Schiffiin, of the three scientific still publish lack There nounced puter that equal models
former
director firms
since their or
leading book
published
of serious
translation.
serious books, but they lack the power to produce at a level that is access be four of to the competitive with the major firms, sales one machinery. Electronic of them three firms a and have can handheld ahead. global books,
promote books
could measures
turbulence and
electronic
one-half by
inches,
button. demonstrate the in had disproporwhat not just did that marketplace the case in Hersch its Brown the Shirts dominate
the public will read. They can decide what the public will not read. As mentioned mann, fully nied. into and had bers also sions lished The previously, its a Murdoch past China. Bertelssuccessor delooked resistance period, memand invapubwere in and with concealed When the suffering published of the a book, of in by multimedia Nazi he control, especially writer despite Hitlers Hitler could and not Germany, minimized Fischler of Nazi claim
previously
archives,
throughout
anti-Semitic
Without given
nearby a
countries. Swiss
Germany,
Bertelsmanns
published
magazine
ultimately
United
Nation.
Selling Books
Once a staid and genteel has the the business, become largest even a share it touchy of the now about more being than a called $26 serpent a as business, competitors and bookselling fight for with cut-price, cutthroat operation
billion eat-
book market in the United States. It is interlocked Internet that corporate fighting ing its own tail. In the melee peting of the Codys to sell business, Book of big
convoluted,
and the Internet comonce the mainstay owner of indepenindepenRoss, largest 1990,
books, Store in in
independent Berkeley,
bookstores, one
are now
the country,
says
dent stores like his The and Walden bookstore, ternet bookselling and Books, followed
accounted for 32 percent of all national book sales, world has seen supplanted by the B. by ever Dalton country. to be
Crown the
followed largest in
followed by Barnes & Noble, the biggest second spasm by the appearance of an InAmazon.com claimed
a new
Amazon.com.
a list of three million titles and have it delivin price from cutting. the Barnes & York entered into link to way had by a 50 of to just this list. percent discount of 55 interest books percent in for stores on another Internet Noble Timess offered 50
ered in a few days by the U.S. Postal Service. percent list. discounts books Times New best-seller agree-
a financial
ment with Barnes & Noble. It agreed to place after each review in the papers This Barnes sales fered Barnes bookseller, Wal-Mart, in New York favored version the a book site, on bamesandnoble.com. order also time from made also one The a ofreviewed. consumer Internet discounts paid be the instant Times 4.5 Borders for supplier (with a
Microsofts
Times million
$200
Internet largest
Books-a-Million,
countrys
bricks-and-mortar
bricks-and-mortar Times
communities), best-sellers.
discount
agencies
on television
communities. technological Berkeley, station Radio In van form his Dunifer, California, Free
disobedience.
assembled
low-power
nearby He the of in to
ley. When the FCC warned Dunifer, locations. a federal years, stations range offense.
without
lawyer noted
twenty-eight
permitted
Canada, issued
neighborhoods
individual licenses,
communities.
typically
50,000-watt
xl
FCC
powerful
stations
or grant pirate, perhaps country. the rules tile dent FCC The for On surgeons
Dunifers
prosecution unlicensed, as
low-powered, their such effect. have precise stations. In with been 1999,
stations,
lower-powered by
stations
1,000-watt decades
complaints of the
educators, pervasive
and even a plea from the presitelevision of full-page ads with the large-
type heading: Parents . . . Grandparents . . . Families . . . This is for YOU-TV IS LEADING CHILDREN DOWN A MORAL SEWER. . . HOW You and I Can Stop It. The sponsor of the ad was listed as the Parents Television There major views. ucation, and to racy, tank rely dio The nia, of further in data heavily. Q&As performs like-minded media center-to-right inadequacies in limit San and A for a Council, has news politics, include, in based also been and with among order to and in Los an an many which alert that viewing. performs relations of in on Angeles. rebellion. heavily absence the the to Center total As noted of for earlier, on other Edlaws attempt of Accuthink outlets Alauare concentrated or Media that the Public news like using ideological almost to others, the
commentary
progressive
Organizations
attempting
correct monitors public The analyses which Colorado, the based by The in show
imbalance
regulations and
needs
children
serious
adult
conservative
interview country
ternative
Radio,
rebroadcast
International
forming Cultural
worldwide Environment
more media
academics,
constant conservative
appropriations
Congress drastic
commercial
shrinkage Booksellers
of competition with big site, Booksense, whose years. once quiet its two by few world own large of to serve has
American
Association
web
independent to 3,300
stores. The ABA hopes this move will stop or reverse the loss of independent last cles stores, number gone scholarly in firms, several The has creases Kluwer, costs (and to 30
scientific to
experienced and a
rebellion Dutch
reaction
Reed Elsevier companies. After university drastically. for instances than and at the it
other to in
similar
consolidated
forced faculties),
example, of in a
doubled
$15,000 a year. It is these articles and books that lie at the heart of uniand ability scientists University in to keep current Michael in 1986 developments Rosenzweig, and his wife, their fields. of Arischolarly $8,000 a rebellion price
sociologist
Carole, its
year. Key to the authority of any the with a the from Rosenzweigs an annual the hundred country, former Research, More prestigious
scholarly journal is its board of edistarted own of Evolutionary $353, with the Ecolwhole of and the the
defected Yale,
Dr. Rosensome
joined,
including
like Harvard,
Columbia,
Publishing
Academic of
Resources original
programmers
operating
downloaded
commercially
sold
Can It Be Changed?
For litical past liances cannot largest pendent to rare merger. the last and decades, and Contrary work, supplier bookseller thirty corporate the years, government of agencies and the and Congress monopoly. market break up antitrust that the the by block it and The was have In allaw big indethe a been wedded to the free market, tolerance common reduce an most that it & an oxymoron when it describes poconglomeration remedy for excessive supposed to wisdom established an the intense Federal legal their that fact domi-
nation has been the Anti-Trust Act, which is mergers to when the competition. almost merge in present became Noble to were caused they a rare effective and on the most largest head corporate conventional
countrys Commission
of books
bookstores, considering
campaign to But
action plan.
victory. remedies fail contributor of CBS for congressional campaigns. entered the a declaration public White indusrecent a if and because telecommunications
political
interest,
Gores
Viacoms CBS
of money.
(Subsequent chap-
swift evolution by which the major mass to the has and These immense left harmful groups the and task media have still of content done growing protecting to and incon-
media in the United States power dividual the of major from and
consumers
citizen for
service to keep the public informed and to keep alive a better media world.
$1.4 billion a year is million By is be far, a an they with every lobbyists and to which issues and of the
down most
lobbyists
there
drastic
curtailment
money
newspapers
editorially
dramatic an
each member
of Congress
of financial
entity with a clear stake behind-the-scenes evidence already and initiative votes a
in the of most
outcome. This would the countrys between An as a laws. big that grassparties in and Senate aroused
make it explicit if private money is in danger of prevailing and help illuinsidious, is political make the buying that angers The from the convincing relationship voters. began
difference.
transformed with
powerful
industry. when
Congress members Democrats public The media. and stopped table, growing dismissal offers without mation The
House
rebelling.
expresses two or
public
are
hemorrhaging formerly
considered
others
are of
bizarre
Ralph
above. corporate of the the sustain reforms responsible continue inforrelevant American
power
election
between
swift-and-overconfident
slow-but-steady first.
helps
Notes
The New York Times was used extensively as a source because it is regarded as the countrys most authoritative and widespread source of foreign and domestic news and because hundreds of client papers throughout the country use its news service. Spot checks of other papers showed that most did far less than the Times. So major media failures or inadequacies in reporting public information needed for properly informed voters throughout the country is, if anything, understated. Important lapses or inadequate accounts frequently are attributed to the Times for the same reason, though such negative judgments are by no means limited to the Times. Note: earlier editions of The Statistical Abstract of the United States indexed data by page number, but more recent editions index by table number.
Six and
The top six firms. wysiwyg://428/http://www.cjr.org/owners/ (Cjr=Columbia Journalism Review); New York Times, 8 September 1999, 1 Symbolically, the largest. http://cgi.pathfinder.com/fortune/global500/500 list2.html and New York Times, 16 July 1999, 1. The power and influence. New York Times, 29 February 1996, 3. News reporting and commentary. 1999 Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, Question ID: USMS. 99 Feb R20.022; EXTRA!, July/August 1997, 24. But with each passing. University of California Berkeley Wellness Letter, June 1999, 8. Internet capabilities have. College English, May 1999, 532; National Writers Union Hearsay, November 1998, 4. The Internets growth and Business Week, 17 May 1999, 108. Nevertheless, despite their. New York Times, 9 July 1999, 13; American Journalism Review, March 1999, 28; and Death of Print, Columbia Journalism Review, January/February 1999, 56. The U.S. Postal. New York Times, 20 February 1999, A-15, and 27 May 1999, B-I; 10 July 1999, B-I. The new medium marches. New York Times, 10 July 1999, B-I. By mid-1999. San Francisco Chronicle, 8 July 1999, B-1; Hoover's Online: Internet/Online, wysiwyg://700http://hovweb.hoovers.com, 2. The 35 percent.
xiv xiv xv
xix
xx xxi xxii xxii xxiii xxiii xxiv xxiv xxiv xxiv xxv xxvi xxvi xxvi xxvii xxviii
In the midst. Statement confirmed by personal call to an editor of National Enquirer; 6 April 1999. The media sex obsession. The Nation, 5 February 1996, ZS; Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 1999,35. The prolonged fixation. Columbia Journalism Review July/August, 1998, 13. The dramatic landmark. Columbia Journalism Review January/February 20; American Journalism Review, October 1997, 13. Nevertheless. Los Angeles Times, 4 November 1999, C-1 The Separation represents. Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1999, 28. The contamination spread. New York Times, 6 September 1999, C-6. Robert Heilbroner, a. Robert Heilbroner, The Devil Words: Deficit, Center for Democratic Values, 1997. Debt and 1998,
xxxii
xxxii xxxii
xxxiii
xxxiii
xlii