J.P. Morgan interests took control of the United States media industry: "In March, 1852, the J.P. Morgan ... got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press.... They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers... An agreement was reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished for each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies, and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interests of the purchasers."
- U.S. Congressman Oscar Callaway, 1917
And now its a lot worst...
In 2004, Bagdikian's revised and expanded book, The New Media Monopoly, shows that only 5 huge corporations -- Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) -- now control most of the media industry in the U.S. While General Electric's NBC is a close sixth.
Many Americans still insist or persist in believing that we have a free press, while getting most of their news from state or corporate controlled television, under the misconception that reporters are meant to serve the public. Reporters are paid employees and serve the media owners -- soulless corporations -- sprawling corporations, with interlocking directorates and government ties.
[Click on links below to see the massive contents of these consortiums.]
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation/Fox,
The New York Times/Weekly Standard,
Major networks are primarily controlled by giant corporations that are obligated by law, to put the profits of their investors ahead of all other considerations which are often in conflict with the practice of responsible journalism. This concentration of ownership and power reduces the diversity of media voices, as news falls into the hands of large conglomerates with holdings in many industries that interferes in newsgathering, because of conflicts of interest.
*** View interlocking Media Directorates ***
Media corporations share members of the board of directors with a variety of other large corporations including banks, investment companies, defense industries, oil companies, health care, pharmaceutical, and technology companies. However thanks to the politicians, the federal government deregulated the media and communication industries -- they now work to advance the causes of global elitists and the government's agenda.
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