[Zzlist-deux] Boot-licking Journalism

[zzlist-deux at lists.people-link.net]

A new posting -
Boot-licking Journalism   - from Zoltan Zigedy is available at:
http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/


If you do not wish to receive these notices, e-mail: *
zoltanzigedy at gmail.com <http://mc/compose?to=zoltanzigedy@gmail.com>*
with "unsubscribe" in the subject box.



 Growing up at the high-water marks of Cold War hysteria in the US led me
to a heightened skepticism of the independence and objectivity of the
media. We were made to believe myths that Communist government ownership
constituted a denial of freedom of the press while diverse private
ownership of the sources of information in the West guaranteed access to
the truth. Few of us reflected on the fact that the UK government media
monopoly, the BBC, seemed to present a more nuanced, tolerant, even sane
picture of current events than did our US lap-dog “free” press. At the same
time, the sharp move towards theocracy in the US-- “In God we Trust” on
currency and “Under God” affixed to the Inquisition-like pledge of
allegiance-- was met by a docile, compliant media.
 Any doubts that were voiced-- and few were at the time-- about the biases
of the press and electronic media were radically amplified when the Cold
War began to recede, a measure of sanity returned, and revelations exposed
the corruption and opportunism of most of the media's journalistic stars
and watchdogs. Truly, it was one the most embarrassing chapters in the
fable of US press freedom. Of course the myth remained intact thanks to the
major media's concerted effort to restrict the truth to the marginal
footnotes of historical research and the fringe media.
 Some liberal commentators concede the horrors of the past, but insist that
press freedom rebounded, especially after the end of the Cold War. Nothing
could be further from the truth. Today's media is as servile to government
and capital as at any time in US history. The concentration of media
corporations coupled with the centrality of profitability and the narrow
band of dissent offered by the two-party system result in a uniformity and
conformity in the media that would be the envy of any banana republic.
*To read the rest of the article, please go to*:
http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.people-link.net/pipermail/zzlist-deux/attachments/20140603/b3e2db0d/attachment.html>