Nexus - 1102 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

directed by Tim Matheson (Otter from Animal House), written by Roger Towne (who wrote the screenplay for The Natural) and produced by David Madden and Robert W. Cort (who is, himself, a former CIA official), it was made directly for Showtime, a sub- sidiary of AOL Time Warner, the world's largest media corpora- tion... In 2001, three new TV series (The Agency, Alias, and 24) and seven films (including Bad Company, The Bourne Identity and The Sum of All Fears) were made with the CIA's approval. (Loeb, 1999; Campbell, 2001, September 6; Patterson, 2001) support for the US's ‘war on terror’. This latest announcement raises grave concerns that, far from being an honest effort to explain US policy, the OSI may be a profoundly undemocratic program devoted to spreading disinformation and misleading the public, both at home and abroad... The government is barred by law from propagandizing within the US, but the OSI's new plan will likely lead to disinformation planted in foreign news reports being picked up by US news outlets". ("Media Advisory: Pentagon propaganda plan...", 2002) 25) Hollywood filmmakers and the Pentagon have a long history PART Il: Corporate Media and Content Control of cooperation. The Pentagon sees the film industry as an Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own important part of public relations. According to a recently one. released memo, it said that "military depictions have become — A. J. Liebling more of a 'commercial' for us"—which explains the Air Force's eagerness to be a part of the shortlived 2002 CBS reality series, 37) Before he retired, AOL Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin told American Fighter Pilots, which followed three men as they MSNBC that his company's Internet division had already helped trained to fly F-15s; its executive producers were Tony Scott terror investigators, "apparently providing access to email traffic". (director of Top Gun) and his brother, Ridley Scott (director of According to Jeff Chester, Executive Director of the Center for Black Hawk Down). Due to the enormous Digital Democracy, "there's an implicit quid expense of military equipment, it makes pro quo here...the industry seems to be financial sense for a filmmaker to get saying to the administration, 'we're patriotic, military cooperation. However, this often we're supporting the war...now free us from entails the altering of scripts to fit the needs In the 1950s, the constraints'’.". Although that may or may not and desires of the Pentagon (i.e., military majority of the be true, on June 2, 2003, the FCC voted 3-2 and government personnel are to be depicted . . to relax the rules on media ownership. in more positive and heroic ways, American American mass media (Roberts, 2002; Kirkpatrick, 2003) ideologies are reinforced and not criticised, A A A etc.). For example: (i.e., TV, radio, film, 40) After World War II, Allied forces «In GoldenEye (1995), "the original script magazines, book restricted media concentration in occupied had a US Navy admiral betraying state ublishers advertisin Germany and Japan "because they noted that secrets, but this was changed to make the p 3 g such concentration promoted anti- traitor a member of the French Navy". agencies, newspapers, democratic, even fascist, political cultures". ¢ Despite having made changes to In the 1950s, the majority of the characters in Independence Day (1996), etc.) were owned by American mass media (i.e., television the Department of Defense refused help more than 1 5500 stations, radio stations, film studios, corporations. because "the military appears impotent magazine publishers, newspaper and/or inept; all advances in stopping publishers, book publishers, advertising aliens are the result of actions by agencies, etc.) were owned by more civilians". than 1,500 corporations. By 1981, they * Other films that received assistance were owned by fewer then fifty. from the Pentagon are: Air Force One Today, that number is six: AOL Time (1997), A Few Good Men (1992), Warner, The Walt Disney Company, Armageddon (1998), The Hunt for Red Bertelsmann, Viacom, News October (1990), Pearl Harbor (2001), Corporation and Vivendi Universal— Patriot Games (1992), Windtalkers with Sony, Liberty Media Corporation (2002), Hamburger Hill (1987), The and General Electric close behind. American President (1995), Behind In our current electoral process, Enemy Lines (2001), Apollo 13 (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies "reaching audiences has become the substitute for what used to be (1997), and A Time to Kill (1996). called 'garnering constituencies’. Just as advertisers sell products ¢ Some films that were denied assistance include: Apocalypse to audiences, political consultants market candidates to those Now (1979), Catch-22 (1970), Dr Strangelove (1964), Full Metal same audiences. In contemporary media-driven elections, pro- Jacket (1987), The Last Detail (1973), Lone Star (1996), Mars gram, advertising and film audiences become targeted markets of Today, that number is six. Attacks! (1996), Platoon (1986), and The Thin Red Line (1998). voters. In the larger sense, citizens are transmuted into con- (Campbell, 2001, August 29; Weiss, 2002) sumers, connecting with a media product instead of a political platform". 28) On February 19, 2002, the New York Times reported that the (McChesney, 2000, p. 61; Nichols & McChesney, 2000, p. 28; Pentagon's Office of Strategic Influence (OSI) was "developing Bagdikian, 2000, pp. 21-22; Andersen, 2000, p. 251; Taylor, plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign 2002) PART Il: Corporate Media and Content Control Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one. — A. J. Liebling In the 1950s, the majority of the American mass media (i.e., TV, radio, film, magazines, book publishers, advertising agencies, newspapers, etc.) were owned by more than 1,500 corporations. Today, that number is six. 28) On February 19, 2002, the New York Times reported that the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Influence (OSI) was "developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations in an effort to influence public sentiment and policy-makers in both friendly and unfriendly countries". The OSI was created just after 9/11 "to publicize the US government's perspective in Islamic countries and to generate 43) News Corporation, the fifth largest media corporation in the world—owner of 20th Century Fox, Fox Television Broadcasting Corp. (including all subsequent Fox channels such as Fox Sports 14 = NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com FEBRUARY — MARCH 2004