Nexus - 1102 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Channel, Fox Movie Channel, etc., as well as F/X and The National Geographic Channel), magazines such as The Weekly Standard, Inside Out and TV Guide, newspapers such as the New York Post in the US, 22 papers in Australia and nine in England including the Times, the Sunday Times and the Sun, as well as the publishing houses HarperCollins and Regan Books—is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch has used his media power to nuzzle up to some of the most influential leaders of recent history, including Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. Or, rather, they have nuzzled up to him. In the case of Tony Blair, in exchange for the support and endorsement of Blair in Murdoch's publications during his campaign, Blair, once elected, was able to change British policy on media ownership to Murdoch's favour. In fact, Murdoch himself has been quoted as saying, "When you are the monopoly supplier, you are inclined to dictate". (Williams, 2000; "News Corporation", 2003; Jhally, 1997) what you want about it—it's not cowardly." Less than a week later, his show was cancelled. (Armstrong, 2001, September 20, 27; "Maher tapes final episode...", USA Today, 2002, June 29; Hirsen, 2002, March 15) 52) During a March 10, 2003 concert in London, the Dixie Chicks' lead singer, Natalie Maines, told her audience: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas!" As a result, there have been many organised boy- cotts across the nation. Clear Channel, the largest owner of radio stations in the US (more than 1,200), pulled the Dixie Chicks from their stations’ play lists. Clear Channel is also involved with organising grassroots demonstrations in favour of the war and against anti-war voices. The company's Vice Chair, Tom Hicks, is a member of the Bush Pioneer Club for elite—and very gener- ous—campaign contributors, and was once the Regent of the University of Texas. During that time, he "was responsible for granting endowment management contracts of the newly created [under legislation signed by then Governor George W. Bush] UT Investment Management Co. (UTIMCO). The contracts were given to firms politically connected to both Hicks and Bush, including the Carlyle Group—a firm which has the first President Bush on the payroll..." Along with the 1,200+ radio stations, Clear Channel also owns 36 television stations and 41 amphitheatres, and annually puts on more than 26,000 stage shows including concerts, Broadway pro- ductions, touring productions, and sports and motor events. (Ali, 2003; Fitzgerald, 2003; "Corrected", 2003; Nichols & McChesney, 2003; "Radio ga ga", 2003; Clear Channel, 2003) 45) During the first Gulf War, each of the big three networks had profound financial ties to the war. ABC was owned by Capitol Cities (which is now owned by The Walt Disney Company), whose chair was on the board of directors of Texaco Oil. CBS, at the time owned by Westinghouse, though now owned by Viacom, also owned the RAND Corporation and the Honeywell Corporation, both of which were and are major defence contrac- tors and stood to make a great deal of money out of the war. NBC was—and still is—"wholly owned" by General Electric, which had a $2 billion weapons contract with the US military, making both the Tomahawk and the staggeringly unsuccessful Patriot missiles, and it was estimated they'd made hundreds of millions more with the rebuilding of Kuwait after the war. Also, the Kuwaiti royal family were major GE stockholders. General Electric CEO John Welch reportedly once told NBC President Lawrence Grossman, "Remember, you work for GE". (Naureckas, 1991; Williams, 2000; "Corporate Info", 2003; Jhally, 1997) PART IV: Journalism and the Threat to the First Amendment Three hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets. Nan. n Re 105) In 1970, Peter Dale Scott, a professor of English at UC ‘the Berkeley, published The War Conspiracy, a scathing investigation (> 6 WORLD | PAP FY Aro \, F ‘as IT'S | SWEET Ve ir EPitiem tenor 47) "The simple fact is that in most traditional newsrooms the culture of journalism is to determine the basic nature of a story before assembling all, or even most of, the facts. Just as many theorists develop a working hypothesis before col- lecting the data, many journalists are used to formulating the angle, or frame, of a story before they interview anyone, read a document, or collect any other facts. Sometimes they are more apt to follow the adage, 'Never let the facts get in the way of a good story'.". Why is this? There are many reasons, but a major one continues to be that "the changing economic structure of the television networks has eroded é the[ir] newsroom values... Where once a culture committed to great journalism flourished, a culture dominated by MBAs and financial accountability has taken its place. Accountability to shareholders [to make money] has replaced accountability to democracy and the citizens it —— serves." le (Pavlik, "News framing and new media", 2001, pp. 312-314) he \ Baily HERALD ti-s® 51) Think we have free speech in this country? Not if you're on television. Just ask Bill Maher. Soon after the September 11 attacks, Maher, in response to the labelling of the hijackers as cowards, said on his late night ABC pro- gram Politically Incorrect: "We have been the cowards lob- bing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's coward- ly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say ee 2 NEXUS #15 — Napoleon Bonaparte FEBRUARY — MARCH 2004 www.nexusmagazine.com