2007-08-08 The Unseen Lies: Journalism As Propaganda

2007-08-08 John Pilger The Greanville Journal \journalism\mainstream media\censorship\American dishonor\Vietnam War\media consolidation http://www.bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=137 The Unseen Lies: Journalism As Propaganda The Unseen Lies: Journalism As Propaganda  Edward Bernays, the so-called father of public relations, wrote about an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. He was referring to journalism, the media. That was almost 80 years ago, not long after corporate journalism was invented. It is a history few journalist talk about or know about, and it began with the arrival of corporate advertising. As the new corporations began taking over the press, something called “professional journalism” was invented. To attract big advertisers, the new corporate press had to appear respectable, pillars of the establishment-objective, impartial, balanced. The first schools of journalism were set up, and a mythology of liberal neutrality was spun around the professional journalist. The right to freedom of expression was associated with the new media and with the great corporations, and the whole thing was, as Robert McChesney put it so well, “entirely bogus”. For what the public did not know was that in order to be professional, journalists had to ensure that news and opinion were dominated by official sources, and that has not changed. This is a transcript of a talk given by John Pilger at the Socialism 2007 conference in Chicago; there is also a video of Pilger giving this talk, but I can't seem to find it just at the moment. &ldquo;In 1983 the principle global media was owned by 50 corporations, most of them American. In 2002 this had fallen to just 9 corporations. Today it is probably about 5. Rupert Murdoch has predicted that there will be just three global media giants, and his company will be one of them.&rdquo;   