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Bourgeois media is means of communication (usually news media) that is owned, controlled, or otherwise serves the interests of the bourgeois class.[1][2] Bourgeois media can be either state-owned, such as the UK's BBC or Qatar's Al Jazeera, or for-profit private media, such as AT&T-owned CNN. In common political discourse, the term "corporate media" is also used to specifically refer to means of communication controlled by for-profit corporations promoting their own interests.[3][4]
United States[edit | edit source]
In the United States, 6 corporations control 90% of all of broadcast media.[5] Individual billionaires also bankroll their own propaganda outlets, ranging from liberal Democrats like Bill Gates[6] to right-wing oil billionaires behind the anti-communist PragerU.[7][8] Additionally, one of the richest individuals in the world, Jeff Bezos (the owner of Amazon), owns and controls the Washington Post in order to promote his own financial interests.[9]
In recent times, the far-right section of the Statesian corporate-news has increasingly radicalized their content, often taking advantage of the desperate economic state among the petite-bourgeoisie, and spreading racist, xenophobic, and nativist propaganda, particularly in regards to undocumented immigration in the southern border of the USA, which many far-right news corporations, such as FOX, have used to spread white-supremacist conspiracy theories.[10]
Only 11% of North Americans trust television news, and only 16% trust newspapers.[11]
Support for war[edit | edit source]
As US General Smedly Butler said, war is a racket. The corporations that own the media are usually the beneficiaries of this racket, either directly through investments, or indirectly through the economic activity as a result of imperialist war.[12][13][14]
U.S. bourgeois media promoted the U.S. colonization of Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico in 1898. The New York Times denied that the 1945 nuclear bombing of Hiroshima caused dangerous levels of radiation. In the 1960s, Statesian media claimed that Vietnam attacked the United States in the Gulf of Tonkin. In the 1980s, U.S. media blamed the Sandinistas for war crimes committed by the CIA-backed Contras.[11] They completely ignored the 1992 war crimes tribunal against George Bush.[15] In 2003, they tried to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq by falsely claiming that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.[11]
Attacks against progressive candidates[edit | edit source]
Despite the fact that many "progressives" are merely social-democrats who do not challenge the capitalist system, they're still attacked by the corporate media for weakly threatening the control that corporations hold over society.[16][17][18]
Alternatives[edit | edit source]
See also[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Lenin (1917). Draft Resolution On Freedom Of The Press. [MIA]
- ↑ "The American Empire and its Media". Swiss Policy Research.
- ↑ Corporate Media: the Enemy of the People by Paul Street on CounterPunch on Aug 17, 2018
- ↑ After 20 Years of Failed War, Corporate Media Still Give Wars of Empire a Pass by Robin Andersen on CounterPunch
- ↑ Nickie Lousie (2020-09-18). "These 6 corporations control 90% of the media outlets in America. The illusion of choice and objectivity" techstartups.com.
- ↑ Alan Macleod (2021-11-15). "Revealed: Documents Show Bill Gates Has Given $319 Million to Media Outlets" Mintpress News.
- ↑ Claire Goforth (2019-10-25). "PragerU is conservatism for the youths—brought to you by old billionaires"
- ↑ "Right-Wing Views for Generation Z, Five Minutes at a Time".
- ↑ Alan Macleod (2021-06-18). "With Bezos at the Helm, Democracy Dies at the Washington Post Editorial Board" MintPress News. Archived from the original.
- ↑ Dan Kennedy (2021-4-15). "Tucker Carlson Is A White Supremacist. And He's Giving Fox Viewers Exactly What They Want." GBH.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Ben Norton (2022-07-30). "Polls show almost no one trusts U.S. media, after decades of war propaganda and lies" Multipolarista. Archived from the original on 2022-08-06. Retrieved 2022-08-07.
- ↑ The (im)proper meshing of the corporate media and the military-industrial complex
- ↑ Push for War Highlights Need for Independent Media
- ↑ Corporate Media Are Erasing US’s Long-Term Culpability for Afghanistan War on TruthOut
- ↑ Sara Flounders (2023-04-12). "Ramsey Clark, human rights fighter – 1927-2021" Workers World. Archived from the original on 2023-01-31. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
- ↑ Corporate media attacks Progressive candidates after Democratic Debate
- ↑ Bias Against Progressive Candidates Evident in Corporate Media Coverage of Democratic Primary
- ↑ The People vs. the Democratic Establishment: The Coming Attack on Progressive Candidates