Wake Up Sheeple! Be the Media

Eighteenth century American patriot-propagandist, Thomas Paine, warned that if the majority of the people were denied the truth, it was time “to storm the Bastille of words.”  Much like in 18th century France, people have to be pushed to their absolute limit before they will rebel en masse; but, as I peruse the 100+ channels on my television, I wonder why folks aren't rioting in the streets, burning their remote controls and TV Guides. We've been conditioned. It's been a long time coming.

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 about 5.  Rupert Murdoch has predicted that there will ultimately be just three global media giants. His News Corp media conglomerate, among the most powerful corporations on the planet, owns more than 175 other newspapers as well as the Fox Television network, 21st Century Fox film studios, several satellite networks, MySpace.com, HarperCollins, and much more. Not to be outdone by Citizen Kane, Mr. Murdoch is reputed to use his media holdings to advance his private and political agendas. After the announcement of the five billion dollar purchase of The Wall Street Journal last year, he told the NY Times that in order for the WSJ to remain editorially independent, it needed to make 'healthy profits'. "The first road to freedom, is viability." he added.
 
Another Australian, acclaimed filmmaker, journalist and muckraker, John Pilger, says that "liberal democracy is moving toward a form of corporate dictatorship...and the media must not be allowed to be its façade, but itself made into a popular, burning issue, and subjected to direct action.” Citing that most sources of the main political stories—domestic and foreign— are dominated by government and other established interests, he further asserts that “media's supposed impartiality is suspended whenever the establishment is under threat...Its clichéd language is designed to normalize the unthinkable.”

The distribution of information is essential and can no longer be left exclusively to industrial titans like Murdoch and his ilk. We can take the "big" out of "media" by becoming it. Instead of spending our time in front of the TV being numbed and brainwashed, we've got to become independent thinkers again and teach our kids and others to think for themselves too. When broadcasts about impending nuclear war are juxtaposed with commercials for Burger King, how sane is our platform of discourse anyway?
 
Emblazon your message on banners and t-shirts; mass email it via the internet; print it out on pamphlets or business cards to distribute; visit the vast array of alternative news websites and make a short list of favorites that you deem to be trustworthy. Subscribe to small, independently published newspapers and magazines. Streamline and support independent radio shows. The emails and calls from other listeners will connect you to a like-minded community that shares your concerns and frustrations and give you some comic relief.

Propaganda seeps into everyone’s psyche – American or not, right or left, secular or God-fearing. There is a huge difference between what all citizens of the world want to believe about the greatness of their respective countries and the disturbing realities. Ultimately, our own actions -- and inaction -- are what are at issue.

Occasionally, one does stumble upon a shread of truth in mainstream media, however, as was the case when my “local news”  here in France, reported on a flock of sheep, that, when panicked by a wolf, ran en masse, head first off a nearby cliff. Only a handful survived. Feeling both sad and amused, I stared at the woolly balls of dead livestock being bulldozed away, wondering how any living creature could be so helpless and dumb? It was an epiphany.

When you turn off your TV  tonight, take a long, hard look at the reflection staring back at you from the blacked screen and consider these words from Einstein: “The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”  Change is possible if people’s silence can be broken. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. Be the media.

Mary Jo Delaney