Corporate media

mainstream, propagandacommercial

Corporate media  link () ISGP
Abbreviation	CCM
Type	commercial
The corporate media refers to itself as 'mainstream' in an effort to marginalize so-called "alternative" media. While some instances (e.g. BBC) are not strictly commercial, all the corporate media is hierarchically structured, so a very small number of editors can censor or modify its output.

Corporate/commercially controlled media (CCM), also termed big media, legacy media, old media or (misleadingly) mainstream media (MSM) is a set of corporations whose main output will be familiar to most, i.e. ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times etc. Their censorship, mendacity, control by the deep state (state-corporate media) and refusal to go near third rail topics are primary reasons that this website was set up.

Official Narrative

Echoing the official narrative of its longer established bedfellows, Wikipedia refers to the large news conglomerates with their preferred self-description, the "corporate media" (MSM). As of 2017, the Wikipedia page had lead for some years with a reference to a 1997 article by Noam Chomsky, stating that "Mainstream Media" (MSM) "both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought". This is an uncomfortable fit with a September 2016 poll finding that found only 32% of US adults trusting big media "to report the news fully, accurately and fairly."

Problems

The Wikipedia page itself refers to the massive media consolidation in the US (though Wikipedia editors have removed details of its extent). Considering that corporate media has a hierarchical structure this renders them easily controllable, rendering the idea of big media as "reflective" of public opinion as highly suspect. Many perceive it as little more than a system of control and containment of the population. Since the news agenda is dictated by a very small number of very rich individuals, it has been suggested that the phrase "mainstream" would be more accurate if replaced by a label which respected the plutocratic agenda it promotes. On Wikispooks, the term CCM (Commercially/Corporate Controlled Media) is preferred. {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Corporate media |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Carolina Vásquez Araya|+sep=, |Has text=“The way in which the news function has been transformed into a strategic arm of global economic power has evolved until it has become part of the landscape. What was once an exercise in risk-taking, confrontation and a useful tool for society now seems to have taken the opposite side by manipulating and concealing truths that, if they were in the public domain, would be capable of turning the most powerful topsy-turvy. What is striking, however, is the cynicism with which the major news networks show their contempt for the humanitarian tragedies ravaging the planet, and how their content is accepted as absolute truth. [...] The incessant pressures to silence the truth and conceal state crimes are not only a thing of Third World countries; we see it in the big international networks, condoning spurious decisions of the great powers and turning their aggressions into an example of democratic virtues. Journalism today is going through the greatest credibility crisis in its history.” |Is about=Corporate media,|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=29 October 2022 |Sourced from= |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName= |Has sourceURL=https://web.archive.org/web/20221029002549/https://www.pressenza.com/2022/10/everything-in-its-place/

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“The way in which the news function has been transformed into a strategic arm of global economic power has evolved until it has become part of the landscape. What was once an exercise in risk-taking, confrontation and a useful tool for society now seems to have taken the opposite side by manipulating and concealing truths that, if they were in the public domain, would be capable of turning the most powerful topsy-turvy. What is striking, however, is the cynicism with which the major news networks show their contempt for the humanitarian tragedies ravaging the planet, and how their content is accepted as absolute truth. [...] The incessant pressures to silence the truth and conceal state crimes are not only a thing of Third World countries; we see it in the big international networks, condoning spurious decisions of the great powers and turning their aggressions into an example of democratic virtues. Journalism today is going through the greatest credibility crisis in its history.”
Carolina Vásquez Araya (29 October 2022) 

{{#subobject: |Has superobject=Corporate media |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Barrett Brown|+sep=, |Has text=“We have the end result of a press system that was never designed by earnest technocrat-kings to achieve some high-minded civic end, but that instead grew piecemeal to serve the desired and self-delusions of both its customers and its practitioners. It is an industry comprised largely of poorly compensated, job-insecure functionaries who must produce a degree of public view, and who must do so with limited time, subject to the whims of editors, and within an economic framework that presents media professionals with a choice: either reward the salacious interests and childlike attention spans of a large part of the public, or risk everything in an appeal to that virtuous minority who care about the truth above all and are emotionally and intellectually equipped to understand it.” |Is about=Corporate media,|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=09 July 2024 |Sourced from= |Has sourceDetails=My Glorious Defeats, 2024, Hardcover, page 138 |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName= |Has sourceURL=

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“We have the end result of a press system that was never designed by earnest technocrat-kings to achieve some high-minded civic end, but that instead grew piecemeal to serve the desired and self-delusions of both its customers and its practitioners. It is an industry comprised largely of poorly compensated, job-insecure functionaries who must produce a degree of public view, and who must do so with limited time, subject to the whims of editors, and within an economic framework that presents media professionals with a choice: either reward the salacious interests and childlike attention spans of a large part of the public, or risk everything in an appeal to that virtuous minority who care about the truth above all and are emotionally and intellectually equipped to understand it.”
Barrett Brown (09 July 2024) 

Deep state control

Full article: Corporate media/Deep state control

Use of corporate media to control the narrative (or to censor third rail topics is of major importance to deep states

Use of corporate media to control the narrative (or to censor third rail topics is of major importance to deep states

A lot of topics such as popular culture, celebrities etc. are of only marginal interest to deep state forces. On those which are of interest, a range of of measures combine to give more or less (generally more) effective control over what is published. The formal hierarchy of editor control is only the most obvious of a whole suite of methods to regulate the output of the corporate media. The net result is that certain established official narratives are promoted - as are those who think in these terms and can naturally write convincingly about them; conversely, those who are set on expressing alternative evidence or opinions find their careers as professional journalists short-lived. Although so pervasive as to be almost universal, this deep control goes unnoticed by many in the profession, whose reporting remains so far from matters of interest to the deep state that is remains outside their experience.

Mendacity

Full article: Corporate media/Mendacity

File:Ccm-piss-on-us.jpg

Corporate media attempt to maintain plausible deniability as a fallback position in case their lies, whether of omission of commission, or exposed later. The 1995 case of Steve Wilson and Jane Akre clarified an important point, although it was not widely reported in US at the time. The couple were fired when they refused to tailor their investigation into RBGH to suit Monsanto's wishes. Ruling on their case, a Florida Court of Appeals unanimously agreed that their employer could demand that they lie since there is no rule against distorting or falsifying the news in the United States. An uncertain but large proportion (perhaps >50%) of TV news footage in USA is in fact VNRs (video news releases) produced by third party corporations, as a kind of stealth advertising that masquerades as news.

Loss of confidence

File:2022 commentary on US Deep State control of the media.jpg

A 2022 commentary on corporate media support of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

The US public no longer has much faith in corporate media; the proportion of Americans expressing a “great deal of confidence” in the press has fallen from 28% in 1976 to just 8% in 2016. This trend may have inspired the "fake news website" campaign of late 2016 which blewback into the popularity of the phrase "fake news", which continues to inspire people to cross check media sources, further undermining faith in sources which are mendacious.

Censorship

Full article: Corporate media/Censorship

File:Reddit Censorship.jpg

Daniel Ellsberg says that the White House has ordered the press not to cover the revelations of Sibel Edmonds: {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Corporate media |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Daniel Ellsberg|+sep=, |Has text=“I am confident that there is conversation inside the Government as to ‘How do we deal with Sibel [Edmonds]? The first line of defense is to ensure that she doesn’t get into the [corporate] media. I think any outlet that thought of using her materials would go to to the government and they would be told “don’t touch this...”” |Is about=Corporate media,Corporate media/Censorship, Sibel Edmonds|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=2014 |Sourced from=Global research |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=Global research |Has sourceURL=http://www.globalresearch.ca/fbi-whistleblower-pentagon-cia-nato-and-mi6-were-masterminds-behind-911/5401046

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“I am confident that there is conversation inside the Government as to ‘How do we deal with Sibel [Edmonds]? The first line of defense is to ensure that she doesn’t get into the [corporate] media. I think any outlet that thought of using her materials would go to to the government and they would be told “don’t touch this...””
Daniel Ellsberg (2014) 

Internet censorship is of necessity more complex and varied where many users can post. Covert censorship is generally preferred, but sometimes overt censorship is resorted to. Wikipedia has its own censorship practices. Reddit is subject to censorship and control. In November 2016 Reddit banned a group which was investigating top level pedophilia in US society to prevent a "witch hunt". The group continued their investigate at voat.co, an alternative platform not owned by Conde Nast. The group has compiled a list of dozens of corporate media outlets which removed related content.

Third rail topics

Full article: Third rail topic

The sudden about face of the UK's best selling newspaper, the Sunday Times as regards Sibel Edmonds could be likened to that of the San Jose Mercury News after Gary Webb revealed the CIA's deep involvement in drug trafficking. Both papers, after initially carrying out their own research to verify the information, backed their source's extraordinary revelations. Both however sudden reversed their policy without providing an explanation. {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Corporate media |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=An unnamed "lead reporter" on Edwards' series at the Sunday Times.|+sep=, |Has text=“[The] investigation based on Edmonds’ information was supposed to have four parts, but was inexplicably dropped. “The story was pulled half-way, suddenly, without any warning”, the journalist said. “I wasn’t party to the editorial decision to drop the story, but there was a belief in the office amongst several journalists who were part of the Insight investigative unit that the decision was made under pressure from the U.S. State Department, because the story might cause a diplomatic incident... The way the story was dropped was unusual, but the belief amongst my colleagues this happened under political pressure is plausible.” He cryptically described an “editorial mechanism, linked to the paper but not formally part of it, which could however exert control on stories when necessary, linked to certain interests.” When asked which interests, the journalist said, “I can’t say. I can’t talk about that.”” |Is about=Corporate media,|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=January 2008 |Sourced from=Counterpunch |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=Counterpunch |Has sourceURL=http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/01/07/a-real-9-11-cover-up/

}}

“[The] investigation based on Edmonds’ information was supposed to have four parts, but was inexplicably dropped. “The story was pulled half-way, suddenly, without any warning”, the journalist said. “I wasn’t party to the editorial decision to drop the story, but there was a belief in the office amongst several journalists who were part of the Insight investigative unit that the decision was made under pressure from the U.S. State Department, because the story might cause a diplomatic incident... The way the story was dropped was unusual, but the belief amongst my colleagues this happened under political pressure is plausible.” He cryptically described an “editorial mechanism, linked to the paper but not formally part of it, which could however exert control on stories when necessary, linked to certain interests.” When asked which interests, the journalist said, “I can’t say. I can’t talk about that.””
An unnamed "lead reporter" on Edwards' series at the Sunday Times. (January 2008) 

Certain topics - such as the 2001 Mexican legislative assembly attack, the Dallas occupy plot to assassinate leaders of Occupy Houston, and the 60+ year history of Le Cercle - have been subject to an almost total media blackout, though solid primary sources exist and they are events of major significance with far reaching implications. Shai Masot‎ disappeared from the corporate news agenda after he was exposed as a spook, although he did not retire.

Consolidation

Full article: Corporate media/Consolidation

File:Goebbels-on-ccm.jpg

The last 20 years have seen an unprecedented consolidation of media ownership, meaning that ownership of US TV, radio, newspaper and billboards is more concentrated than ever. The same process has been repeated worldwide - leaving an ever smaller number of huge corporations controlling an ever large number of formerly independent media outlets, retaining the apparent diversity of opinion while in fact exercising hierarchical control over content, thus presenting a controlled spectrum of opinion.

High Profile Examples

BBC

Full article: BBC

On the face of it the BBC, as a tax-payer funded organisation (a.k.a. "public-service broadcaster"), ought to be less susceptible to the commercial pressures on the rest of the corporate media. On matters of little importance to the deep state, the BBC is relatively balanced and impartial. This however makes its clandestine control by the powers that be all the more insidious. There are many cases of such lofty dismissal, amply documented on the Media Lens. Where issues impinge upon the interests of the permanent government, the BBC has always been the voice of the British Establishment. Its charter is the work of men wedded to the Mackinder-Rhodes-Milner vision of the British Empire as a missionary force for 'progress' and the spread of civilisation in the world; it is financed on the whim of a government in thrall of the deep state. How could it be anything else?

Wikipedia

Full article: Wikipedia

Wikipedia experienced a professionalisation around 2007 which moved it firmly in the direction of the commercially controlled media. This is most clearly understood through the "Reliable Sources" policy in particular which means, more or less, that if a subject hasn't been reported on by commercially controlled media or by those in established positions of social power and influence, then Wikipedia doesn't want to know about it. These policies do in fact lead to a credible and useful encyclopaedia on whole swathe of topics (i.e. technical, non-political topics) no doubt giving many readers the misleading impression that Wikipedia articles are reliable even for politically sensitive topics.

Alternatives

File:Ccm-lies.jpg

The audience of several corporate media companies (such as MSNBC, Fox News and CNN) declined significantly in 2013 suggesting that viewers were going elsewhere for information. The main alternative to the corporate media is the internet, where a multiplicity of smaller sources (such as Wikispooks) provide an alternative to the online corporate news sites. One response to this has been to ramp up propaganda about "cyberterrorism" and to expand internet censorship under pretexts such as the "war on terror" or the protection of "intellectual property".

Search Engines

The de facto monopoly of search engines and social networking websites run by corporations well integrated in business networks poses another challenge for those who want to avoid manipulation. An alternative search engine is the seeks project which uses user-defined page ranking.

The ranking of commercially controlled search engines presents an obstacle for social change because:

1. they keep users in search bubbles;
2. they censor hot topics right away;
3. most importantly they act as multiplier to the - as of 2015 - commercially controlled public opinion through their ranking based on popularity. "Share" and "Like" buttons have a similar multiplier function which makes alternative news and research appear marginal compared to the boosted Consensus trance.

References