In unprecedented numbers Americans are questioning the "official stories" of mainline news media and the business and government which they serve. The news media has joined the government as one of the least trusted institutions in the country. A national survey conducted in August, 1996 reveals that only 13% of the population trusts the news media showing an 87% margin of distrust.
With this overwhelming distrust factor, why are record numbers of viewers watching or listening to news-based programming? Why are news/talk shows so popular? The answer may lie in the fact that the news industry has become primarily an entertainment industry, apparently more interested in their standings in the Nielson Ratings than in reporting the hard, painful truth. With the fierce competition of this "news" or "information" based programming, the emphasis is not on informing or educating their viewers regarding the deeply significant events which are now shaping the immediate future; rather, the focus is producing sensational, captivating, anesthetizing material. The consumers may not trust the news media, but they are entertained and sedated by it.
Financial advisor and international journalist, Joan Veon, revealed to The WINDS her experience with mainline media and its agenda of silence regarding crucial international developments. "The media looks for minor details to report on - 'what the Group of 7 Finance Ministers had for dinner' - instead of concentrating on the fact that they are orchestrating the whole global economic, environmental, military, and political infrastructure of the world."
Attending the 1994 United Nations Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Mrs. Veon reports, "With all the significant statements and famous names sitting at the final press briefing, they (most reporters) sat there all calm, cool, and collected. A few of us who were concerned and wanted to understand their (UN) agenda had our tape recorders going and were writing as fast and furiously as possible. There they (mainline reporters) sat with their 3x5 cards, occasionally writing a word. I watched them and couldn't believe it. No wonder we don't know the truth about what is going on in these conferences.
"When returning home after each conference I attend, I check the newspaper's report and, believe me, what the media reports is absolute nonsense. The entire world infrastructure is being changed at these conferences. Each conference has a piece of the big puzzle, and we don't even know our left foot from our right when it comes to understanding what's going on." The version of the news we view is a carefully crafted design which Mrs. Veon describes as 'DECEIT, DISTORTION and DECEPTION'. They have an agenda that they do not want you and me, Joe Average, to understand. When they have all the pieces in place, when they have all the power that they need to effect this global agenda, then we will find out, like the people of Czechoslovakia, when it's too late."
Professor Noam Chomsky views the media as an ideological system serving the powerful elites in society. Chomsky says, "The western media have neglected their questioning role." He sees the media's role as producing consensus within the public towards the ruling elites in government and business. "The media's current mission is to ensure that any thought of controlling their destiny must be driven from the minds of the rascal multitude."Year 501.
Manipulation is another effective tool employed by the media to further the ends of the "power elite". How this tactic is used to shape the news and to shield the public from the REAL NEWS is shown in the media coverage of a committee hearing of the United States House of Representatives. The hearing involved a plan by labor unions to raise union dues to collect another 37 million dollars to be used in last November's national election. Among the witnesses scheduled to testify was Harry Beck, Jr. He had been an official of the Communication Workers of America who had filed suit to prevent his union dues from being used for political purposes. After going to the United States Supreme Court, it was ruled that Beck was entitled to a refund of 79% of his union dues because it was going for political rather than collective bargaining purposes. After this precedent-setting ruling, Mr. Beck said he doubts that more than 1% of union workers would take advantage of the refund of dues because of the media blackout of the ruling. Politicians on the House committee who were not favorable to witness Beck, walked out of the hearing en masse to hold a press conference of their own, followed by most of the reporters. And what did the American people hear on the evening news? They did not hear about Mr. Beck's testimony, instead, they only saw the protesting politician's fabricated news conference.
While vital, key issues are marginalized, minimized or ignored altogether, the trivial, inconsequential and sensational are magnified and elevated to a position of significant importance by the information brokers. The weekly news magazines forcefully make this point with subjects they select for their cover stories. Several recent editions serve to illustrate - movie maker Steven Spielberg, New Age healing, Billy Graham, premarital sex, the Titanic and other disasters, etc., etc. These comparatively irrelevant stories were apparently deemed as the most noteworthy news happenings and given cover story status, to the exclusion of the truly profound developments now taking place at the United Nations conferences, the State of the World Forum and other little known gatherings of the world's powerful men.
It has been said, "For a nation's monetary system to be artificial, its system of justice must also be artificial." The statement could be completed by saying, if the nation's monetary and judicial systems are artificial, its free and independent press must necessarily be spurious as well.
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Written 5/20/97