VOICES-When the cold war was still raging between the United States and the Soviet Union, one of the often cited examples of the difference between our supposedly open and democratic political system and the Soviets closed system was our free press as guaranteed to us by our constitution. The Soviets had Pravda, Isvestia, and Tass- state controlled media where their news outlets merely parroted Soviet government party line and we, while we had a marketplace of diverse and contending ideas.
Now in the United States where 5 corporation control virtually all commercial media and their foundations control public media content as well by making public media financially dependent on them through subsidies, it is becoming harder and harder for Americans to hear anything but corporate party line on any issue, since all that now seems to emanate from centrally produced "news" is the repetitious messages designed to drown out any other content or interpretation as to what is going on. Is corporate party line any different than Soviet party line?
One of the greatest ironies in a 2014 where an unprecedented technological society has access to information of any kind and in any language is the ubiquitous monosyllabic and simplistic manner in which we now communicate. In the video that follows, the initially funny nature of "news" broadcasters saying exactly the same think becomes more and more terrifying as you realize how news has been trivialized to put the American public asleep, instead of serving the function it is supposed to as a way of making us aware of and engaged in the important issues molding our times for worse and not better. In a democracy We The People are supposed to decide. In this bizarre version of it, the public no longer seems to even know what the question is.
(Leonard Isenberg is a Los Angeles observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He’s a second generation teacher at LAUSD and blogs at perdaily.com. Leonard can be reached at [email protected])
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 96
Pub: Nov 28, 2014
