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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 18:34:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: PNEWS <odin@gate.net>
Subject: [PWW] People's press v. media millionaires

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From: Scott Marshall <ksm@gagme.wwa.com>
To: pnews@world.std.com
Subject: PWW: People's press v. media millionaires

**The people's press vs. media millionaires**

(Reprinted from the June 4 People's Weekly World. For
subscription information see below - all rights reserved.)

By Denise Winebrenner

     If you thought the media, electronic and print , is going
from dismal to abysmal you are right. Getting news is hard,
information tougher.

     In addition to everything else, the class struggle in the
media - between owners and workers, in the newsroom, on the print
shop floor or driving a truck - has sharpened. Some of the most
militant and hard fought battles coming into the 90's have taken
place at the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Akron
Beacon Journal and the Pittsburgh Press. On the electronic side,
NBC, owned by General Electic, tried to break the technicians
union NABET.

     While media moguls were heaving the ax against long
established unions, they were also busy buying and selling each
other. Monopolization of the "news" accelerated in the '80s and
sped into the '90s. The New York Times, for instance, owns five
TV stations in the New York area. Atlantic Bell attempted a
hostile take over of the TCI cable conglomerate.

     It has long been known that news is "filtered," if one is
polite - censored if you're on the street. The heinous crimes of
the U.S. military - the invasion of Panama, the invasion of
Grenada, using workers at home and abroad as human Guinea Pigs,
for example - are hidden behind the wall of "national security."

     That's the most direct form of censorship.But there is a
much more insidious form of censorship which you might call
"benign neglect" except that it's not so benign. The working
class - our multi-racial, multi-national, male-female, young and
old working class - does not exist as far as the U.S. media is
concerned. We are still waiting for the "rest of the story," as
Paul Harvey would say. And same with our organizations:
the unions, civil rights groups, women's, environmental, peace
and justice and community grassroots organizations. Again, you
wouldn't know they even exist except when they are being
slandered in the media. And you would never know there are
solutions to our problems - obvious solutions, but ones that
demand we take the money from where it's at: the corporate rich.

     Indeed, the outstanding feature of 20th century U.S. media
is its hard core class edge. The American mass media has always
been big business; its ideological role is too important to be
left to lowly writers who might veer from the corporate line into
the truth. One new twist is that those who deliver the news - the
anchors, high profile reporters and other media "personalities" -
are now millionaires. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR),
a national media watch group seeking to raise public awareness of
the narrow corporate ownership of the press and reinvigorate the
First Amendment, reports that Diane Sawyer who works for ABC
News just doubled her salary from $3 million a year to $6 million
a year.

     It is no wonder that Sawyer's interview with a woman
struggling to raise two children collecting welfare and illegally
working 2 jobs turned into an attack on this working class family
(PrimeTime Live, 9/17/92). This family, with every nickel and
dime counted, lived on $16,700 a year, Sawyer's per diem. "You
know," Sawyer said to the woman before millions watching
ABC,"People say you should not have children if you can't support
them." Continuing, Sawyer charged the women with being a "welfare
cheat, gouging the taxpayer."

     Then there's Ted Koppel who tries to make ends meet on $5
million a year, who used Nightline as an electronic soapbox for
personal economic theory. Koppel thinks that taxation on the rich
in the '70's "created a tremendous economic problem ... It didn't
work." David Brinkley who takes home a mere $1 million a year
declared that the idea of taxing the rich was a "sick, stupid
joke."

     Curious about what columnists are paid for their "opinions?"
Patrick Buchanan reported $800,000 per year to the IRS. Anyone
surprised that he argues for the most regressive tax structure
possible, i.e. "tax the working class."

     Even bigger bucks are awarded to Rush Limbaugh: $12 million
a year, not counting his new contract with Florida Citrus
growers. There is a hardly an issue of concern to working people
- health care, education, welfare, unions, civil rights - that is
not the target for Limbaugh's neutron bombs. The Sultan
of Sewage is not just a hired mouthpiece for corporate America,
at $12 million a year - he is corporate America.

Even though the entire annual budget of the People's Weekly World
is less than the salary of one corporate blather babbler, we
manage - but only due to grassroots support in the form of
stories written and money given. Writing a check to support the
publication of the PWW is a blow to all the zillions that
are poured down the funnels of the big business manure spreaders.

     It affirms humanity and opens a window to the rest of the
country and the world. It is the weekly chronicle of our people's
struggles to take back what is rightfully ours.Avoid the abysmal
and contribute to the future. It is the best check you can
write.

-Denise Winebrenner is World Fund Drive '94 coordinator.

##30##

************************************************************
Scott Marshall      *******   Read the Peoples Weekly World
3116 S. Halsted     ****      Sub info: pww@igc.apc.org
Chicago, Il 60608   **        235 W. 23rd St. NYC 10011
(312) 842-5770      ********* $20/yr - $1-2mos trial sub ****
ksm@gagme.wwa.com   ******************************************
************************************************************
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Tired of the same old system: Join the Communist Party, USA
Info: communistpty@igc.apc.org (212) 989-4994
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