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/* Written  4:07 pm  Sep 27, 1992 by bfrg9732@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu in cdp:alt.activism */
/* ---------- "The Media Monopoly (part 6)" ---------- */

The Media Monopoly

by Ben H. Bagdikian

Part 6 -- From Mythology to Theology



"No Gannett newspaper has any direct competition."
    -- Allen Neuharth, chairman of Gannett Company

"Neuharth Says 1-Paper Towns Don't Exist"
    -- Headline in a trade magazine

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The massaging of reality into a mythology which benefits the 
image of a special group is an occurrence as old as history. 
"Turning life's natural mixture of the noble and ignoble into 
unrelieved heroism is done by those who, like editors of the 
'Soviet Encyclopedia,' believe it is their religious duty to 
mislead the public for its own good."

However, there is one important difference nowadays in this 
shaping of reality into self-advantageous mythology. "[The] high 
priests who communicate mythic dogmas now do so through great 
centralized machines of communication [i.e. the mass media]... 
Operators of these systems disseminate their own version of the 
world."

The special groups which control the mass media are able to 
overwhelm their often exhausted and/or passive audience with the 
constant repetition and reinforcement of certain themes. For 
example, consider the stereotype of the typical journalist as 
being radical and antibusiness. "[The] stereotype of the 
journalist as radical and antibusiness does not match the facts. 
An authoritative study by Stephen Hess showed that 58 percent of 
Washington correspondents consider themselves 'middle of the 
road' or 'conservative' politically."

Or again, consider the fostering of the mythology of the 
corporation as all around "hero" and "good citizen." So-called 
"corporate advertising... constitutes printed and broadcast ads 
designed not to sell goods and services but to promote the 
politics and benevolent image of the corporation... [e.g. some of 
the Dow Chemical ads, Commonwealth Edison ads, etc.] The 
ideology-image ads as a category of all ads doubled in the 1970s 
and are now a half-billion-dollar-a-year enterprise."

The purpose of these ideology-image ads is to present "... the 
corporation as hero, a responsible citizen, a force for good, 
presenting information on the work the company is doing in 
community relations, assisting the less fortunate, minimizing 
pollution, controlling drugs, ameliorating poverty." In addition, 
corporate dollars are used for "explanations of the capitalistic 
system, including massive use of corporate books and teaching 
materials in the schools, almost all tax deductible."

During the so-called "energy crisis" of the 1970s, the Mobil Oil 
Company began running a type of ad known as an "editorial ad." 
These ads by Mobil Oil came to be known in the newspaper trade as 
"the Mobil position." These ads had the format and style of an 
actual editorial but were in fact paid advertisments. One of 
these ads declared in 1979: "Can oil companies be trusted to put 
additional revenues into the search for new energy supplies? 
History says yes."

"Sadly [according to Bagdikian], history says no." The top twenty 
oil companies have historically used their profits *not* to 
search for new energy supplies but rather to purchase firms 
outside of oil production and distribution. In the 1970s and 
1980s, Mobil was investing in its so-called "search for new 
energy supplies" by purchasing "...such assorted non-oil 
companies as Montgomery Ward, Container Corporation of America, 
restaurants in Kansas City, [and] condominiums in Hong Kong... 
Mobil today indulges its profits... by printing 'Playboy' 
magazine, 'National Geographic,' and Bantam and Random House 
paperback books."

[At this point something strange has happened. I am at page 72. 
The next page says page 105. Pages 73-104 *aren't there*. There 
has been *no* obvious tearing out of pages and I purchased this 
book brand new. Draw whatever conclusions from this that you 
wish. At any rate, I will continue this synopsis in part 7, 
starting at page 105. B.R.]


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Synopsis/Review by Brian Redman
"Ah yes, Armageddon. I remember it well."
End part 6