Nick Weingartner

Exam Two – Essay One

Professor Ronald V. Bettig

The Propaganda Model and its Effects on Media Content

Even in a society where the media are not directly censored or operated by the

government, a system for propaganda distribution exists that directly supports and

upholds the will and ideas of the ruling capitalist class.

Herman and Chomsky argue in their propaganda model approach that all news

content must pass through five filters before publication within the mass media, all of

which serve to limit, censor and shape content – ownership, advertising, sourcing, “flak”

and anti-communism / capitalism as a national religion (Herman and Chomsky, pg. 2).

These filters operate with such efficiency that people inside the system may not realize it

is happening at all. “The elite domination of the media and marginalization of dissidents

that results from the operation of these filters occurs so naturally that media news people,

frequently operating with complete integrity and goodwill, are able to convince

themselves that they choose and interpret the news ‘objectively’ and on the basis of

professional news values” (Herman and Chomsky, pg. 2). These filters, whether the

members of the news media are aware of it or not, enable a small and select group of

individuals to establish and push forth the status quo, enabling them to retain an

inordinate amount of wealth and power.

The ownership filter is the first and one of the most important of Herman and

Chomsky’s filters – freedom of the press only exists for those who own the presses. “Five

global-dimension firms, operating with many of the characteristics of a cartel, own most

of the newspapers, magazine, book publishers, motion picture studios, and radio and

television stations in the United States” (Bagdikian, pg. 3). The “Big Five” firms are –

Time Warner, Disney, News Corporation, Viacom and Bertelsmann (Bagdikian, pg. 11),

and are owned by highly conservative individuals and families and who in many cases

use their position to further ideological agendas.

Time Warner is the largest of the Big Five, with estimated revenues of $43 billion

in 2005 (Bettig), with major holdings across multiple forms of media. This includes its

foundation in magazine publishing, with over 145 publications in circulation (Time,

People, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, InStyle, among others), film production (Warner

Brothers Entertainment, Castle Rock, New Line Cinema, Picturehouse, among others),

television (CNN, TBS, TNT, HBO, Cinemax, among others) the Internet (it once owned

AOL, but has since spun it off into a separate public company due to the deal, resulting in

a $100 billion loss), and other miscellaneous businesses (DC Comics, Atlanta Braves,

among others) (“The Nation,” HO).

Disney, like Time Warner, operates large portions of several media sectors.

Disney has major holdings in television (ABC, ESPN, E! Entertainment, The History

Channel, Lifetime Television, The Disney Channel, among others), film (Walt Disney

Pictures, Touchstone, Miramax, Buena Vista, Pixar, among others), Books (Hyperion,

Disney Press, ESPN Books, Volo, among others), magazines (FamilyFun, ESPN The

Magazine, Disney Adventures, among others), the Internet (Disney.com, ESPN.com,

ABC.com, movies.com, among others), more than 73 radio stations as well as a number

of parks and resorts (“The Nation,” HO). In 2005, Disney earned $32 billion in revenue,

making it only second to Time Warner (Bettig).

News Corporation, owned and operated by Australia-born Rupert Murdoch, owns

and operates over 175 newspapers worldwide (including The Wall Street Journal and

New York Post), over 20 radio stations, with major holdings in film (Twentieth Century

Fox, Fox Searchlight, among others), the Internet (Myspace, IGN.com, among others),

book publishing (HarperCollins, Zondervan) and television (Fox News, National

Geographic Channel, Twentieth Century Fox Television among others) (“The Nation”).

Murdoch, who is highly conservative, gave $1 million to both the conservative U.S

Chamber of Commerce as well as the Republican Governors Association – neither of

which Fox News reported on (Rutenberg, HO). Murdoch – who in the past has said he

agreed with Fox News host Glenn Beck’s claims that President Barack Obama “hates

white people” (Altermann, HO) – maintains a “hands-on” approach to his businesses, and

has his office send down “memos” to the Fox News producers, giving them talking and

ideological view points on issues of the day (Bettig and Hall). This, in many instances,

leads to inaccuracies in reporting – such as Glenn Beck saying that the United States is

the only country to have automatic citizenship upon birth, Sean Hannity claiming that

anyone could purchase a car from a junkyard and sell it to the Cash For Clunkers

program, and Bill O’Reilly calling abortion doctor George Tiller a “baby killer” over 32

times, later claiming he never said it (Pitts, HO).

Viacom and CBS, which are both controlled by Sumner M. Redstone’s National

Amusements, drew $24 billion in 2005 (Bettig). Together, they have holdings in

television (MTV, VH1, BET, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, CBS Television, Showtime,

among others), film (Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, MTV Films, among others),

radio (over 179 stations), books (Simon & Schuster, Pocket Books, Scribner, Free Press,

among others) magazines (Nickelodeon Magazine) and the Internet (NFL.com,

NCAASports.com, VH1.com, MTV.com, CBSNews.com, among others) (“The Nation,”

HO).

Bertelsmann is a German media holding firm – closely controlled by the Mohn

family – which drew nearly $22 billion in profits in 2004 (Bettig). Besides being a major

publisher of newspapers and magazines outside of the U.S., Bertelsmann also owns the

majority of the book publishing industry in America, including Random House, Knopf,

Vintage, The Modern Library and Bantam Doubleday Dell. It also controls Sony BMG,

giving it control of 25 percent of the world’s music (Bettig).

These companies also frequently have interlocking directorates, allowing them to

avoid competition and maintain control over the national discourse. Ted Turner, founder

of CNN, pointed out that in 1981, ABC, NBC and CBS came together in an attempt to

block CNN from covering the White House (Turner). More so, the ownership filter puts

constraints on actual news production, favoring profits over quality. “The reason is

simple: Good journalism is bad business, and bad journalism is good business”

(McChesney, pg. 22). McChesney argues that investigative articles are not pursued

because major corporations do not want to upset their elite interests, and it is more

profitable to cover inconsequential news like “celebrities, natural disasters, train wrecks,

sensational crimes, the Kennedys, and the royal family, to limit political reporting to

mindless speculation about campaign tactics and the regurgitation of mainstream

politicians’ soundbites” (McChesney, pgs. 22-23). This not only misinforms the

citizenry, causing many to disbelieve reputable facts (Pitts, HO), but also serves to

prolong the status quo, aiding the owners of the medium and thereby extending their

dominance in the marketplace and empowering their filter on news coverage.

Once content clears the ownership filters, it must satisfy the advertisers – the main

funding mechanism of the media. Media outlets rise and fall based on their appeal to

advertisers. Bagdikian illustrates this point with the 1967-1974 period of the New Yorker,

where readership increased (in correlation to it’s critical coverage of the Vietnam War),

but where it’s advertising revenue plummeted. This was attributed to the fact that those

who were reading included an undesirable demographic – mainly college students who

could not afford what advertisers wanted to sell in the New Yorker’s traditionally upper-

class pages (Bagdikian, pg. 223). “Newspapers and magazines do not want merely

readers; they want affluent readers. Broadcasters do not want just any listeners -- the

want rich ones. Those who are not going to buy are not invited to read, hear, or watch”

(Bagdikian, pgs. 227-228). Another example is found with James Murren of the Evening

Sun, who wrote a column critical of Wal-Mart and was fired immediately after its

publication (Jackson, pg. 19). This desire to please advertisers came to fruition with

newspapers like the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, who hired an ‘advertorial editor’ who

was “to be paid half by the editorial department and half by the advertising department,”

showing the power of advertisers on media content (Holar, Jackson, and Goldstein).

After content passes through the ownership and advertising filters, it must be

written – and in the process, pass through the sourcing filter. The main tactic of

journalists and media producers is to go to ‘official’ and ‘reputable’ sources for raw

news, as well as commentary on the topic. These sources are viewed as credible and

objective in the eyes of the media, and are given “heavy weight” (Herman and Chomsky,

pg. 19). Examples include the Pentagon, White House, Defense Department and

conservative think tanks like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This not only allows media

to have an inexpensive news source, but also one of perceived accuracy and consistent

news making – in essence, an easy source for journalists and the best source for business.

“In effect, the large bureaucracies of the powerful subsidize the mass media, and gain

special access by their contribution to reducing the media’s costs of acquiring the raw

materials of, and producing, news. The large entities that provide this subsidy become

‘routine’ news sources and have privileged access to the gates. Non-routine sources must

struggle for access, and may be ignored by arbitrary decision of the gatekeepers”

(Herman and Chomsky, pg. 22). The bias toward “official” sources has led to media

pitfalls, such as the lack of investigation into the ”weapons of mass destruction” that the

government claimed were the motive for the war in Iraq – an action that the New York

Times later publicly apologized for (“The New York Times”). New York City mayor,

Michael Bloomberg, for instance, circulated a copy of his speech to media outlets under

the condition that they wouldn’t seek commentary from his potential critics on his points

– only the New York Sun reported on this fact, while The New York Times, New York

Post, Newsday, and the Daily News did not say this explicitly (Jackson and Hart).

Herman and Chomsky’s fourth filter is “flak” – the effect of “negative responses

to a media statement or program” (Herman and Chomsky, pg. 26). These responses are

often from the topics of media reporting, and can have incredibly strong effects. For

example, for the 1967-1974 period of the New Yorker discussed before, editor William

Shawn resided over the paper. He was not immediately fired from his position, because at

the time the New Yorker was under independent ownership, but in the 1980s (after they

had regained their former financial status), the New Yorker was bought up by a

conglomerate and Shawn was fired (Bagdikian, pg. 227). Shawn was being ‘flakked’ by

the ownership, who was ‘flakked’ by the advertisers for his editorial decisions. Another

example is David Frum – once a speechwriter for George W. Bush (Noah) – who

publicly said, “Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us, and now we are

discovering we work for Fox” (in reference to the amount of Republican presidential

hopefuls employed by the network) and was fired days later by the American Enterprise

Institute (Krugman, HO). One of the best examples of flak is the case of Ed Roby, a

journalist working for United Press International (UPI) who reported accurately on the

extremely low income tax rate oil companies pay. His reporting caused an uproar in the

industry, and Mobil used their advertorial space in 11 major newspapers to contradict his

reports, invariably putting enough pressure on UPI to take Roby off the oil beat

permanently – even though his reports were correct (Bagdikian, pgs. 171-176). Fox News

is notorious for it’s use of flak – in the film “Outfoxed,” many former employees asked to

remain anonymous for fear of the networks flaking mechanisms and its effect on their

future employment within the industry (“Outfoxed”).

The final filter is the anti-communism/capitalism as a national religion filter.

“Communism as the ultimate evil has always been the specter haunting property owners,

as it threatens the very root of their class position and superior status” (Herman and

Chomsky, pg. 29). Media are historically overly critical of any policy, candidate or issue

that is or has the illusion of being associated with communism. The healthcare debate is a

clear example of this. During Clinton’s presidency (as well as Obama’s), the media

largely focused on the Democratic and Republican positions, rather than those of the

public. “When the big healthcare system debate came with Clinton, there were basically

three options: there was the Clinton system, which essentially handed the healthcare

system over to the insurance company, there was the so-called conservative critique of

that, which handed the system over to big insurance companies in a slightly different

fashion, and there was a third position, which they don’t hand it over to insurance

companies at all, let’s leave it in public hands. Single payer option.” (“Myth of the

Liberal Media”). Chomsky argues that the media focused only on the first two options,

giving virtually no coverage to the single-payer option, which in reality had more public

support than the other two (“Myth of the Liberal Media”). This filter is also evident in

labor reporting in newspapers – specifically the absence of a labor section, and the focus

on business. Herman argues that the majority of reporting done on labor is done through

the perspective of the business, to the point where wage increases are treated negatively

(“Myth of the Liberal Media”). This national religion also extends far into U.S. foreign

policy. An example of this is the case of Guatemala in 1954, where Jacobo Árbenz

Guzmán, a democratically elected politician, was overthrown with the aid of the United

States and C.I.A because of his socialistic policies. “What we have always done is used

the alleged threat of Communism, even when it’s totally remote and totally implausible,

to cover over the fact that we want somebody there who will serve our needs more

perfectly” (“Myth of the Liberal Media”).

Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model demonstrates how media content is

forged and filtered as a means to produce a perceived status quo that pleases the ruling

capitalist class. By filtering content through media ownership, advertising, sourcing,

“flak” and anti-communism filters, the result is a general loss of quality, with an

increased focus on celebrities and weather, along with a lack of reporting on issues of

importance (Nichols and McChesney). This loss of quality directly benefits the ruling

capitalist class, extending the status quo and allowing them to sustain their wealth and

power.