by Charlie Hu

The U.S. mainstream media has used its power in recent years to assist in the destabilization campaign against the Haitian government. Charlie Hu looks at how the Bush administration is working now to increase that power.

Last June, the board of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to ease ownership restrictions on media giants, discarding laws which had been set in place to guard against media monopolies and homogenization.

"Most people in this country have no idea what's about to happen to them even though their very democracy is at stake," said dissenting FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelman prior to the vote. In his opinion, and that of media watchdog groups, the FCC's move will crush press freedom and diversity while giving more power and profits to the huge media conglomerates which already dominate the airwaves.

The impact of the FCC vote, taken June 2, would not be as far-reaching as the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996, which tore down laws limiting the size of media companies and fueled a series of colossal mergers. It would increase the portion of households one company can reach via television from 35 to 45 %, allow companies in markets with 18 stations or more to own three channels instead of two, and permit companies to own both television stations and newspapers in the same market.

Popular outcry after the vote has forced even the Republican-dominated Congress to react. On July 23, the House of Representatives voted an overwhelming 400 to 21 to block the FCC's attempt at raising TV market share ownership limits from 35% to 45%. But an amendment which would have killed the entire FCC ruling was defeated by a 254-174 vote in the House earlier that same week. Senate opposition to the FCC ruling might strike it down entirely, although sources in the administration say that President Bush would use his veto power for the first time since taking office to defend the ruling. Bush needs the support of only 145 representatives to block the House from overriding a veto.

Even before the recent easing of restrictions, 90% of the over 500 channels in the cable and satellite universe were controlled by the same giants who own most TV and radio networks. AOL/Time Warner, Sony, News Corporation, AT&T, General Electric, Viacom, Disney, Liberty Media, Vivendi and Bertelsmann constitute a vast information and entertainment cartel controlling the production and dissemination of films, television, newspapers, magazines, books, radio, Internet sites, music, sport clubs, and theme parks.

This concentration can only increase following the FCC's ruling. Merrill Lynch predicts a "gold rush" where national networks will buy up the remaining local broadcasters. The diversity of ideas and media ownership by minorities will further dwindle. The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters says that the number of minority-owned broadcast facilities has dropped by 14 % since the 1996 deregulation. The FCC website was inundated with close to 750,000 e-mails leading up to the vote. Over 99.9% of the messages opposed increased media consolidation. When asked on ABC's "This Week" program whether he was disregarding public concern about media monopolies, FCC chairman Michael K. Powell, son of Secretary of State Colin Powell, replied: "Unfortunately, as you can understand, most of the comments are ‘I'm not for consolidation.' Well Mike Powell is not for consolidation either. But that is not the specific task we have before us."

Clearly, however, Powell is in lockstep with the Bush junta's march towards dismantling the Constitution and social protections. Powell repeatedly refused to disclose to the public and Congress the actual changes on which the commission was voting. Just as the White House has sealed documents related to the Congressional 9-11 investigation and Vice President Dick Cheney's secret meetings with energy executives, Powell has also tried to enforce secrecy and control information. He sabotaged debate and publicity on the rule changes, making it difficult for dissident FCC commissioners to organize public hearings prior to the vote.

The monopolized media has been key to the propaganda triumphs of the Bush gang, particularly in abetting its criminal invasion of Iraq. The U.S. government's propaganda strategies seem lifted from the Third Reich, in particular from Hitler's designated successor, Hermann Goering, who had a formula for selling war to the German people: "All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked."

At the Bush clique's request, the mainstream media fired a propaganda fusillade designed to transform Saddam Hussein into a nuclear menace and 9-11 partner in terror. The latter charge has never been supported by any fact and, three months after Bush declared the war over, no "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) have been uncovered by special U.S. search teams scouring Iraq.

The Bush cabal used fraudulent intelligence reports to buttress its bellicose, exaggerated, and false statements selling the war, and the media cabal then helped craft U.S. public opinion. After months of broadcasting government lies, the same media monopolies claim that public support for the war rose to over 70%, supposedly because of the preposterous charges of Iraq's lethal arsenal and links to 9-11.

The brain-washing appears to be more than effective. Although no WMDs have been found, the media's polls (if we are to trust them) say that 34% of U.S. citizens believe that nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons have been discovered in Iraq. Furthermore, immediately following the 9-11 attacks, only 4% of the U.S. public felt Saddam Hussein was responsible. But on the eve of the Iraq invasion, over 50% of the U.S. public believed that Hussein was involved in the 9-11 plot, the media says. This monstrous shift in public perception was achieved with absolutely no evidence, truly one of the astounding achievements in the history of propaganda. It is safe to say that without a grossly compliant press, some of which is owned by corporations with a vested interest in military sales (e.g. General Electric, Westinghouse, AT&T), this shift would not have been possible.

If Bush and the FCC are successful in transferring control of our airwaves to an elite posse of information guardians, we will see more media white-outs of war protests, dissenting voices, and problems like poverty and homelessness in the richest country in the world. The airwaves are a national asset belonging to the public and requiring protection against monopolization by a handful of wealthy owners.

I believe that the U.S. people are a force more powerful than the U.S. corporate/government alliance. As long as people, drugged by the media, continue to act like cattle existing solely to consume and ignorantly go where herded, the establishment can continue its surreptitious hoarding of our airwaves, wealth, and natural resources. We must wake up and stop them.

Charlie Hu is a free-lance video editor based in New York City.