Reply #2: I wrote a blog article about media ownership and the Iraq War

[Eric J in MN]

http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2005_01_14_friday_fun_great_animation_from_saturday_night_live_re_media_ownership_conspiracy_theory_rock.asp

"Great Animation From 'Saturday Night Live' About Media Ownership (Shown in 1998 Then Censored)"


Conservative commentator Armstrong Williams is in the news recently.

He accepted $240,000 to promote Bush's education bill "No Child No Left Behind." The money went from the federal Education Dept. to public relations firm Ketchum to Armstrong Williams, under the condition of promoting NCLB in his columns, tv show, and radio show.

The money of taxpayers should NOT go to P.R. firms to secretly-pay commentators. There should be an investigation and people held accountable.

HOWEVER

No one died because of the "No Child Left Behind" education bill.

Thousands died because of the Iraq War. The Lancet estimates 100,000 more people have died in Iraq because of the US invasion than would have died otherwise.

That is why the issue of media ownership, addressed in the animation linked at the top of this article, is more important than the Armstrong Williams case.

General Electric makes money through contracts with the US military, and has made massive profits from the Iraq War.

General Electric partly owns the cable news channel MSNBC.

Before the Iraq War, MSNBC ran a program each weeknight titled "Countdown: Iraq" which gave the impression that the war was inevitable, and so we might as well "countdown" to it instead of asking:

Is the war moral? Is the war in the best interest of average Americans? Average Iraqis? When would the US leave Iraq?

The conflict-of-interest of corporations-which-profit-from-war owning news-organizations is more significant than the conflict-of-interest of a commentator secretly-paid to promote an education bill.

I would support a law barring any corporation from owning a news-organization if the corporation gets more than a quarter of its revenue from non-media sources.

Such a law would fight bigger conflicts-of-interest than Armstrong Williams' conflict.

I'm not aware of any proposals for such a law.