Media/corporate connections: architecture of The Matrix

2005-06-26

Richard Moore

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From: "Janet M Eaton" <•••@••.•••>
To: •••@••.•••
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2005 10:53:05 -0300
Subject: Big Media Interlocks with Corporate America ( Common Dreams June 26]
Reply-to: •••@••.•••

A research team at Sonoma State University has recently
finished conducting a network analysis of the boards of
directors of the ten big media organizations in the US. The
team determined that only 118 people comprise the membership
on the boards of director of the ten big media giants. ...
These 118 individuals in turn sit on the corporate boards of
288 national and international corporations. In fact, eight
out of ten big media giants share common memberships on boards
of directors with each other. ....It is kind of like one big
happy family of interlocks and shared interests. The following
are but a few of the corporate board interlocks for the big
ten media giants in the US: See list below

fyi-janet 

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http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0624-25.htm   

  Sunday, June 26, 2005  
    Featured Views       

Published on Friday, June 24, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

Big Media Interlocks with Corporate America
by Peter Phillips

Mainstream media is the term often used to describe the
collective group of big TV, radio and newspapers in the United
States. Mainstream implies that the news being produced is for
the benefit and enlightenment of the mainstream population-the
majority of people living in the US. Mainstream media include
a number of communication mediums that carry almost all the
news and information on world affairs that most Americans
receive. The word media is plural, implying a diversity of
news sources.

However, mainstream media no longer produce news for the
mainstream population-nor should we consider the media as
plural. Instead it is more accurate to speak of big media in
the US today as the corporate media and to use the term in the
singular tense-as it refers to the singular monolithic
top-down power structure of self-interested news giants.

A research team at Sonoma State University has recently
finished conducting a network analysis of the boards of
directors of the ten big media organizations in the US. The
team determined that only 118 people comprise the membership
on the boards of director of the ten big media giants. This is
a small enough group to fit in a moderate size university
classroom. These 118 individuals in turn sit on the corporate
boards of 288 national and international corporations. In
fact, eight out of ten big media giants share common
memberships on boards of directors with each other. NBC and
the Washington Post both have board members who sit on Coca
Cola and J. P. Morgan, while the Tribune Company, The New York
Times and Gannett all have members who share a seat on Pepsi.
It is kind of like one big happy family of interlocks and
shared interests. The following are but a few of the corporate
board interlocks for the big ten media giants in the US:

* New York Times: Caryle Group, Eli Lilly, Ford, Johnson and
Johnson, Hallmark, Lehman Brothers, Staples, Pepsi

* Washington Post: Lockheed Martin, Coca-Cola, Dun &
Bradstreet, Gillette, G.E. Investments, J.P. Morgan, Moody's

* Knight-Ridder: Adobe Systems, Echelon, H&R Block, Kimberly-
Clark, Starwood Hotels

* The Tribune (Chicago & LA Times): 3M, Allstate, Caterpillar,
Conoco Phillips, Kraft, McDonalds, Pepsi, Quaker Oats, Shering
Plough, Wells Fargo

* News Corp (Fox): British Airways, Rothschild Investments

* GE (NBC): Anheuser-Busch, Avon, Bechtel, Chevron/Texaco,
Coca- Cola, Dell, GM, Home Depot, Kellogg, J.P. Morgan,
Microsoft, Motorola, Procter & Gamble

* Disney (ABC): Boeing, Northwest Airlines, Clorox, Estee
Lauder, FedEx, Gillette, Halliburton, Kmart, McKesson,
Staples, Yahoo

* Viacom (CBS): American Express, Consolidated Edison, Oracle,
Lafarge North America

* Gannett: AP, Lockheed-Martin, Continental Airlines, Goldman
Sachs, Prudential, Target, Pepsi

* AOL-Time Warner (CNN): Citigroup, Estee Lauder, Colgate-
Palmolive, Hilton

Can we trust the news editors at the Washington Post to be
fair and objective regarding news stories about
Lockheed-Martin defense contract over-runs? Or can we
assuredly believe that ABC will conduct critical investigative
reporting on Halliburton's sole-source contracts in Iraq? If
we believe the corporate media give us the full un-censored
truth about key issues inside the special interests of
American capitalism, then we might feel that they are meeting
the democratic needs of mainstream America. However if we
believe - as increasingly more Americans do- that corporate
media serves its own self-interests instead of those of the
people, than we can no longer call it mainstream or refer to
it as plural. Instead we need to say that corporate media is
corporate America, and that we the mainstream people need to
be looking at alternative independent sources for our news and
information.

Peter Phillips is a professor of Sociology at Sonoma State
University and director of Project Censored a media research
organization. www.projectcensored.org Sonoma State University
students Bridget Thornton and Brit Walters conducted the
research on the media interlocks.  
-- 

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"Escaping The Matrix - 
Global Transformation: 
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