By Richard Oxman
In late 1999, Ben Bagdikian, the author of Media Monopoly — a regular contact at the time and former Washington Post editor, told me that he estimated that two-thirds of all news stories originated with PR firms; in 2003, an article written for the Guardian by Julia Hobsbawm conservatively estimated that 50-80% of news and business stories originated from public relations firms. The result is managed news by governments, corporations, and PRP firms—often interlocked—including both the release of specific stories intended to build public support as well as the deliberate non-coverage of news stories that may undermine capitalist elites’ goals and interests.
The situation is far worse now, what with the unprecedented proliferation of CIA assets infiltrating media outlets across the board, and being highly proactive posing as independent citizens on social media 24 x 7. Those ugly forces also have their disingenuous, criminal hands in book publishing documentary film making, and Hollywood feature films* for decades.
Do you know about Omnicom Group (with revenue of $15.2 billion, and 74,000 employees distributed over 200 agencies worldwide), WPP (a conglomerate of 125 of the world’s leading PR and marketing firms with $21.1 billion in revenue as of 2017, employing about 190,000 people in 3,000 offices across 112 countries), and/or Interpublic Group ($7.9 billion in revenue in 2017, employing 49,700 in 88 agencies worldwide)? Probably not, but — surely — they pack more punch collectively than Greta Thunberg, and are capable of getting away with mass murder at a moment’s notice if any threatening critical mass were to begin forming. Protection of news management on behalf of the Transnational Corporate Class agenda is an absolute given, which must be confronted, in part, in low profile. Following fresh paradigms.
The most highly educated, well-meaning and deeply experienced activists and concerned citizens I know don’t know about the growing impact of Public Relations and Propaganda firms, but it’s time now to ask a question of yourself and others: How did you come to “know” what you say you know?
Remember, the book publishing includes textbooks and all other kinds of volumes. Attending prestigious educational institutions and reading voraciously can count for little, especially if all that’s coupled with repeated exposure to speakers on the lecture circuit and participants in forums who might be CIA assets.So how does one get to feel confident about a given news source? Well, I recommend — for starters — that advice and suggestions be discussed initially in person one-on-one or in very small trustworthy groups. New research shows that military intelligence agencies have seriously influenced more than 1800 films and TV shows since 2005, making Hollywood a propaganda machine for the U.S. national security state. One must be cautious in more than one sense.
Ben Bagdikian, who I opened this piece with, survived the Armenian Genocide. He died in Berkeley in 2016 at 96… but Turkey (to this day) still denies the that the horror took place. WE are living at a time when — unless WE do something new in solidarity to confront our news momentum (which now includes the blatant criminal treatment of journalists like Julian Assange and many others) — the United States of Abominations will succeed in burying OUR genocides much better and deeper than Turkey ever dreamed of doing with their atrocities.
