Poison in the Well: How Corporate Interests Shape the News
2024-10-25
Poisoned at the Source by Art Young, The Masses, 1912 or 1913. †
To great controversy, the ultra-rich and powerful owners of The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times directed staff at these two dailies not to endorse any candidate in the upcoming, highly contested presidential election, which is currently a dead heat.
As someone with significant experience as an accredited journalist for half a decade in Switzerland, the Middle East, and Mexico, this type of meddling is unsurprising.
To be explicit, these two newspapers exemplify corporate media: both are owned by large companies and controlled by powerful, wealthy individuals.
In my experience, corporate media outlets—against the wishes of journalists with integrity—will always choose the wrong side if it’s in the interest of their corporate overlords. Because they often have the exclusive resources to broadcast news and opinion, they effectively manipulate public discourse and perspective, ultimately harming independent media and society as a whole.
TL;DR: Be aware of the covert agenda of corporate media and avoid relying on it exclusively.
† According to the First Amendment Museum, this cartoon by Art Young, published in The Masses in 1912 or 1913,
“depicts the Associated Press’s president, Frank B. Noyes, poisoning a well labeled ‘The News’ with lies, suppressed facts, slander, and prejudice. The artist was infuriated by the lack of news coverage concerning the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek strike of 1912, in which striking miners engaged in bloody violence against militia hired by coal companies.”
Today, the Associated Press is owned by its member media outlets, including The Washington Post, whose CEO, William Lewis, sits on APs Board of Directors.