Have we allowed the national newsmedia to grow too influential in America? We know that they are in control of quite a bit of information -- but what does that mean to us as citizens of the United States?

Have we allowed the national media to grow too influential in the United States? We know that they control much of what we see and hear about the world around us -- but what does that mean to us as a society?

The newsmedia have existed for centuries, but illiteracy would remain an obstacle to effecting huge political change through them until the late 19th century, when an increasingly lettered populace suddenly acquired an appetite for literature. It was the era of the penny dreadful, the serialized novel... and the well-read newspaper.

William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper magnate, got in on the ground floor: his papers offered him great political power and greater wealth through monopolistic practices and bribery. He used his influence heavily, and is said to have started two wars. This was a man who advised that McKinley be assassinated (a few months before he was shot and killed), and shot and killed a political rival -- and proceeded to get away with it scot-free. His long, sordid life stands as a stunning reproach to those who would trust the newsmedia with their great power.

But what about today? For the most part, people don't read the papers any more -- and if they do, they don't pay attention to much besides the funny pages. There's no niche in the world for a gigantic newspaper magnate any more with the emergence of movies and television, so Hearst is almost certainly one of a kind. Or is he?

For an example of a modern Hearst, we need look only to the modern newsmedia: huge broadcasting corporations, often with diverse holdings throughout the field of telecommunications. In the last decade alone we have seen such absurdities as MSNBC and AOL-Time Warner. These are newsmedia which are so surreal in their spread -- with holdings in the Internet, computing, all manner of paper media, movies, God knows what else -- that the idea they are even capable of presenting an unbiased viewpoint beggars the imagination. They are conglomerates, corporations first and foremost, and they want to sell.
It is seldom asked what, exactly, they are selling. It's a good question, though, and  the answer? They sell everything money shouldn't be able to buy.
They sell popularity; the media can make a no-talent celebrity into a sensation because he or she is photogenic and bland enough to sell. They adore the raffish outsiders -- the Eminems, the Nirvanas, the new punk rock scene. Rebellion sells. An entire generation has grown up at the social teat of MTV, and now the only difference between the 'conformists' and the 'rebels' is often hair color...
They sell beliefs, prepackaged and ready to move en masse. The media complex brought us The Matrix, the media complex brought us Fight Club, the media complex brings us televangelists and soapbox prophets with hot guitars. They want to move philosophy, the most personal aspect of a man or woman's life, the same way a fast-food joint moves burgers: make it bland and inoffensive, with a hint of something deeper that makes you want more...
They sell politics, a new 21st-century politics. Dead is the progressive era - fighting specific, tangible evils is bad for business. Dead is the era of the Cross of Gold -- what was once the best forum for political discourse in America has become an arena for peppy soundbites that feel good and mean nothing. Dead is the era of Kennedy and Nixon -- making what you really stand for clear is political suicide. The new generation has been trained very well to see the political world as a world of resolve and righteousness, not a world of ideals. Jefferson would declare the American Republic as it exists today a dead thing...
They sell talent; they don't need to find good singers, fresh artists, talented writers... it's cheaper and faster and easier to make who they already have good, fresh, talented. When you hold the culture of a nation like putty in your hands, who's to stop you from changing the rules by which art is judged? Those who object are the minority. The majority want to belong. The majority will spend $70 on a trucker hat, $150 on a t-shirt, $200 on shoes, to belong to the same group as someone famous. Good art is controversial, and genuine controversy is bad for business... the free market media have boiled the life out of art as one hard-boils an egg.
They sell values; watch just about any 'romantic comedy' and you'll see over and over a weak woman being saved by a knight in shining armor, a happy family in the epilogue, and love conquering all. Watch any high-school comedy and most of the humor will be about someone trying to act out of his or her social station; watch any high-school drama and all tragedy will be caused by refusal to fit in 'as you should'. Watch just about any black-white buddy-cop movie and you'll see the black man as a harmless buffoon who lacks civilization -- or the white man as a fop who needs to loosen up, but be wary of too much loosening. A recent study showed that nearly no mainstream films portrayed Arabic characters in a sympathetic or characterized light... they are fanatics or savages, and little in between. In the movies, hard work always wins out against negative circumstances, there are good guys and bad guys, and there's no permanent gray area. It's social conditioning, catering to our most basic and harmful pack-dog instincts for a healthy profit.
They sell the world to us; we don't know anyone from the Middle East or Europe, so we have to buy whatever they throw us about the rest of the world... massacres occur daily, and we don't hear about them. Starvation daily kills thousands, and we don't hear about it. We hear about anti-American terrorism, we hear about the victories of the democratic crusade against the fundamentalist heathens -- with bloodless hands we cut down a faceless enemy. We watch Shock and Awe on television as an early Forth of July, but no one tells us, but in passing, that it causes more casualties than the estimated damage of a nuclear attack... we are Right and they are Wrong, and the majority do not ask questions for fear of becoming an outsider.
They sell history; newspaper stories call into question protest against a failed war, refusal to celebrate a holiday consecrating a mass murderer, 'frivolous lawsuits' demonstrating clear corporate abuse. We are taught through movies that the Bad Guys were the ones who did terrible things, and we fought with great resolve and courage to get rid of the Bad Guys. There is no 'Saving Private Grossmann'. The human cost of the war on both sides is made to elude us, and we continue to stride forward vengeful and indignant to continue history's endless chain of violence.
They sell religion; seen the Passion of the Christ? They sell sex; thin is sexy and thinner is sexier!