America Is a Hollow Democracy If Media Rigs Presidential Elections

We all remember the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, but only a few today realize how dangerously monopolistic media companies have become.  It was bad enough in 1983 when only 50 companies owned 90% of US media. 

      But by 2011, Business Insider reports that “Media has never been more consolidated.  [Only] 6 media giants now control a staggering 90% of what we read, watch, or listen to.”  It’s worse now.  The problem is never reported on.  Guess why. 

    The public is clueless about how their “opinions” about politics, consumerism, and everything else are being almost 100% controlled  24 hours a day, 7 days each week, and 365 days per year (that’s 24–7–365).  The 6 media giants all but own the First Amendment and your lives.    

     The problem is glaringly obvious in the 2016 presidential election, though only a handful notice commentary beyond television news and print newspapers (many of which primarily cut-and-paste from sources like Associated Press).  Chances are, most Americans will never have heard of the Breitbart article Pat Caddell on ‘Cooked’ Reuters Poll: ‘Never in My Life Have I Seen a News Organization Do Something So Dishonest’ last week, in which “political strategist Pat Caddell outlined his charge that Reuters tampered with its own daily tracking poll to manufacture a sudden surge for Hillary Clinton.”

      “They not only changed their formula, to put Hillary ahead. They went back and changed the results, for a week of results where Trump was ahead, and then they turned those into Hillary leads,” said Caddell. “They also erased all the former polling off the site. They didn’t tweak their procedure – they cooked it.”  In fact, “They made a switch, as much as nine points, in their results from the beginning of last week, the 25th and 26th. It is, beyond doubt, the most outrageous thing…This is what the media is willing to do, to try to elect her .”

       Caddell “also noted the contrast between how Donald Trump’s appearance on ABC News over the weekend was immediately followed by a round-table of commentators attacking him, but Fox News staged no such ambush of Clinton.”  And he “furthermore dismissed Trump’s ABC News interviewer George Stephanopoulos as “a former Democratic operative, a Clinton contributor, and an absolute fraud as a newsperson.”

     The biggest lies and subterfuges are often the least suspected.  The Muslim couple who threw the first nasty punch against Trump at the convention has turned into a daily attack since then.   Caddell says that “It is unbelievable what [Stephanopoulos] did. He interviewed Trump, and basically then had the Khan family – the Muslim mother and father of the soldier who was killed – and General Allen on to attack Trump after the interview. He showed them the interview and then let attack him, and then loaded a panel with people who are so negative.”

     Even more frightening is the realization that such one-sided coverage is meant to steal the election away from voters.  Any objection is quickly labeled conspiracy theory.  Well, calling everyone who disagrees a racist certainly works, doesn’t it?  

        Trump owns buildings, not brainwashing media.  Caddell implies that the 6 corporations, a virtually unchallenged media monopoly, also have establishment politicians from both parties in their pockets: “It’s not just the Democrats – remember what’s happening in Washington, the coalition against Trump, who stands almost alone, is also filled with these Bush-type Republicans, and establishment Republicans, who view him as a real threat to their ability to hold on to their party, and their own niche in this corrupt system.”

      With a wink, we disagree that Trump “stands almost alone.”  He is the populist voice of the majority of disenfranchised Americans who seem to support him instinctively.  “Trump is the independent variable,” says Caddell.  It is also likely that the charismatic Trump family will guide the GOP for decades to come.