Extra! Mainstream media exposed!

Did you know that the United States is one of the world's leading manufacturers and exporters of torture devices? Ever heard of ECHELON, the U.S. National Security Agency's system for monitoring and tracking e-mail, telephone and telex communications?\nNo, you say? Well, there's a reason for that. It's called self-censorship.\nThe lack of news articles about ECHELON and the U.S. torture device industry is just one example of how the mainstream press fails the American people, to whom they, the purveyors of news and public affairs, are obligated and entrusted to report such matters. \nThe U.S. news media suffer from, in the words of author and journalist Danny Schechter, "a kind of group-think corporate consensus, steeped in market logic and deeply inbred in an un-brave news culture that leads to conscience-free conformity and self-censorship."\n"Group-think" and "market logic" are concepts the mainstream news media won't acknowledge. And that last one, "self-censorship," that's a dirty word in their newsrooms. Doesn't happen. Unthinkable. Unconscionable. Yeah, right.\nNoted media scholar and critic Robert W. McChesney will speak about these and other news media shortcomings 7:30-9 p.m. Monday in Ernie Pyle Hall Room 220. His talk, "The Rise and Fall of Journalism," will explore "how corporate ownership, concentration and commercialism have assisted in making journalism an anti-democratic force in American life," according to its abstract. \nMcChesney has a long and confrontational history with the news industry. A research professor at the University of Illinois, he has written books about issues such as corporate control of media and the role of the press.\nNot to degrade the likes of Cokie Roberts and Sam Donaldson -- two "celebrity" journalists who've recently spoken at IU -- but McChesney represents the flipside of the coin: the outsider crying in the wilderness to anyone who will listen that all is not well in America, especially its news media. Along with critics such as Ben Bagdikian, author of "The Media Monopoly," and Noam Chomsky, the mind behind the documentary film "Manufacturing Consent," McChesney embodies a sort of Socratic gadfly for the mainstream news media -- someone to poke and prod them with a sharp stick now and then. Especially when they screw up. \nStudent journalists would learn a little bit about what it's like out there in the big bad world of high-stakes journalism. Like how, for example, stories are killed, suppressed or otherwise censored by newspapers because of business interests; how the First Amendment applies only as long as it can be justified against the bottom line; and how seemingly important stories, such as the U.S. drug industry's use of low-income and homeless people as guinea pigs, never see the light of day in mainstream media outlets.\nBut McChesney's talk would also be highly beneficial for consumers of news -- the readers. In fact, anyone who has ever read a newspaper should attend. Readers might not agree with what McChesney theorizes, but they will be more aware of what the mainstream news media are trying to do. \nTerms such as agenda setting, gate keeping, synergy and reinforcement of the status quo come to mind; brainwashing, too, if you're into conspiracy theories.\nMcChesney's visit presents the IDS and its readers with an opportunity to gain insight into the news media's power structures. It probably won't be easy listening, especially for consumers of media who aren't fully aware of the rather insidious and incestuous nature of the ever-dwindling number of companies that control what we read, see and hear. Nevertheless, it's a singular opportunity to hear a notable dissident expound upon a topic you won't hear about from Dan Rather, Peter Jennings or Tom Brokaw.\nIn closing, here's an excerpt from McChesney's essay, "Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy": \n"What is tragic -- or absurd -- is that the dominant perception of the 'free press' still regards the government as the sole foe of freedom … Imagine if the federal government demanded that newspaper and broadcast journalism staffs be cut in half, that foreign bureaus be closed and that news be tailored to suit the government's self-interests. There would be an outcry that would make the Alien and Seditions Acts, the Red Scares and Watergate seem like child's play. Yet when corporate America aggressively pursues the exact same policies, scarcely a murmur of dissent can be detected in the political culture."\nIntrigued? You should be.