Silent Censorship

By Eric Ivanov on 09/02/2009

Everyone is worried about the government taking control of the media, and making it a mouthpiece of the president. Hate to pop the conspiracy theorist's balloon, but that is the last thing that will happen. They are missing the amazing things that are happening right in front of them. Individual media companies are censoring themselves and not even trying to hide it. The most recent and visible examples are ABC and NBC refusing to air an Anti-Obamacare ad, and News Corp. and GE striking a deal to tone down the bashing.
With many people worried about the right direction of the nation, the heath care issue is taking a front row seat in the battle. TV ads are appearing all over the TV, Internet, magazines, and flyers, but recently two major networks, ABC and NBC, are refusing to air a simple thirty-second commercial that urges people see another side of things. The networks are not technically doing anything wrong. They are a company that can choose to air what it wants and what kind of advertising it wants to put with its programming. ABC and NBC may have special interests in a universal health care system, they may not like what is being said in the ad, or they may just not want to flat out show ads that people will dislike and cause the network to loose face.
Then there is a much more devious side of the networks. Some time ago there was a secret meeting between the Executives of MSNBC and FOX. They discussed having a truce between the networks, just as the feud between FOX's Bill O'Reilly and MSNBC's Keith Oberman reached an all time high. It came out that FOX bullied its way through negotiations and both parties agreed to stop the name-calling.
What does this say for us as viewers? First of all it says that the media does and is very willing to make backdoor deals to get what they want. That means we may not be getting the absolute truth out of any network because of the unseen acts that happen off camera. We will be only getting the information that the "corporation" wants us to have.
Another form of censorship that networks readily use is the bleeping, leaving out information, and altering photos. A perfect example is FOX News. They used altered photos of two New York Times employees when they said some disparaging comments about one of the shows. They were disfigured and ugly, what better way to make people like you more? It is a very unethical tactic, and only creates bad and misleading news that people are watching. Most of the viewers will take it all in and never go back and research it. That's a bad idea, especially when it appears the media is doing these things deliberately. In another segment on FOX, Bill O'Reilly's name was bleeped when he was at the butt end of a joke. It may not seem that extreme, but if they keep his name out of something like a joke, what else can happen.
In the end it would appear that the media is only there for themselves. They are a company and have many different ties in all different areas of our nation. No matter what it is the media can edit and sensor it, then give the information to you. We must remember that networks are companies and do not have to be accountable to us like the federal government. Be a smart consumer and research your information.

Additional Photos: ["hands," thetechmind.com, "eye chart", fixcas.com, "flag", wordpress.]