Page 178 - Dragon Flood

Manufacturing Consent

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With the technological advances of the 20 century; radio, television, and the Internet, the
global elite have found new methods of guiding the populace. By controlling the media, a
relatively small number of unknown, and unseen, men and women are able to shape
nationalistic views, deceive the masses, and manipulate mankind into embracing whatever
actions they desire. Although violence and forceful coercion are still tools of an elite to gain
the consent of men and women, to an increasing extent the puppet masters of mankind
have found that the crowd can be controlled by controlling the “human climate.” Philip
Lesly, a long time advocate of the use of propaganda by an elite to control the masses, began
a bi-monthly publication years ago called Managing the Human Climate. It is of benefit to
consider what is meant by this expression.

The word climate is defined as “the prevailing attitudes, standards, or environmental
conditions of a group, period, or place.” A moneyed elite found it possible to control the
climate in which attitudes are formed, and actions are birthed. By control of the media and
the governments of nations, they are well positioned to not only set the agenda for public
discussion, but to define the limits of that discussion. They dictate the conversation and
choose the subjects of public debate.

In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. At the
time, Ben Bagdikian was called “alarmist” for pointing this out in his book, The Media
Monopoly. In his 4th edition, published in 1992, he wrote “in the U.S., fewer than two
dozen of these extraordinary creatures own and operate 90% of the mass media” —
controlling almost all of America’s newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books,
records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies. He predicted then that
eventually this number would fall to about half a dozen companies. This was greeted with
skepticism at the time. When the 6th edition of The Media Monopoly was published in
2000, the number had fallen to six. Since then, there have been more mergers and the
scope has expanded to include new media like the Internet market.

In 2004, Bagdikian’s revised and expanded book, The New Media Monopoly, shows that
only 5 huge corporations — Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch’s News Corporation,
Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) — now control most of the media
industry in the U.S..