Bourgeois media

2025-07-17T00:47:45Z

173.75.25.181: Removed media consolodiation graph, it is inaccurate and comes from an unreliable source. https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/39311/is-90-of-media-in-the-usa-controlled-by-six-companies?rq=1

'''Bourgeois media''' is means of communication (usually news media) that is owned, controlled, or otherwise serves the interests of the [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]] class.<ref>{{Citation|author=[[Lenin]]|year=1917|title=Draft Resolution On Freedom Of The Press|chapter=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/nov/04.htm|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Swiss Policy Research|title=The American Empire and its Media|url=https://swprs.org/the-american-empire-and-its-media/}}</ref> Bourgeois media can be either state-owned, such as the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|UK]]'s [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] or [[Qatar]]'s [[Al Jazeera]], or for-profit private media, such as [[AT&T]]-owned [[Cable News Network|CNN]]. In common political discourse, the term "'''corporate media'''" is also used to specifically refer to means of communication controlled by for-profit corporations promoting their own interests.<ref>[https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/17/corporate-media-the-enemy-of-the-people/ Corporate Media: the Enemy of the People] by Paul Street on [[CounterPunch]] on Aug 17, 2018</ref><ref>[https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/22/after-20-years-of-failed-war-corporate-media-stills-give-wars-of-empire-a-pass/ After 20 Years of Failed War, Corporate Media Still Give Wars of Empire a Pass] by Robin Andersen on [[CounterPunch]]</ref>
== United States ==
[[File:Media_consolidation_in_the_US_2.jpg|thumb|211x211px|Another infographic with more logos of subsidiaries]]
Individual billionaires also bankroll their own propaganda outlets, ranging from liberal [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] like [[Bill Gates]]<ref>{{News citation|journalist=[[Alan Macleod]]|date=2021-11-15|title=Revealed: Documents Show Bill Gates Has Given $319 Million to Media Outlets|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/documents-show-bill-gates-has-given-319-million-to-media-outlets/278943/|newspaper=[[Mintpress News]]|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> to right-wing oil billionaires behind the [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] [[PragerU]].<ref>{{News citation|journalist=Claire Goforth|date=2019-10-25|title=PragerU is conservatism for the youths—brought to you by old billionaires|url=https://www.dailydot.com/debug/prager-u-benefactors-dan-wilks-sheldon-adelson/|newspaper=|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|journalist=|date=|title=Right-Wing Views for Generation Z, Five Minutes at a Time|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/04/us/politics/dennis-prager-university.html|newspaper=|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref> Additionally, one of the richest individuals in the world, [[Jeff Bezos]] (the owner of [[Amazon.com, Inc.|Amazon]]), owns and controls the [[The Washington Post|Washington Post]] in order to promote his own financial interests.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=[[Alan Macleod]]|date=2021-06-18|title=With Bezos at the Helm, Democracy Dies at the Washington Post Editorial Board|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/jeff-bezos-at-helm-democracy-dies-at-washington-post-editorial-board/277738/|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203143509/https://www.mintpressnews.com/jeff-bezos-at-helm-democracy-dies-at-washington-post-editorial-board/277738/|archive-date=|retrieved=}}</ref>

In recent times, the [[far-right]] section of the Statesian corporate-news has increasingly radicalized their content, often taking advantage of the desperate economic state among the [[Petty bourgeoisie|petite-bourgeoisie]], and spreading racist, xenophobic, and nativist propaganda, particularly in regards to undocumented immigration in the southern border of the USA, which many far-right news corporations, such as [[FOX]], have used to spread [[White Genocide Conspiracy Theory|white-supremacist]] [[Conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]].<ref>{{News citation|author=Dan Kennedy|newspaper=GBH|title=Tucker Carlson Is A White Supremacist. And He's Giving Fox Viewers Exactly What They Want.|date=2021-4-15|url=https://www.wgbh.org/news/commentary/2021/04/15/tucker-carlson-is-a-white-supremacist-and-hes-giving-fox-viewers-exactly-what-they-want}}</ref>

Only 11% of North Americans trust television news, and only 16% trust newspapers.<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|author=[[Ben Norton]]|newspaper=[[Multipolarista]]|title=Polls show almost no one trusts U.S. media, after decades of war propaganda and lies|date=2022-07-30|url=https://multipolarista.com/2022/07/30/trust-us-media-war-propaganda/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220806143950/https://multipolarista.com/2022/07/30/trust-us-media-war-propaganda/|archive-date=2022-08-06|retrieved=2022-08-07}}</ref>
==Support for war==
[[File:UsaMediaLies1.jpg|thumb|211x211px|Some of the most famous lies perpetuated by [[United States|Statesian]] big media]]
As US General Smedly Butler said, [[Library:War is a racket|war is a racket]]. The corporations that own the media are usually the beneficiaries of this racket, either directly through investments, or indirectly through the economic activity as a result of imperialist war.<ref>[https://miscellanynews.org/2021/05/13/opinions/the-improper-meshing-of-the-corporate-media-and-the-military-industrial-complex/ The (im)proper meshing of the corporate media and the military-industrial complex]</ref><ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/push-for-war-highlights-need-for-independent-media_b_58ee8b0ce4b04cae050dc423 Push for War Highlights Need for Independent Media]</ref><ref>[https://truthout.org/articles/corporate-media-are-erasing-uss-long-term-culpability-for-afghanistan-war/ Corporate Media Are Erasing US’s Long-Term Culpability for Afghanistan War] on [[TruthOut]]</ref>

U.S. bourgeois media promoted the U.S. colonization of [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]], the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]], and [[Commonwealth of Puerto Rico|Puerto Rico]] in 1898. ''[[The New York Times]]'' denied that the 1945 nuclear bombing of Hiroshima caused dangerous levels of radiation. In the 1960s, Statesian media claimed that [[Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945–1975)|Vietnam]] attacked the United States in the Gulf of Tonkin. In the 1980s, U.S. media blamed the [[Sandinista National Liberation Front|Sandinistas]] for war crimes committed by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]-backed [[Contras]].<ref name=":0" /> They completely ignored the 1992 war crimes tribunal against [[George H. W. Bush|George Bush]].<ref>{{Web citation|date=2023-04-12|title=Ramsey Clark, human rights fighter – 1927-2021|url=https://www.workers.org/2021/04/55760/|newspaper=[[Workers World]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131173503/https://www.workers.org/2021/04/55760/|archive-date=2023-01-31|retrieved=2023-04-23|author=Sara Flounders}}</ref> In 2003, they tried to justify the [[Iraq War|U.S. invasion of Iraq]] by falsely claiming that [[Saddam Hussein]] had weapons of mass destruction.<ref name=":0" />
==Attacks against progressive candidates==
Despite the fact that many "progressives" are merely [[Social Democracy|social-democrats]] who do not challenge the [[Capitalism|capitalist]] system, they're still attacked by the corporate media for weakly threatening the control that corporations hold over society.<ref>[https://politicsdoneright.com/2019/11/corporate-media-progressive-candidates/ Corporate media attacks Progressive candidates after Democratic Debate]</ref><ref>[https://btlonline.org/bias-against-progressive-candidates-evident-in-corporate-media-coverage-of-democratic-primary/ Bias Against Progressive Candidates Evident in Corporate Media Coverage of Democratic Primary]</ref><ref>[https://truthout.org/articles/the-people-vs-the-democratic-establishment-the-coming-attack-on-progressive-candidates/ The People vs. the Democratic Establishment: The Coming Attack on Progressive Candidates]</ref>

== Alternatives ==

*[[:Category:Anti-imperialist news outlets|Anti-imperialist media outlets (category)]]
*[[:Category:Targets of censorship|Targets of censorship (category)]]

== See also ==

* [[Operation Mockingbird]]

== References ==
[[Category:Capitalist progaganda]]
<references />
[[Category:Bourgeois media]]

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Bourgeois media