FREE ESSAY ON CORPORATE CONTROL

CORPORATE CONTROL

Corporate Control
It seems that there is an ever-increasing trend in our society. Big corporations are
becoming more and more influential in our lives. As they gain more and more muscle in our
government they also invade our schools and many other facets of our lives. Perhaps the
most disturbing area of potential influence, however, is corporate control of the media.
Can the American media uphold its values of free press under pressure from big
corporations? Can they continue to present the absolute truth? The simple answer,
especially in my opinion, is no. The movie The Insider provides us with an excellent case
to back that point of view.
Perhaps one of the biggest stories of this decade has been the tobacco industry. We saw
them stand before Congress and tell the world that cigarettes were not addictive. The
industry was able to lawyer its way out of trouble time and time again. They essentially
used legal maneuvers, and certainly money, to keep the truth from the American people.
Finally, we saw all that come to an end.
When Jeff Wigand decided it was time to tell the truth, he put everything he valued at
risk. He stood to loose his family, any chance at a job, and quite possibly his life. He
knew all these things and still he went on, because he thought he could make a
difference. He knew that his testimony would never be heard in a court of law, so where
could he turn. The answer: the fourth and fifth estates, or the press and television.
Every night millions of Americans sit down and watch the nightly news or read the paper.
We know that we will be told all the days news, that we will be educated about what is
happening in the world around us. We also know that we will be updated on issues that we
care about as individuals and a society.
Another delivery mechanism for information is television magazine shows like 60 Minutes.
People know that when Mike Wallace talks to them, they should listen. They can also look
at his reputation and know that he is telling the truth. Wigand put faith in that fact.
Wigand agreed to do an interview with 60 Minutes because he knew that people would
listen. He knew that the absolute truth would finally be out in the open, and that it
would come from a source that people would believe. He risked everything because he had
faith in the media and journalists.
What happened next is, quite frankly, disgraceful. When the tobacco industry,
specifically the company B&W learned that CBS intended to air the interview, they began
to lean on the CBS corporate office. They threatened lawsuits that could quite possibly
mean that B&W would end up owning CBS. There were other factors as well.
Westinghouse was about to purchase CBS. That meant that corporate managers stood to make
lots of money. A lawsuit with B&W could have easily made Westinghouse pull out of the
deal, and people would loose money. Essentially the whole situation came down to an issue
of money.
CBS News decided not to air the story. It is quite obvious that they did not make that
decision based upon any journalistic issues. They were being leaned on by the corporate
office, which was looking at dollar signs. CBS News was setting aside the truth for
money, something it never should have even considered doing.
Than goodness that Lowell Bergman was there to stop the lunacy. He correctly pointed out
that the CBS corporate office had no right to tell CBS News what stories it could and
could not air. The truth is the truth, no matter who it damages. Bergman embarked on a
crusade to see that the whole story was aired.
Eventually CBS did air the entire interview. The only did so after receiving sharp
criticism in The New York Times. The Washington Post, also showed that the smear campaign
that CBS was using as justification for not airing the story, was nothing more than
trumped up charges. CBS was left looking quite nasty, and decided to show the interview.
The whole point is that business has no right to decide what is news. They have no right
to come and stop a story from airing because it might hurt their profit margin. Obviously
large news organizations need to have a corporate division to handle business affairs,
but business should not be allowed to effect good journalism.
At one point in the film, Bergman makes a comment about the press only being free to
someone who can afford it. That is a powerful comment. The whole reason that the First
Amendment exists is to ensure that the government cannot interfere with what we see and
hear. The sad thing is, we are allowing business to do it instead.
In our fine democratic tradition, we have never allowed to control what the press prints
or broadcasts. We realize that education about issues is the best insurance that we have
that our political system will survive. We cling to our belief in free speech and free
press as one of our greatest accomplishments.
Big corporations cannot be allowed to control what we see and here. If we did, all our
news would be is a series of infomercials. We would never know the truth about what was
happening within those companies. If they did something wrong, they could simply not
publish it. Our faith in the news would be a sham.
As we look at the news, we see the war against big business being waged. In Seattle,
protestors are declaring war on the World Trade Organization. Our courts have decided
that Microsoft is a monopoly, and they are siding against big business one class-action
suite after another. Imagine what would happen if the big corporations had kept all that
out of the news, if no one knew what was happening. What a crazy world we would be living
in.