12.20.99 End Of The Line For 'Free Press' --3 Networks Combine News Services The news departments of Fox, ABC and CBS are going to merge into one single news "cooperative," with the faceless, Orwellian name of "Network News Service". Well isn't THAT just peachy. I mean REALLY. This is just about the most blatant example yet of the utter corruption and devolution of the major news media organizations into a monolithic, spineless mouthpiece for the "state". How much easier it is to control the "news" (what's that again?) a large percentage of Americans will hear, if the raw information gathered from all three networks funnels into only one "processing" facility, where any inconsistencies with the official sanctioned versions of events can be discreetly expunged and smoothed out, before the polished, "synthesized" information is dispersed back to the member organizations for publication/broadcast. And since all THREE networks involved in this "deal" will be spewing and regurgitating the exact same sanitized, edited, adulterated, denatured and spin-doctored version of reality, why bother watching ANY of them? With regard to these three major news outlets it's bye-bye, and so long... to any semblance of journalistic integrity and to the final vestiges of supposedly fundamentally inviolable "free press." Killed from within, no less, with nary a shot having been fired... at least in this case. In a sheer masterpiece of "big lie" doubletalk, CBS News president Andrew Heyward said the new system "enables each network... to devote more resources to its own coverage ... which will ultimately differentiate one station... from its competitors." Right. What WILL occur is the exact OPPOSITE, obviously. Interestingly, and perhaps fortunately, NBC was not approached with the "offer" as were the other three networks, a fact called "curious" by an NBC spokeswoman. Hey, take it as a compliment, NBC! Maybe NBC isn't yet infiltrated sufficiently with sellouts and pushovers. Although many may argue that the corruption of the press was nearly complete already, in our view this merger of three separate national news departments is an irrefutable indication of just how far the deterioration and disintegration has progressed. NewsHawk® Inc. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap19991220_1325.html WIRE:12/20/1999 19:22:00 ET Networks announce news cooperative NEW YORK (AP) _ Three networks are joining their news services into a single domestic news cooperative, they announced Monday. Network News Service will consist of ABC NewsOne, CBS Newspath and Fox News Edge. NNS will collect video from the affiliates of all three news services, as well as the three network's newsgathering units and other sources, and supply this "raw video" back to ABC NewsOne, CBS Newspath and Fox News Edge. Each network's news service will select from all of that day's NNS material for inclusion in its regular feeds to affiliates. Meanwhile, the three services will continue to operate as separate competing entities. NBC is not part of the arrangement. "We think it's curious that we were not included in these discussions," said NBC spokeswoman Alex Constantinople. "NNS will be particularly important to breaking news coverage," said Roger Ailes, Fox News chairman. "It will dramatically enhance the ability of each network news service to cover breaking stories by offering more than one source of video." CBS News president Andrew Heyward added that the new arrangement "enables each network news service to devote more resources to its own coverage ... which will ultimately differentiate one station or one service from its competitors." <snip> Copyright 1999 ABC
