David Brauer wrote: > But in my experience, 99 percent of things you think are > journalistic conspiracies are really the result of > cluelessness, incompetence, or sloth.
and late he wrote also wrote: > . . . one weakness of the Major Daily - they don't always > think about helping readers empower themselves, which is a > virtue of the Internet. Most news people I know couldn't conspire their way out of a wet paper bag. And I don't think Doug Grow is clueless, incompetent, or slothful. I'd like to delve into the complaint you have about the Star Tribune not thinking about how to empower readers. I promise not to bring up the Trilateral Commission. Everyone has to concede that there is a huge effort afoot to control the public mind. I don't know that you can call the multi-billion dollar public relations industry a mere conspiracy. The PR industry influences the Star Tribune. You cannot argue with that fact. The only argument is to what degree the Star Tribune is influenced compared to, say, the New York Times or the Red Wing Republican Eagle. For more information see Toxic Sludge is Good for You http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/1567510604/ ) Why have they been working to control what we feel and think since the early 20th century? The public relations industry rose up because public opinion was seen as a threat to business interests and it was recognized that resorting to violence to control people would become less and less effective over time. For more on this read David Hume, or more recent writings by the father of the PR industry, Edward Bernays http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/080461511X/ ), who, by the way, was a liberal. Bernays claimed that the regimentation of our minds is an essential component of a successful democracy. He also saw it as a way to maintain power structures and wealth roughly they way they were in the 1920's when he wrote his manual of the burgeoning PR industry. This dovetails with what James Madison was worried about in the 1780's. He referred to the problem as "mob rule" and "symptoms of a leveling spirit." The gist of it is that if poor and disenfranchised people could vote, pretty soon they would be threatening the ability of government to protect the business class from the majority of marginalized society. Madison and the other framers of the constitution wanted the country ruled by the wealthy, and the general population fractionalized and passive. Does that sound a little bit like the city we have today? Seems to me like a pretty stable system. The modern methods of pacifying people include advertising, public relations, entertainment, and the commercial press. That brings me around to the term "activists," which Doug Grow used to describe list participants. I don't have supporting documentation on this, but it strikes me that the term "activist" as used in the Star Tribune has a certain sullied quality to it. Like Freeman Wicklund is an "activist" and the Highway 55 protesters were "activists." Our new mayor was even labeled an activist by the Star Tribune. The connotation is that activists are somehow outsiders and disruptive. Don't think there's anything to it? Then tell me if Red McCombs has ever been labeled a "stadium activist." He's politically active isn't he? I'm not claiming Doug Grow thinks about this stuff. But that doesn't make it less real. I can't convince myself it's a coincidence that the Star Tribune doesn't encourage people to raise their voices. I also have trouble with the idea that newspapers are somehow altruistic by their very nature. I realize that this is something that is important for reporters to convince themselves of, but I can't get away from the connection between public relations and corporate power and the fact that giant corporations run the media. It seems like big business being in control of what we read every day is harmful to democracy if you believe that democracy is about what we covered in civics class, that people should determine the shape of their communities. Aaron Osterby Lowry Hill _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
