By Ryan Murphy
The most cherished freedom American citizens take for granted is freedom of speech, and there is no media innovation that utilizes freedom of speech like YouTube. From video blogs, to “how to” videos, to campaigning, to documentaries, YouTube has given the world a new, uncensored medium to express unlimited imagination. YouTube was created in 2005 byChad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim to give the world a new way to communicate. With a staggering 2 billion videos viewed a day in 2010, YouTube is changing the way the individual can communicate their thoughts all over the world.
On November 13, 2006 Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion, and as of 2010 annual advertising revenues are about $200 million. According to the study by comScore Google sites accounted for 44.1 percent of all videos viewed in the U.S. market in July, and Google's nearest competitor, Fox Interactive Media, accounted for 3.9 percent, followed by Microsoft properties at 2.5 percent and Yahoo sites at 2.4 percent. The report also found that three-quarters of U.S. Internet users watched online videos, with the average viewer watching 235 minutes. Google had 54.7 average videos per viewer compared to 8.1 for Fox, 7.2 for Yahoo and 8.7 for Microsoft (Quality of service, 2008).
As YouTube puts the power of freedom of speech in the hands of every human being in the planet, censorship by governments all over the world is becoming a major concern for consumers. In March of 2010, Google was banned in China particularly because of the social networking sites that include YouTube, Face book, and Twitter. Government’s everywhere are cracking down on dissidents against government policy that voice their opinions on these social networking sites, because of the social unrest it is causing in primarily socialist communist countries (Failed Search, 2010). The popularity of YouTube is mainly due to the freedom of expression it gives to its consumer, and its survival explicitly depends on government keeping their sticky fingers off censorship regulations for these sites.
The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), was introduced on September 21, 2010, and If people don't speak out against this unconstitutional bill US citizens could soon find themselves joining Iranians and Chinese in being blocked from accessing broad chunks of the public Internet. Attorney General Eric Holder would have unlimited power over the internet in the US, which is very dangerous for the first amendment and dissenters of government during political uprisings and economic downturns (Ahmed, 2009).
Viacom has been suing YouTube for years for copyright infringement, but YouTube is perfectly legally as long as they take down the copyrighted material as soon as they are informed about it, this is why Viacom lost to YouTube in court. But if COICA passes, Viacom wouldn’t need to prove YouTube is doing anything illegal, as long as they can persuade the courts that enough people are using YouTube for copyright infringement, the entire site and all videos that do not pertain to the Governments agenda could be censored (Soraker, 2008). This would ultimately lead to DOJ ordering ISP’s to sensor whatever they want without a court order.
Since I have had a YouTube account I have noticed that all of YouTube’s ratings and number of views per video have been intentionally censored by YouTube to keep consumers from gravitating to viral videos that speak out against government or the economy. YouTube has also taken away their top ten and top 100 most viewed lists because all of the top twenty videos were documentaries on the coercion within government and Wall Street, shedding light on corporations involved in illegal activities and their involvement with government officials. YouTube claims that this is not true, but the account members between 2005 and 2008 remember how the old format used to file its most popular videos. The one thing I am very upset with YouTube about is the videos that have been deliberately taken off my web site, and many other website’s for speaking out about the truth pertaining to Government and the current state of the economy. YouTube censorship is already starting without the passage of a bill, imagine what the censorship will be once these bills are passed.
YouTube may be the most important innovation since the television and telephone, because it has become the checks and balances between citizens and Big Government in the past five years. If US citizens do not pay attention to the sneaky bills finding their way into congress, then the popular YouTube and social networking sites could be living out the last years of operation. I love that opinions can be heard from all over the world so I can maintain a worldly view on politics, economics, and philosophies held by citizens of the US as well as other nations. It is only a matter of time until YouTube is censored and the most famous networking site in the world will fade away, just as it has in 20 plus countries around the world. If America does not start paying attention to what congress is doing to the first amendment, I’m afraid unpopular laws for social networks are right around the corner.
I hope America will be able to enjoy their social networking sites for a long time to come, but movements towards censorship bills are diminishing my hopes, as US citizens apathetically turn their cheek to an incredibly important issue. Cass Sunstein and Eric Holder are at the forefront of destroying intranet neutrality and Americans should be watching these men like a hawk if they want to see YouTube survive for another decade. Cass Sunstein said, “"Our main policy claim here is that the government should engage" — should engage — "in cognitive infiltration of the groups dissenting against government." What scares me more than this quote is, what John F. Kennedy warned us about pertaining to media censorship, “We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
“Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed – and no republic can survive. And so it is to the printing press – to the recorder of man’s deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news — that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.”
-John F. Kennedy, 1961
Until Obama speaks these words of freedom of the press, I will continue to believe he is a socialist through his actions and his advisors actions, Cass Sunstein. Our favorite social networking sites like YouTube and Face book will become a thing of the past, just as it has in China if Americans do not start paying attention to our leaders agendas.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
The Fall of Illiberalism
History is critical in assuring democratic citizens are protected from oppression, for if our history is forgotten society is doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. In observing which news networks are reporting on the daily news with mixture of historical particulars, I found that CNN, MSNBC, and HLN speak nothing of history in conjunction with news all 5 days of the week. Fox News is the only network that consistently reminds its viewers of history and its implications tied in with current news events, and their ratings combined with their controversy continues to beat their competitors. This approach to encoding news creates a sense of empathy amongst viewers regarding decoding information, because everyone always remembers the history that changed the world for the worse, or for the better. Regardless of the mixed perspectives tied to historical events, freedom of speech allows those perspectives to be heard and debated permitting democratic citizens to exercise their right to freedom of thought. Without all the historically subjective, presumptuous, and imaginative ideologies out on the table by news encoders, how can an individual come to an educated decision that helps attain true separation of self through historical perspective?
Encoding news with history has made FNC the most controversial news network on television, but in a country that exercises freedom of thought is it not the responsibility of the press to “stir up the pot” when deemed necessary. “Freedom of the press” may be the most important power given to the people not for reasons that will stifle dissent, but for reasons that will encourage it. If a news organization does not question the status quo, then suspicion of corporate agenda should spark fearless investigation of hegemonic forces at work. Cable news viewers of the 21st century are beginning to notice hegemonic forces in media, and as a result are shying away from liberal news because of their unquestionable agendas relating to Wall Street and Government.
General Electric’s annual revenue is $190 billion deeming it the second largest company in the world, and is invested in derivatives, weapons, and global warming’s clean air campaign despite their reputation for being the world’s biggest pollution contributor. GE owns; NBC, Universal, CNBC, Universal Studios, Syfy, History Channel, USA, A&E, Military Channel, GE Capitol, GE Energy, GE Technology Infrastructure, and the list goes on. The news reported by NBC is spun in favor of GE’s investments as they should be, however, decoding GE’s news with the correct perspective involves a full examination of what they are invested in. This rule applies for every news medium and their involvements with corporations, politics, charities, subsidies and Wall Street investments. Every media corporation is generally going to report news that helps their personal investments, so it should be expected that their presentation of the news will always be spun to help their annual revenues.
The evolution of empires since ancient antiquity, has followed a path of progression of a republic, to constitutional liberalism, to liberalism, to illiberalism, to fascism, to socialism, to communism. A news medium that does not keep this in perspective will lose sight of the true definition of democracy is, and leftist new media has been on this path for quite some time. The political ideologies of republican and democrat are carefully organized diversions to maintain social status quo by means of pointless rivalry distractions. News Media’s sole purpose is create moral within a country to be united not divided and political left and right has lost touch with this concept. It seems conservative news encoders are beginning to make decisions that lean toward democracy news, seeking news stories that will inform the public of hegemonic oppression rather than covering the mainstream corporate propaganda that everyone is growing tired of. Both sides of the political news spectrum have much to learn about reporting news without spin, but as long as all news encoders remember to quote history as a vital source of information as it pertains to current news events, positive credibility will follow. Democrat John F. Kennedy once said, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.”
We Must Never Investigate Out of Fear, and We Must Never Fear to Investigate Monetary Policy
By: Ryan Murphy
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws." - Mayer Amschel Rothschild, 1790.
Fractional Banking Economics is defined by the term "usury", which means banks are given the power to print/issue a nation's money through issuing debt and using citizen's money to gain a profit through interest. Usury is the practice of lending money and charging the borrower interest, especially at an exorbitant or illegally high rate. "Usury" was punishable by death in every civilization around the world for 2500 years until the first bank of England in 1694. The global problems are not being caused by the communist/ fascist/ socialist or Marxist philosophies, they are being caused by the evil Banksters of the world like; Rothschild's, Lehman bros, Windsor's, Warburg, Rockefeller, Lloyd Blankfein, Harvey Krueger, Lazard bros bank of Paris, Kuhn and Loeb bank of NY, JP Morgan, and Hanover trust of NY.
Margin loans, and private banking greed was the cause of the first stock market crash which is similar to the naked short selling hedge funds (Derrivatives), and predatory lending today. 85 % of the current economic crisis is due to corrupt "usury" laws practiced by fractional banking, the other 15 % is the cause of Corporatocracy corruption (John Perkins, NSA, CIA), elimination of the Uptick rule by the SCC (2007), Securities and Derivatives (CFTC Brooksley Born 1996), Subprime mortgage loans (Lawyer Barak Obama, Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank, Community Reinvestment Act, Deregulations (1994-Obama,1995-Clinton, 1998-Obama, , 2003-McCain)). The Uptick rule was eliminated in 2007 by the SEC, when it has been in effect since 1937, written after the first stock market crash of '29. Most countries around the world also eliminated the uptick rule in 2007, and then brought it back because of slumping markets. Despite every county in the world bringing the uptick rule back into effect since the panic of 2008, America still remains without the uptick rule. Bringing it back now will be a futile effort, the damage by naked short selling hedge funds of derivatives and stock is already done.
The dismissal of these claims will force the consequences of denial to be more destructive than Hitler ever dreamed of being. Until Americans understand that our current monetary policy is a carefully designed system to maintain money as debt, we will all continue to be the slaves to currency rather than currency being the slave to man. America's revolutionary war victory from King George the III (/Draw), and Andrew Jackson killing the Second Central Bank in 1835, America was taken back by Britain after Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
In exchange for American bankruptcy, Hoover sells out Americans, and trades American Citizens (Social Security Numbers) for collateral on the Bailout from Britain. This “New Deal” systematically created traceable, taxable income to pay the interest on the debt barrowed from the Federal Reserve after the depression (Joe Bannister Story, “Chief” IRS Agent).
"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men." -Woodrow Wilson
The most effective Communist/ Facist government is one that gives the illusion of freedom to their citizens. "Freedom is what they wished for, and freedom from responsibility is what they got, Athens was never free again"-Edith Hamilton. Unless we all begin to educate each other about the true underlining problem which is the current monetary philosophy (central “Bankism”), I predict America is in for a rude awakening. 9-11-2001 was not an inside job by the US government, it was an inside job crafted by the World Banking cartel and its investors (the Committee of 300).
Mike Montagne creator of MPE (Mathematically Perfected Economy) says the main problem to this financial crisis is the "Inherent, irreversible multiplication of debt in proportion to a circulation within a population". This is the cause of the 1% of the worlds rich getting richer, and the 99% of the rest of the world's poor becoming poorer. This statement is 100% correct when addressing the problems the world has been facing in the past 300 years. The debt is irreversible because money is made from debt, this means no money no debt, no debt no money. Our monetary system was not made by mistake, it was made to replace involuntary slavery with voluntary slavery by using Debt as the master. Debt = Money, Money = Debt.
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies." - Thomas Jefferson.
Americans need to start researching the history of the monetary policies and philosophies handed down since the collapse of Rome. Fractional banking created by clever goldsmiths and banksters have destroyed empires with the flick of a pen. The intentional inflation and deflation (busts and booms) of currencies is an old trick that’s been used for 1000's of years, something is seriously wrong here! What will it take for young America to notice the magician behind the Federal Reserve curtain. (Frank Baum, Wizard of Oz)
Interest accrued on loans from the credit supplied by private CENTRAL banks (“Usury”), is the fraud that must be eliminated from the fiat monetary system so it can no longer corrupt the Corporatocracy/ fascism, that is slowly destroying the world. The United States is approaching 400% debt as a ratio to GDP if future liabilities are included (Not including the 900 Trillion in Derivatives debt) . Do the math America! Join the campaign to "End the Fed". www.endthefed.us , or they will end America. Ron Paul HR 1207, 2/3rds congress co-sponsor, number up to 297 as of Oct, 1 2009. Senate – 28 co sponsors.
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation then by deflation, the banks and the corporations will grow up around them, will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." -Thomas Jefferson, the Debate Over The Recharter Of The Bank Bill, (1809).
Read the following:
1. Crash Proof, Peter Schiff (1 and 2.0)
2. George Orwell 1984
3. Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
4. Ron Paul's Revolution Manifesto
5. Confessions of an Economic Hitman, John Perkins
6. Secrets of an American Empire, John Perkins
7. Energy non- Crisis, Lindsay Williams
8. The Creature from Jekyl Island, (FED) G. Edward Griffin
9. A 5000 year leap, a miracle that changed the world, by W Cleon Skousen
10. American Progressivism
11. The Real Benjamin Franklin
12. The Forgotten Man, A new history of the great depression. By Amity Shales
13. The Real George Washington
14. Lenin, Stalin, Hitler. The age of social catastrophe. By Robert Gellately
15. Liberal Facsism, The secret history of the American left, from musolini to the politics of meaning. By Jonah Goldberg
16. New Deal or Raw Deal, how FDRs economic legacy has damaged America. By Burton Folsom jr.
17. The Real Thomas Jefferson.
18. Woodrow Wilson and the roots of modern liberalism. By Ronald j. Pestritto.
Youtube video the following:
By: Ryan Murphy -Economic History?
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ho5NxKmvns By: Ryan Murphy pt. 2
3. "How the Money Masters Gained Control of America"
4. "Money as Debt"
5. "Freedom to Fascism" Aaron Russo
6. "Theft by Deception"
7. "Ring of Power", 1 and 2
8. "(first 40 mins of ) Zeitgeist Addendum"
9. Esoteric Agenda , Benjamin Stewart
10. Kymatica, Benjamin Stewart
11. Joe Bannister story
"Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But if you wish to remain the slaves of Bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits." - Sir Josiah Stamp, President of the Bank of England in the 1920's, the second richest man in Britain.
Stop the Usury!
Ryan Murphy
Monday, November 8, 2010
Hegemony and Brooksley Born’s Derivatives
By: Ryan Murphy
The phenomenon of suppressing information shaped by the social elite, is repressing the power of society, and is a social problem is exponentially growing as mass media becomes more intertwined in economics, politics, education, and advertising. Critical theory and Cultural theory attempt to explain and transform all systems that enslave human beings economically, politically, and psychologically. According to some theorists, types of hegemonic social structures may methodically root the subjugation of intellect and healthy dissent to authority.
An example of hegemonic social structures subjugating history to propagate the unregulated free market ideologies of capitalism, is the story of how the news media successfully suppressed whistle blower, Brooksley Born. Until the financial collapse of the panic of 2008, Brooksley Born was surprisingly not a common household name. On February 23, 2010, Frontline aired “The Warning,” a documentary that tells the striking story of the Chairperson of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Brooksley Born. Born suggests in 1996, the regulation financial over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives should be brought to the public eye.
“A little more than a decade ago, Born foresaw a financial cataclysm, accurately predicting that exotic investments known as OTC derivatives could play a crucial role in a crisis much like the one now convulsing America,” said The Washington Post in a story covered in May of 2009. The Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan had this to say about the derivatives market, “once in-a-century credit tsunami, had exposed a 'flaw' in my market-based ideology.” Greenspan’s market-based ideology was “the market will figure it out.” Greenspan testified there was no need for government oversight, because the derivatives market involved Wall Street “professionals” who could patrol themselves.
According to the Frontline documentary The Warning, Born said in 1997, “I was really terribly worried, Alan Greenspan explained to me there wasn’t a need for a law against fraud because if a floor broker was committing fraud, the customer would figure it out and stop doing business with him.” Alan Greenspan deemed “the wizard” by economists, was elected Federal Reserve chairman by Ronald Reagan whose primary role as chairman is to regulate “busts and booms” of financial markets.
With men like Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin as Clintons Financial Advisor, and Harvard Economist Larry Summers, all serving as the brainchildren of OTC derivatives, Time Magazine called them the “the committee to save the world.” As 3,000 corporate lobbyists in Washington were working hard to avoid regulated securities markets, “the committee to save the world” basically left Wall Street to regulate itself.
Brooksley Born threatens to go public with a “Concept Release” on the danger of OTC Derivatives, if agreements cannot be made on certain regulations of OTC derivatives. Only congress had the legal status to stop Born’s regulation ideologies, so on the same day of the publication of Born’s “Concept Release,” the “President’s Working Group” published their own information about Born and derivatives. Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, and SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, put out a press statement that said “we have grave concerns about Born’s regulatory actions and its possible consequences, we are prepared to pursue, as appropriate, legislation that will provide greater certainty toward the legal status of OTC Derivatives.” The next day, all media news networks immediately disperse a disinformation campaign to discredit Born.
After testifying before Congress 17 times, Born tried to counter the legal question by saying that regulation would apply only to new derivative contracts, and not to existing ones. After multiple attempts to try and negotiate an agreement of some kind of regulation toward derivatives, no mutual agreements were made by congress. So as last ditch effort, Born relentlessly reiterated her conviction that ignoring the risk of derivatives was dangerous, and continuing to do so would cause a financial collapse in the not so distant future. As the congressional meetings came to an end, a defeated Born was running out of options.
Six weeks later, after the congressional hearings in September of 1998, Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), a huge hedge fund, had bet heavily on OTC derivatives and would have failed if it was not for the bailout of a group of banks. Brooksley testified to congress in response to the Capitol Management bailout, “this should serve as a wake-up call about the unknown risks in the over-the-counter derivatives market.” Her statement was ignored again, and deregulation of derivatives continued.
With the entire American Economy hanging in the balance with the collapse of (LTCM), news media networks failed to cover 12 different Wall Street banks all bailed out LTCM at $400 million dollars per bank, in fear of US economic collapse. The Bailout worked, and the financial panic of 1998 was deferred without a word from the press.
The suppression of the Brooksley Born story by the social elite and news media, resulted in over a dozen distinct deregulatory moves in 2007, and dozens over the last decade, which may have led to the financial panic of 2008. Deregulations of the derivatives market have caused the disappearance of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, the digestion of Washington Mutual in the belly of J.P. Morgan, the absorption of Wachovia by Wells Fargo, AIG to be sent to the penalty box, and Merrill Lynch to become a subsidiary of Bank of America. Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE’s) Fannie and Freddie, are now the new U.S. Department of Mortgages, and are currently holding the $624 trillion in the toxic OTC credit derivatives of primarily sub-prime mortgage loans.
Stuart Hall believes that the US media provides the terrain in which the meaning of information is shaped, and cultural studies is to be understood as the study that uses methods to raise the people’s consciousness of the media’s role in preserving the status quo. Similar to the beliefs of Karl Marx, Hall believes that when examining communication, power relations and social structures should be the focal point of research. Ignoring the unequal power distributions of mass media, virtually makes cultural studies irrelevant. Hall expresses extreme concern regarding the way in which information is produced and distributed by big network corporations like Time Warner, News Corp, Viacom, and General Electric. Hall argues that the control of information exercised by the big network corporations prevents many stories from being told, because the monopoly of these networks does not encourage new information to be released.
In the Brooksley Born case, Hall’s cultural studies theory would predicate that when her story was told to the public, it would be spun sympathetically in the interest of multinational corporations that were involved in the derivatives markets. In fact, Hall was right, Born’s OTC derivative regulation story was spun by news media to be bogus and extraneous pertaining to the subject of the well being of the United States economy. Media networks like GE, Walt Disney, AT&T were all involved in investments of OTC derivatives, which led to these networks participating in hegemonic encoding.
Subsequently, General Electric owns NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, A&E, and History and Biography channels. AT&T is the biggest cable provider owning U-Verse, and Comcast. And finally Walt Disney Company owns ABC, ESPN, A&E, History, and Biography Channels. Hall would agree that even though these giant media networks probably told the story of Brooksley Born, the probability of not covering her story or spinning to be sympathetic to their profit agenda, is likely. Hall’s ultimate issue with having to do with cultural studies, is not what information is presented but whose information it is.
Once the media heard the position of the highly credible Alan Greenspan, Larry Summers, and Robert Rubin, media networks took their side on the dominant ideological coding of the issue pertaining to not regulating OTC derivatives. The “Presidents Working Group” successfully framed opposition against Born, by utilizing the media process called ideological discourses of constraint to propagate limited ranges of alternatives in a thriving, self regulating market.
Born, stricken by what Hall would call “pessimism of the intellect,” was virtually discredited and silenced by the social elite. Hall would have been proud of Born’s ability to “articulate” and resist the “dominant code,” and push on to the best of her abilities to maintain what is left of her “optimism of the will.”
Generating popular support for the derivatives market by Wall Street cheerleaders and the social elite, was not hard to do considering the stock market was at an all time high. The derivatives market was a staggering $80 trillion dollar market by 1997. News media could participate in what hall called “ideological discourses of constraint” disguise the dangers of derivatives markets, by showing the positive numbers Wall Street was yielding and eliminating all oppositional variables to OTC derivatives.
Critical theory’s research into the macroscopic level of social institutions, relate to the story of (CFTC) Chairman Brooksley Born. Leading researchers into Critical theory, are Philosophers from the Frankfurt School like Karl Marx, Theodore Adorno, Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse. Marx’s Theory on what he called the “superstructure,” explains the control economic institutions have on shaping cultural institutions in society, and control the masses through the means of media manipulation. This control is achieved by systematically creating diversions to distract the masses with media entertainment, product advertisement, and news content. Media networks inundated with all these types of distractions tend to cover less public affairs pertaining to public interests.
In the Case of Brooksley Born, the Economic institution suppressing Born’s ideas on OTC derivatives to Congress and news media, was the Federal Reserve Central Bank of the United States (FED), and the Securities Exchange Committee (SEC). Chairman Alan Greenspan, with the help of his colleagues, tried to suppress regulatory idea’s pertaining to OTC derivatives and the credibility of Born’s accusations against OTC Derivatives by creating as much flak as possible. The idea that flak is created by government and powerful business institutions to uphold their reputation is derived from Herman and Chomsky’s Propoganda Model.
Naom Chomsky and Edward Herman came up with the idea that government and private corporations derive their profits from advertisers, which are commercial enterprises. These two teams of government and business oligarchs have a powerful relationship, when taking into consideration the government regulates media content through the FCC. The FCC regulates broadcast networks through licensing and federal regulatory laws. Herman and Chomsky outlined five (filters) influences that determine how information is released into the media.
The first filter is called Ownership. This is the filter that is determined by news and entertainment media, that tends to suppress any information that will negatively alter the private business ideology popularly held by the capitalistic system. Naturally, most businesses would only release information portraying them in a positive light to maintain maximal profits at any costs. With Born not receiving national media attention from the clashing of the titans between Born, the FED, the SEC, and congress between 1996 and 1999, solidifies that “ownership” filters were strategically utilized.
The second filter of Advertising suggests media organizations (networks) are dependent upon advertising, so media coverage of information that will upset client advertisers is virtually avoided to insure against the loss of any advertiser to the network. In the Case of OTC Derivatives, every major network was invested in the derivatives market one way or another. For example, instead of media networks taking up air time with the public affair coverage of the Brooksley Born case, they opted to satisfy high paying advertisers by showing top rated entertainment shows in its place.
Based on the idea that the majority of news is encoded and verified by credible government and business sources like government officials and lobbyist, “sourcing” is the third filter described by Herman and Chomski. An example of this is when Born tried to publish her “Concept Release,” media did not cover Born’s opinion on the danger of OTC derivatives, they covered the story of the politicians discrediting Born’s authority as CFTC Chairman to regulate derivatives. The “President’s Working Group” put out the word in the media and Capitol Hill, that Born’s reviews were not to be trusted and not to be taken seriously, because she runs a tiny agency (CFTC) that has no say. This is preposterous considering the primary reason the CFTC was created, was to oversee and regulate the derivatives market. Contrary to Born’s obvious legal authority to regulate OTC derivatives, the media took the side of the politicians and ran with discrediting Born.
When the government uses a Anti-Communist ideology, the fifth filter of Herman and Chomsky, the media propagates this ideology by covering stories in a way that show the public they need the governments opinion and support in important matters. This is an us-versus-them ideology that is used multiple times against Born. Born, representing the people’s money, was up against the credibility of the FED, the SEC, and congress who are the upmost authority in economic matters. If economic support of the legality toward OTC derivatives is favorably supported by the economic committee of the White House, then Brooksley Born hardly stands a chance in getting media coverage pertaining to her side of the story.
Any dissent toward the $86 trillion dollar Derivatives market that was leaked into the media, could have caused a huge downturn in the Stock Market and Greenspan knew it. Born knew, that if she was going to beat the propaganda campaign thwarted by the elite, she would have to publish her “Concept Release” on OTC derivatives immediately. The team of powerful elite oligarchs called the “President’s Working Group,” was made up of Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, Arthur Levitt, Larry Summers, and 90% of congress. They were successful in silencing Born.
The Frankfurt School thinkers were at the front lines of trying to understand how media ownership influenced content production, and in turn influenced society. When considering what went wrong in the Brooksley born case, critical theory plays an important role in determining, and understanding some of the hegemonic variables that were at fault leading to the Panic of 2008. This explains the constant struggle of what Hall calls the battle between the haves and the have-nots.
As of June 2010, Brooksley born was on the panel of the Financial Crisis Commission asked billionaire Warren Buffett, “Do you think the derivatives market is still a ticking time bomb for this market in the future?” Buffett responded, “Yes I do!” As of November 8, 2010 all derivatives in the US and around the world are not regulated, and the runaway freight train of debt of over $700 trillion has entered the abyss of a never ending black hole with absolutely no means to track it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)