In what ways is the U.S. media influenced or controlled by the state? In other countries?
How would the media be different in a free-market?
I have finals tomorrow but this question popped up following the wikileaks case, so I’ll check back tomorrow night.
“In what ways is the U.S. media influenced or controlled by the state?”
The state decides who is allowed to broadcast, i.e who will be given a license.
“How would the media be different in a free-market?”
Original appropriation. You want to then sell your property, you can do so.
Media Matters for America (MMfA), a liberal media analysis website, has documented government influence of the U.S. news media. Some examples:
October 30, 2007: News outlets including CNN, the Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post,and the Los Angeles Times uncritically quoted White House spokeswoman Dana Perino’s response to a question about an October 23 Federal Emergency Management Agency press conference, in which the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters. Perino said of the conference, “It is not a practice that we would employ here at the White House and we certainly don’t condone it.” But these news outlets failed to note previous Bush administration scandals involving “fake” reporting.
April 24, 2008: In two separate reports since The New York Times published an exposé on the hidden ties between media military analysts and the Pentagon, Fox News’ Special Report aired quotes from Fox News military analyst Robert Scales without mentioning that Scales was named in the Times article and addressing Scales’ relationship with the Defense Department and defense contractors.
April 25, 2008: In an April 24 PBS NewsHour report about a New York Times article that revealed “the role of military analysts on TV and in the Pentagon,” Judy Woodruff stated:“[W]e invited Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and NBC to participate, but they declined our offer or did not respond.” Further, according to a search of programs in Nexis, several of these outlets have yet to report on the revelations in the April 20 Times article.
April 29, 2008: Since The New York Times reported on the hidden ties between media military analysts and the Pentagon on April 20, ABC, CBS, and NBC have still not mentioned the report. By contrast, during their April 28 evening news broadcasts, all three networks reported on the Vanity Fair photo of Miley Cyrus.
May 02, 2008: ABC, CBS, and NBC have still not reported on any of their news programs The New York Times’ revelations about the hidden ties between media military analysts and the Pentagon. Further, the major broadcast networks and cable news networks all reportedly declined to discuss the issue for an NPR report; the networks similarly reportedly declined to participate in an April 24 PBS NewsHour segment on the issue.
I recommend viewing Buying the War a PBS documentary about Iraq war journalism. It shows how deference to government authority undermined journalistic skepticism.