Corporate Media Is Corporate America
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C2006_text-1.qxd 7/20/05 1:34 PM Page 253 CHAPTER 6 Corporate Media Is Corporate America BIG MEDIA INTERLOCKS WITH CORPORATE AMERICA AND BROADCAST NEWS MEDIA OWNERSHIP EMPIRES By Bridget Thornton, Brit Walters, and Lori Rouse The Project Censored team researched the board members of 10 major media organizations from newspaper to television to radio. Of these ten orga- nizations, we found there are 118 people who sit on 288 different Ameri- can and international corporate boards proving a close on-going interlock between big media and corporate America. We found media directors who also were former Senators or Representatives in the House such as Sam Nunn (Disney) and William Cohen (Viacom). Board members served at the FCC such as William Kennard (New York Times) and Dennis FitzSimmons (Tribune Company) showing revolving door relationships with big media andU.S. government officials. These ten big media organizations are the main source of news for most Americans. Their corporate ties require us to continually scrutinize the qual- ity of their news for bias. Disney owns ABC so we wonder how the board of Disney reacts to negative news about their board of directors friends such as Halliburton or Boeing. We see board members with connections to Ford, Kraft, and Kimberly-Clark who employ tens of thousands of Americans. Is it possible that theU.S. workforce receives only the corporate news private CENSORED 253 C2006_text-1.qxd 7/20/05 1:34 PM Page 254 companies want them to hear? Do we collectively realize that working peo- ple in theU.S. have longer hours, lower pay and fewer benefits than their foreign counterparts? If these companies control the media, they control the dissemination of news turning the First Amendment on its head by pro- tecting corporate interests over people Another trend we found was the connections to higher education around the country. There are board members associated with USC (the Washing- ton Post), Columbia (Gannett), Georgetown (Disney), NYU (the Washing- ton Post), and Wharton (Knight-Ridder) to name a few. With the decreasing state and federal funding to universities, will we see our higher learning institutions tie themselves more to corporations than the government for their funding? Will higher education become increasingly elite and consumer- oriented? Will the universities eventually focus education around the pro- duction of workers or thinkers? As the Roman Empire declined, Feudalism took the place of the gov- ernment. The feudal lord was one of the few sources of jobs in the fourth and fifth centuries. These lords owned most of the land and resources. Today, we replace feudalism with corporatism. The mass population has few choices for their news, information and education. As corporate media applauds an ownership society, we must realize who gets to own. In corporate-dominated capitalism wealth concentration is the goal and the corporate media are the cheerleaders. MAJOR MEDIA COMPANIES AND THEIR BOARDS OF DIRECTORS MEDIA COMPANY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Gannett Douglas H. McCorkindale, Louis D. Boccardi, James A. Johnson, Duncan M. McFarland, Stephen P. Munn, Donna E. Shalala, Solomon D. Trujillo, Karen Hastie Williams New York Times John F. Akers, Brenda C. Barnes, Raul E. Cesan, Lynn G. Dolnick, Michael Golden, William E. Kennard, David E. Liddle, Ellen R. Marram, Thomas Middelhoff, Janet L. Robinson, Henry B. Schacht, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., Cathy J. Sulzberger, Doreen A. Toben 254 CENSORED C2006_text-1.qxd 7/20/05 1:34 PM Page 255 Washington Post Donald E. Graham, Warren E. Buffett, Barry Diller, John L. Dotson Jr., Melinda French Gates, George J. Gillespie III, Ronald L. Olson, Alice M. Rivlin, Richard D. Simmons, George W. Wilson Knight-Ridder Mark Earnest, Kathleen Feldstein, Thomas Gerrity, Ronald McRay, Pat Mitchell, Kenneth Oshman, Vasat Prabhu, Anthony Ridder, Gonzalo Valdes-Fauli, John E. Warnock The Tribune Company Dennis J. FitzSimons, Jeffrey Chandler, Roger Goodan, Enrique Hernandez, Jr., Betsy D. Holden, Robert S. Morrison, William A. Osborn, J. Christopher Reyes, William Stinehart, Jr., Dudley S. Taft, Kathryn C. Turner News Corp. K. Rupert Murdoch, Chase Carey, Peter Chernin, Kenneth E. Cowley, David F. DeVoe, Viet Din, Rod Eddington, Andrew S.B. Knight, Lachlan Murdoch, Thomas J. Perkins, Stanley S. Shuman, Arthur M. Siskind, John L. Thornton AOL/Time Warner Richard D. Parsons, James L. Barksdale, Carla A. Hills, Stephen F. Bollenbach, Reuben Mark, Stephen M. Case, Michael A. Miles, Frank J. Caufield, Kenneth J. Novack, Robert C. Clark, R.E. Turner, Miles R. Gilburne, Francis T. Vincent, Jr. General Electric Jeffrey R. Immelt, James I. Cash, Jr., William Castell LVO, Dennis D. Dammerman, Ann M. Fudge, Claudio X. Gonzalez, Andrea Jung, A.G. Lafley, Rochelle B. Lazarus, Sam Nunn, Roger S. Penske, Robert J. Swieringa, Douglas A. Warner III, Robert C. Wright CENSORED 255 C2006_text-1.qxd 7/20/05 1:34 PM Page 256 Walt Disney John E. Bryson, John S. Chen, Mr. Eisner, Judith L. Estrin, Robert A. Iger, Fred H. Langhammer, Aylwin B. Lewis, Monica C. Lozano, Robert W. Matschullat, Senator George J. Mitchell, Leo J. O’Donovan, Gary L. Wilson Viacom Sumner M. Redstone, George S. Abrams, David R. Andelman, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., William S. Cohen, Philippe P. Dauman, Alan C. Greenberg, Charles E. Phillips, Shari Redstone, Frederic V. Salerno, William Schwartz, Robert D. Walter BIG MEDIA INTERLOCKS WITH CORPORATE AMERICA AND MAJOR INSTITUTIONS INU.S. Gannett Trustee, Financial Accounting Asia Pacific Fund, Inc. Foundation Associated Press UnitedHealth Group Carlisle Companies, Inc. WGL Holdings, Inc. The John F. Kennedy Center for New York Times the Performing Arts Alcoa (Aluminum Company of Chubb Corporation America) Continental Airlines, Inc. APCOA Parking AG, German Electronic Data Systems Augustana College Corporation Bewerbungskomitee Leipzig 2012 Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Carlyle Group, 2001 Graduate School of Journalism, Eli Lilly and Company. Columbia University KarstadtQuelle AG, German KB Home Corporation Fitch Ratings, a U.S./UK Lennar Corporation Flamel Technologies S.A Lockheed Martin Corporation Ford Motor Company Orange S.A. Hallmark Cards, Inc. PepsiCo, Inc. International Herald Tribune Prudential Mutual Funds Johnson & Johnson SunTrust Banks, Inc Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. Target Corporation Staples, Inc. Temple-Inland Corporation Lucent Technologies Inc. 256 CENSORED C2006_text-1.qxd 7/20/05 1:34 PM Page 257 PepsiCo, Inc. University of North Carolina at Polestar Corporation, a British Chapel Hill company Robert C. Maynard Institute for Times Square Business Journalism Education Improvement District drugstore.com LHIW Real Estate White Mountains Insurance Development Partnership Group, Inc. U.S. Venture Partners Madison Square Boys and Girls North Castle Partners, LLC Club W.R. Grace & Co. Pinkerton Foundation Life Director and Chairman Washington Post Emeritus, National Multiple Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Sclerosis Society Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation John M. Olin Foundation Brookings Institution William S. Paley Foundation Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP Arthur Ross Foundation Georgetown University Museum of Television and Radio IAC/InterActiveCorp, USA The Jackson Laboratory Interactive RAND Corporation Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP USC Annenberg School for BrassRing, Inc Communication Pulitzer Prize Board, Southern California Public Radio District of Columbia College Berkshire Hathaway Access Program Edison International Federal City Council in Washing- City National Corporation ton, DC. Dun & Bradstreet Corporation Summit Fund of Washington Moody’s Investors Service Coca-Cola Company J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc. Gillette Company Morgan Guaranty Trust Company Life Trustee of New York Urban Institute Member Union Pacific Corporation American Academy of Arts and Yankee Publishing Inc. Sciences General Electric Investments IAC/InterActiveCorp Advisory Board of Directorship Coca-Cola Company White Burkett Miller Center of New York University Public Affairs, University of Medical Sciences at UCLA Virginia Conservation International Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Channel 13/WNET Foundation School of Cinema-Television, USC Newspapers of New England, Inc. CENSORED 257 C2006_text-1.qxd 7/20/05 1:34 PM Page 258 Bakersfield (California) ConocoPhillips Californian Control Data Corporation Associated Press Economic Club of Chicago ElderPort Knight-Ridder Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Adobe Systems, Inc. Executives’ Club of Chicago Echelon Corporation Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Economics Studies, Inc Fortune Brands, Inc. H&R Block, Inc General Electric Information Services. Kimberly-Clark Corporation Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP Public Broadcasting Service Grocery Manufacturers of America Starwood Hotels and Resorts Harvey and Mildred Mudd Foun- Wharton School of the University dation of Pennsylvania Hydril Company Illinois Tool Works Inc. The Tribune Company Inter-Con Security Systems Inc. 3M Company Inter-Con Security Systems, Inc. Allstate Corporation Kraft Foods, Inc. Aon Corporation Interspan Communications, Big Shoulders Fund Junior Achievement of Chicago Boys and Girls Clubs Kellogg Graduate School of Business Council Management, Northwestern Carpenter Technology Corporation Lake Forest Academy Board of Caterpillar Inc., Trustees Nicor Inc. Lake Forest Bank and Trust Chandler Ranch Co Lake Forest College Chandler Trusts Louise Taft Semple Foundation Chicago Council on Foreign Lyric Opera of Chicago Relations, McCormick Tribune Foundation Chicago Horticultural Society