Of the 100 biggest economies in the world, most are corporations, not countries. We also know that the richest corporations are oil companies. Chevron, for example, just reported a record 6 billion in profits. With this in mind, we shouldn’t be surprised that the corporate-owned-media is perhaps less critical of these corporations than they should. It’s dramatically more disturbing to see that, more and more, oil companies are actually sponsoring the news we receive. While perusing CBS today, I saw this ad for Exxon.

Then we see the so-called “progressive” Atlantic Monthly selling out to big oil with this banner ad alongside Andrew Sullivan’s column. Even public broadcasting is not outside the influence of corporate interests. Here is the sponsor for PBS’s Jim Lehrer’s News Hour.

That our media is dominated by advertising is nothing new. 100% broadcast revenues come from advertising; about 50% of magazine revenues come from ads; 80% of newspaper revenue comes from ads. And now the internet. Ads are everywhere and totally obnoxious. While in the 80’s, studies show that the average person was exposed to 1,500 commercial impressions a day. Today–with the internet, product placement, and advertising in places like school, sports, and many other unlikely places, that number has risen close to 4,000. They’re even talking about putting billboards in space now. Can you imagine gazing up at a beautiful Flagstaff starry night, and seeing a Nike logo?

So what we’ve done and what has become detrimental, both to the credibility and reliability of our media, is we’ve turned all of our systems of media, of journalism, as vehicles to sell us more and more commodities. Oil companies have no place in our media. Chevron claims, “Corporate Responsibility: The Power, the Power of Human Energy. Finding Newer Cleaner Ways to Power the World.” Reading this, one could easily forget they even sell oil. What they are selling, besides oil (which is, in part, actually causing all the problems it claims to be solving), they are selling an image. Are we really going to rely on Chevron, Shell, Exxon, and BP to “find newer cleaner ways to power our world.” They destroy communities and they sell oil. It doesn’t matter to whom, and it doesn’t matter the cost. And now our news is sponsored by these global terrorists?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 11:43 am and is filed under language, globalization. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.