So, who do you think runs Disney, anyway? Boeing, among others.
Members of Disney's Board also sit on other big companies. That makes Disney "interlocked" with, among other huge multinationals, Boeing, and Edison Electric. Until recently, a Halliburton Board Member also directed Disney.
So, why should anyone be surprised that ABC is going to run GOP propaganda? After all, the Bush Admin. and the Republican Party are also wholly-owned by the same companies.
Dig out your dog-eared copy of C. Wright Mills The Power Elites, because these guys are the real thing. As CBS owner Sumner Redstone explains below, unlike most Americans, big media behaves politically with rational self-interest -- in other words, even the "liberal media" will betray principle to make or save a buck. Isn't that a lot like how advertising, or, increasingly, the network news departments work?
Now, let's take a look at the corporate profile of the four, major broadcast TV networks in America: ABC; CBS; NBC; and, FOX.
They're a dying industry, but they're part of something that's still enormously powerful.
MORE below . . .
ABC
ABC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Disney Corporation. Here's the corporate biography of the Disney Board.
http://corporate.disney.go.com/...
These guys aren't cartoon animators. The Board Members also run Defense contractors, energy companies, along with the usual throw-away consumer goods makers and big global banks.
CBS
Then, there's Viacom which spun off CBS late last year into a second subsidiary owned by 81-year old Sumner Redstone and his family. http://www.viacom.com/...
While in the past, Redstone described himself as a "liberal Democrat", that may not be the case. In 2005, the Center for Public Integrity observed: http://www.publicintegrity.org/...
Sumner Redstone tacitly endorsed George Bush for re-election in late September, at a meeting of CEOs in Hong Kong. The election of a Republican administration, Redstone told his audience, "is a better deal" in Viacom's view, "because the Republican administration has stood for many things we believe in, deregulation and so on."
Newsweek reported that Redstone's remarks were viewed by many as a breach of an understood code of silence regarding political endorsements that most media conglomerates respect. Several other executives from the top broadcasters were asked to comment, and most repudiated any notion of political favor, while a public interest lobbyist pointed to the remarks as evidence of "what we have known all along"--a comfortable relationship between the industry and its government regulators.
When asked to comment on Redstone's endorsement of Bush, a News Corp. spokesman told Newsweek, "We run these businesses not to promote an ideology or political agenda, but to make them successful."
NBC
NBC has long been a subsidiary of General Electric Corp., GE, which is a one of the world's largest conglomerates. It is also a major financial institution, and defense contractor. The Board is interlocked with an equally wide swath of global corporate interests, including Bechtel. http://www.ge.com/...
FOX
You've heard of Rupert Murdoch. Haven't you?
Well, who else runs News Corporation? Kinda hard to tell, because unlike the other major broadcasting companies, News Corp. doesn't provide on-line biographies for its Board, just names and titles. http://www.newscorp.com/...
Nonetheless, Viet Dinh is no doubt an interesting recent addition, having been plucked directly out of the Bush Justice Department, where he drafted both the Patriot Act and the torture memos.
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And they call this the "liberal" media?