The Columbus Institute of Contemporary Journalism (CICJ) has operated Freepress.org since 2000 and ColumbusFreepress.com was started initially as a separate project to highlight the print newspaper and local content.
ColumbusFreepress.com has been operating as a project of the CICJ for many years and so the sites are now being merged so all content on ColumbusFreepress.com now lives on Freepress.org
The Columbus Freepress is a non-profit funded by donations we need your support to help keep local journalism that isn't afraid to speak truth to power alive.
Now that the deadline has passed for hundreds of top corporate
executives to certify the truthfulness of their financial books, we
may expect more honest accounting in the future. But what if the
heads of major firms were compelled to engage in other types of
candor?
Let's imagine that the CEO of a leading media conglomerate felt the
need to come clean about the firm's overall activities. The public
statement might go something like this:
While revenues are down in our broadcasting division, we've
done our best to wring every last dollar out of the airwaves that
the parent company has been able to hijack from the public.
Fortunately, these days, the FCC -- we call it the "Federal
Complicity Cabal" around the office -- is giving us just about
everything we demand.
In some urban areas, we now own at least half a dozen radio
stations, plus a couple of TV outlets. And the restrictions against
also owning local newspapers are on their way out, too.
On television, we've been able to flood the market with more
junky old shows than ever. The newer sitcoms and dramas continue to
push the boundaries of exploiting sexuality to spike ratings (in
sync with like-minded commercials). Most of the movers and shakers
on our board of directors are big supporters of conservative
moralizers in Washington, but that's no conflict with their
commitment to profitable sleaze. Whatever works!
Meanwhile, our TV news division is paring down to the
essentials. (Rest assured there'll be no skimping on wardrobes and
hair spray.) We've cut back on producers, researchers and those
still eager to engage in actual journalism. And we've brought
additional talent on board with reliable devotion to our corporate
model. Prodded by management, boat-rockers have walked the plank.
After buying several hundred radio stations across the country
since enactment of the bipartisan telecommunications law in 1996,
we're able to clone our sound with just enough trickery to make
most people think they're listening to a station with a local
staff. For those who don't care for our daily offerings of Rush
Limbaugh, Dr. Laura and various imitators, we provide the
free-market choice of insipid oldies and present-day pop to help
listeners wile away their pitiful consumptive lives.
We're excited about the expanding revenue stream for product
placements in our movies. Showing the brand on a can of beer or a
pack of cigarettes can really help us meet our shooting budgets.
Only half in jest, we're wondering if we might be able to get some
marquee stars to temporarily adopt nicknames during a movie's
release. There's no telling how much we might be able to fetch from
a three-way deal with Julia "Marlboro" Roberts.
Speaking of cigarettes, our magazine division now does a
better job of going light on smoking-and-health articles. The firm
relies on many millions of ad dollars from tobacco companies, and
it would be financially irresponsible to publish lots of stories
about the horrors of lung cancer and emphysema due to smoking. In
that spirit, during the past year, our print outlets have
downplayed the strong new evidence of serious hazards from
secondhand smoke.
On the Internet, while revenues are down, we've been filling
people's screens with enough pop-up ads and other obnoxious
features to partly compensate. Also, our search-engine department
has been taking plenty of payoffs -- all perfectly legal -- from
site owners who'd rather be in the top 10 listings instead of
showing up as number 247. Ha ha.
Our book division is finding better ways to communicate with
the biggest chains before we sign up new authors. If the key execs
who place orders for Borders or Barnes & Noble stores aren't
enthusiastic about particular manuscripts, we ought to think twice
or three times about sinking our capital into publishing them. It's
far smarter to fatten the advertising budget for the next
blockbuster by Tom Clancy (or whoever the heck he hired to write
"his" latest book) than to roll the dice for a dozen works of
purported art by earnest nobodies.
At the media outlets owned by our conglomerate, quite a few
employees are sincerely dedicated to the finest principles of
journalism, artistic expression and public service. To be honest,
such dedication can impede the maximization of profits that our
shareholders have every right to expect. But, over time, clear
rewards and tacit punishments are apt to result in wondrous
transformations. As we move forward into a brave new multimedia
world, surely the best is yet to come.
_______________________________________________
Norman Solomon's latest book is "The Habits of Highly Deceptive
Media." His syndicated column focuses on media and politics.
