Lets take a look at one of the 'massers' of the media - The Guardian.
The editor of The Guardian earns £500,000 per year - not bad for a paper based on the laughable principle of supporting equality and fairness eh.
The Guardian loses money every year - and more money will be lost as more of the advertising revenue spent by companies is spent on web advertising as newspaper circulations fall. But The Guardian will not ever be allowed to close down.
This is because the Guardian delineates the limits of what is acceptable to those slaves that think they are left wing.
The Telegraph delineates what is acceptable to those slaves who think they are right wing.
The Independent delineates what the Liberals should think.
The Independent loses money every year - The Independent and Independent on Sunday are set to lose nearly £10m this year. The Independent on Sunday recently raised its cover price 10p to £1.80.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/oct/23/independentnewsmedia.pressandpublishing
The Guardian tell people to vote Labour and say that any ideas / policies/ political parties to the left of Labour are dangerous extremists.
The Telegraph tell people to vote Tory and say that any ideas/ policies/ political parties to the right of the Tory Party are dangerous extremists.
The Independent tells the Liberal lemmings what to think and ensures the centre ground of politics is covered.
This is called ' Paradigm Control ' and is how the media ensure that the social consensus is constructed entriely for their, and their massers, benefit.
It doesnt matter at all if the newspaper lose money - as their role is not to make money but to condition the masses and ensure the Power Structures remain capable of controlling the masses.
The primary role of the newspapers and media is to ;
1) Condition the masses to vote into power the political parties the newspapers support / own
http://www.guardian.co.uk/values/socialaudit/story/0,,1303764,00.html
In the 2003-04 financial year, Guardian Newspapers Ltd reported that losses had fallen from £7.5m to £6.2m on turnover, up from £216.7m to £227.5m.
Now the fact that a newspaper can operate at a loss and continue to be printed is because the role of newspapers is primarily not to make money.
The role of newspapers is to influence public opinion - therefore newspapers can operate at a loss as long as they continue to be 'profitable' as per their power to condition the minds of the masses.
The power of the newspaper, and their sole utility, is influincing public perceptions and shaping the social consensus for their people that control and own the newspaper.
The Guardian also relies on money from advertising from the government for public sector jobs - which is how the Labour government subsidies the Guardian with tax payers money to continue to operate in order for it to propagandise the Labour party at election times.
The idea we have a 'free press' is based on the press operating in a 'free market' which is based on the law that non-profit making businesses that make losses are shut down.
The fact that non-profit making newspapers are allowed to carry on fucntioning is because they are not part of the free market and they are not the free press.
The media are propagndists for power structures in society. They are not part of the free press.
They give opinions not information - they print comment not the news.
They indocrinate - they do not educate or inform.
As stated in the article below ;
This influence ( of the shadow government ) was not exercised by acting directly on public opinion, since the Milner Group never intended to influence events by acting through any instruments of mass propaganda, but rather hoped to work on the opinions of the small group of "important people," who in turn could influence wider and wider circles of persons. This was the basis on which the Milner Group itself was constructed; it was the theory behind the Rhodes Scholarships; it was the theory behind "The Round Table and the Royal Institute of International Affairs; it was the theory behind the efforts to control All Souls, New College, and Balliol and, through these three, to control Oxford University; and it was the theory behind The Times. No effort was made to win a large circulation for The Times, for, in order to obtain such a circulation, it would have been necessary to make changes in the tone of the paper that would have reduced its influence with the elite, to which it had been so long directed. The theory of "the elite" was accepted by the Milner Group and by The Times, as it was by Rhodes.
This is why The Guardian is allowed to operate at a loss every year.
The Guardian, and all the newspapers, are not designed to make money - they are designed to allow corporations and elites to control the masses.
That simply is the role of the press in our so called ' democracy' - to allow the elites to keep in power, to allow them to keep control of the political parties, to allow them to keep getting rich, to keep them in power and to ensure the masses always do as their massers tell them to do.
Only slaves think they live in a democracy.
Only slaves believe that their massers tell them to believe in the media.
More info on The Guardian advertising per year ;
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm070614/text/70614w0003.htm
Education and Skills
Advertising
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much his Department spent on (a) print and (b) online campaign advertising and sponsorship related to The Guardian newspaper Side by Side supplement. [129955]
Alan Johnson: Sponsorship costs for running the supplement were £50,000. There were no additional costs for print or online advertising to promote the supplement.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how much his Department has spent on (a) sponsoring newspaper and publication supplements and (b) funding advertorials in newspapers or publications in the last year for which figures are available; and what the topic of each was; [129957]
(2) when he expects to answer Questions (a) 129957 on publications tabled on 22 March 2007 and (b) 129955 on advertising and sponsorship tabled on 21 March 2007 by the hon. Member for North East Hertfordshire. [142390]
Alan Johnson: In financial year 2006-07, the following activity was placed:
(a) Sponsorship of supplements in newspapers and publications.
( 60.0 = £60,000 etc etc ) The Guardian costs = £ 162,000 plus per year out of tax payers money )
£000
Evening Standard (London Challenge)
60.0
The Guardian (Every Child Matters)
(1)120.0
TES (14-19 reforms)
51.4
The Guardian (14-19 reforms
42.0
(1) Covers two supplements in Guardian Education and Guardian Society
(b) Advertorials in newspapers and magazines.
£000
Kerrang (Student finance)
2.3
NME (Student finance)
15.6
More (Student finance)
9.6
Daily Mirror (Childcare)
13.0
The Voice (Childcare)
1.5
and more here ;
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm070625/text/70625w0023.htm
Defence
Advertising
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department spent on advertising with The Guardian newspaper, including online, advertorials and advertising features, in the latest year for which figures are available. [114043]
Derek Twigg: The following table shows how much the Ministry of Defence has spent on advertising with The Guardian newspaper in the last year. The Naval Service has not advertised in The Guardian newspaper in Financial Year 2006-07. Details of Ministry of Defence civilian advertising expenditure are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Amount (£)
RAF
41,790
Army
34,000
Naval Service
0
http://www.guardianlies.com/Contents.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/1296658.stm
New figures show the government has spent £60m on advertising in the past three months - more than twice as much as in the corresponding period last year.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article241190.ece
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/08/30/dl3001.xml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,721906,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1295679.stm
Thanks Lee, two most informative articles.
ReplyDeleteFrom Plague, Pestilence and the Pursuit of Power by Steven Ransom, Credence Publications, 2001, ISBN 0-9535012-8-0, p 72-3:
"Before a packed New York Press Club, John Swinton, the former chief of staff of the New York Times, approached the podium to lead his colleagues in a toast to 'a free press.' Known as "The Dean of His Profession,' the legendary newspaperman proceeded to horrify his peers by delivering his famous and monumentally revealing statement:
""There is no such thing, at this date in the world's history, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you, who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions, would be out on the street looking for another job.
""If I allowed my honest opinion to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. You know it, and I know it, and what folly is this - toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.""
The quote has been the subject of some controversy, summarised here but is reckoned on balance to contain a fair amount of truth.
What is interesting is that Swinton's remarks were evidently made in about 1880.
Corruption has cast a long shadow.