And You Thought Corporations Didn't Own America!

If there are even a remote few of you out there that do not believe corporations control America, this little tidbit ought to finally shut you up and make you a believer.

From the NYT:

Over time, G.E. and the News Corporation concluded that the fighting “wasn’t good for either parent,” said an NBC employee with direct knowledge of the situation. But the session hosted by Mr. Rose provided an opportunity for a reconciliation, sealed with a handshake between Mr. Immelt and Mr. Murdoch.

This relates to the ongoing "fighting" between MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Fox's Bill O'Reilly. Mostly, O'Reilly ratcheted up the "fight" with Keith by attacking MSNBC's owner, General Electric, while Keith would occasionally take on Fox's owner, Rupert Murdoch. So, the two bosses, not really giving a shit about the "fight" between the two newsmen, or even whether there was merit in either party's arguments, decided to censor both of their "employees." I wonder how long Olbermann will last with this gag order, despite his wildly popular show. Last time he was gagged (by ESPN) he quit.

As Glenn Greenwald succinctly puts it:

In essence, the chairman of General Electric (which owns MSNBC), Jeffrey Immelt, and the chairman of News Corporation (which owns Fox News), Rupert Murdoch, were brought into a room at a "summit meeting" for CEOs in May, where Charlie Rose tried to engineer an end to the "feud" between MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Fox's Bill O'Reilly. According to the NYT, both CEOs agreed that the dispute was bad for the interests of the corporate parents, and thus agreed to order their news employees to cease attacking each other's news organizations and employees.

Bad for the interests of the corporate parents. (David Sirota also has a good commentary on the corporate interference with news). Let that sink in for a while. If corporate "parental" interests can dictate what a news reporter/commentator can say, it is quite obvious that corporate "parental" interests can dictate more -- shall we say, Congress.

Let's talk about the insurance debate going on, and the Blue Dogs and other Democrats trying to water down anything that would be meaningful to the American public, and help the insurance companies keep their stranglehold on America. As David Sirota explains, there are 13 members of congress who represent a disproportionate number of Americans (approximately only 4 percent, and predominately white, rural and poor Americans) that are holding the health care reform hostage on behalf of the insurance companies. These same 13 members also took in approximately $12 million from these same insurance companies. Not only are they working against what is in the best interests of their constituents, who are the most in need of health care reform, but they are clearly selling out their own, and the other 96 percent of Americans, based primarily on their own financial greed. $12 million between 13 members of congress. Sirota calls them Health Care's 13 Tyrants.

Here we have 535 House and Senate delegates elected to give all 300 million of us a voice in the solution. And here we have just 13 of those delegates holding the initiative hostage.

Pay very close attention to this congressional recess, and the ratcheted up town hall brouhahas organized by the insurance industry to bombard the congresscritters into submission -- and into doing what they want, and not what the majority of Americans want.

13 white men representing approximately 4% of the population, receiving $12 million in contributions from the insurance industry are dictating how Congress will handle this matter. Very, very sad, indeed.

UPDATE: Glenn has another great post up on the GE's control over news media. It is a MUST READ.