[This piece was originally written in May 2021 and is being published for the first time here]
Welcome aboard once again my disheveled and well worn internet travelers. Have you recovered substantially from our last voyage across these global networks of rotted brain worms and thinly veiled propaganda ? Good. Then shake off your land legs and let’s get this boat out of the harbour and past Jersey before the British navy comes back. We need to get across the Atlantic as fast as possible before storm season starts. This ocean is vast and even at an average depth of about two miles, I fear we could possibly sink even deeper on this particular voyage. Coordinates are set for New York and we have plenty of time to flick through the one and only book we have on board to guide the way.
The second filter in Herman & Chomsky’s propaganda model is extremely straightforward : The advertising license to do business. In the modern age we are completely accustomed to mass media being flooded with advertisements. But it has not always been so. “Before advertising became prominent, the price of a newspaper had to cover the price of doing business”. Of course, when advertising entered the picture, newspapers who could draw in larger shares of advertising revenue gained a massive advantage over their rivals, and could afford things like dropping the price of the paper, better features, promotion and so on. “With advertising, the free market does not yield a neutral system in which final buyer choice decides. The advertisers’ choices influence media prosperity and survival”. This shift towards an advertising based system was, and still can be, fatal to any mass media outlet who falls behind in the race for advertising dollars. Any form of working class or radical outlet was always going to be at a disadvantage, and the example provided in the book is genuinely astonishing, with three UK newspapers “failing or absorbed into establishment systems between 1960 and 1967, despite a collective average readership of 9.3 million”. One of the newspapers, the Daily Herald, had “almost double the readership of The Times, the Financial Times and the Guardian combined”. It can be stated in earnest that in the UK, the “free” market effectively wiped out or neutralised any form of mass print media that critiqued the established order and genuinely spoke on behalf of its readers. Fast forward to 1988 (1st edition of Manufacturing Consent published) and advertisers now “buy and pay for programs - they are the “patrons” who provide the media subsidy”.
Advertisers can pick and choose which media establishments to grace with their greasy wads of cash. As you can imagine, it is unlikely that BP would sponsor a documentary that seriously looks into the Deepwater Horizon spill, or that Triple Canopy Inc. (now called Constellis, formerly known as Academi, formerly known as Blackwater) would sponsor an investigative piece into exactly why Donald Trump pardoned the four convicted operatives who committed the Nisour Square massacre. This is not to say that these programs are not made. They are made, but are a burden to commercial platforms financially, and may offend powerful advertisers. A key observation made by Herman & Chomsky, and one that is particularly pertinent to today’s voyage is: “an advertising-based media system will gradually increase advertising time and marginalise or eliminate altogether programming that has significant public affairs content”. Alright folks, that’s enough theory for now, let’s get to some praxis. Turn on the TV.
I do hope you like looking at adverts, because on Newsmax they are frequent, they are multiple and they can be downright deranged. One minute Mike Huckabee is trying to send you the kids guide to fighting socialism in the mail (FOR FREE!!), the next you are being sold newly made replica civil war guns. Vitamins. The Epoch Times. George Foreman wants you to take out repair insurance for your home. William Shatner took out a retirement plan and it worked out well for him, so you should too. Tom Selleck wants you to access your home equity with a reverse mortgage loan. Mike Lindell from my pillow dot com wants you to check out my pillow dot com where you can get the best pillows in America. Lots of stuff is even advertised for FREE. A winning guide to beating the markets. A free consultation for how to benefit from all the medicare benefits you are entitled to. Hemorrhoid Cream. A class action lawsuit against the producer of Round-Up weed killer for people who suffer from Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
A $2 bill, which is not legal tender, usual retail of $39.95 - YOURS NOW for only $14.95 (plus shipping and handling)
Naturally, the advertisers’ budgets are spent where a particular audience has been cultivated, one they want to target. At the time Chomsky & Herman published their book, CBS quaintly referred to their sales tool for advertisers as “CAP - Client Audience Profile”. In an era of predatory surveillance capitalism it is not hard to imagine that TV stations know exactly who their audience is, right down to their IP address, browsing history and their “frequently bought together” items. This begs the question ; Do the ads exist to support the news or does the news exist to support the ads ? Given the nature of concentrated media ownership by large corporations and the fact that most American media owners are all in the same closed-door clubs (Newsmax owner Chris Ruddy is a member of the International Council, chaired by Henry Kissinger), they might as well be selling the ads to themselves (which we did literally see in Part 1 with Naguib in Angola).
Research into American media executives and top journalists published by the Swiss policy research group in 2017
If the news content did not exist, the ads would have nowhere to be. Similarly if the ads did not exist there would be no need for companies to produce the news as a vehicle to show ads. We are referring to news in a very loose sense of the word now, because even though it’s called Newsmax, there is very little news and it mostly looks like a zoom call that no one wants to be on.
Okay, we have already passed Lady Liberty and are headed up the east river. Our final destination can be seen from here - One Vanderbilt.
It’s the big one in the middle. A $3 billion dollar behemoth of office space, built by a fully unionised workforce of 3,000 people. This is where Newsmax’s main studio and headquarters is. Fellow tenants include large companies with forgettable names dealing in areas as diverse as real estate, asset management, hedge funds, and an “unknown financial firm” on the 55th floor. One morning while watching Newsmax I witnessed an amazing piece of journalism, where host Rob Finnerty was reporting that Donald Trump had left Mar-a-lago and was heading to New York for the first time since he left the White House. Rob turned to the camera and said “Hey Donald Trump, if you’re watching, I know you sometimes watch in the morning, the door is always open here for you at Newsmax, we can have you down for an interview, or just a quick catch up over a cup of coffee. Let us know. We’re here for you.” This kind of casual delivery is an oft repeated theme on Newsmax, where the mood can sometimes feel like a bar, or a frat house, people just riffing and shooting the shit. Hence Rob Finnerty talking to republican Tim Burchett at 8am EST one morning about how his gallbladder ruptured on Y2K because he ate too many chili dogs and a nurse saved his life. Rob’s own mother is or was a nurse, and the segment concluded with them thanking the nurses for “the service they give to their country every day”.
The title card for Newsmax’s morning show WAKE UP AMERICA. The words continuously scroll in the background when hosts are on camera. If ever there was an argument to be made that TV news is brainwashing, then this is it.
With advertising defined as a “de facto licensing authority” by Herman & Chomsky, who is licensing Newsmax? The vitamin sector (humans AND pets) has a lot to answer for. As do the raft of various three lettered finance companies offering loans for anything and everything to do with houses and retirement, as well as various investment opportunities, everything from stonks to a start-up Mezcal brand. Conservative Buying Clubs. Made in America companies who “never left”. The website PRAY.COM !
Alright, let’s tie the boat up at the East river platform, hopefully no one nicks it on us. After we navigate our way past the highway, we can begin walking down East 42nd Street and try not to gawk too much at all the landmarks on the way. The United Nations Building. The Daily News building, where Clark Kent works. The Chrysler Building. Starbucks! Welcome to Midtown Manhattan. The home of Trump Tower, Times Square and possibly the greatest concentration of wealth criminals in the United States. Okay, we are standing outside Grand Central Station. Let’s have a look skywards at the very modest home of Newsmax.
Photo Credit : @UmbertoEcco2k
Thar she blows ! A true behemoth of a landmark. Much like how this skyscraper stands erect, rising up from the New York skyline to show its’ face among the crowd, a familiar character is now appearing during the ad break on Newsmax :
Still taken from an ad that ran on Newsmax, May 19th 2021.
That’s right, it’s our man Don ! Sorry, PRESIDENT Donald J. Trump to me and you. And he needs YOUR help ! These ads were paid for in part by the “Save America” Leadership Political Action Committee (PAC), who seem to have a tidy enough 30 million dollars or so already in the bank, courtesy of the MAGA PAC. Presumably this amount of money is not enough for Don to see out the storm, so hopefully the Newsmax viewers will call in and donate to his gofundme.
Thankfully that’s it for this journey. Next time out on the water we will cross another ocean and visit one of three candidates :
Until then, safe travels.