Book Review "The New Media Monopoly" Ben Bagdikian-updated 2004


Bagdikian’s the man


In Ben Bagdikian’s The New Media Monopoly, the author critically analyzes the media with a focus on the conglomerates effect on the mass media with corporations’ advertising contributing a close second causing the destruction of independent thought, independent control and trustworthiness of the major branches of media, most notably newspaper, radio, television, and magazines.
The writing is crisp and very dry throughout. A few instances of humor arise when Bagdikian speaks about George W. Bush, calling him “Bush the Younger”. Other than these few instances, the tone is too informative with few sprinkles of personality or closeness to the reader. We are all doomed, have been doomed for a few decades, and very little stands in the way before the government and corporations control all thoughts coming from the media. This book may be a precursor to the Orwellian world from 1984. Big brother is the corporations and they have taken our voice.
Although the writing lacks any real style, Bagdikian loads up on the information. He begins by telling brief histories of all the “Big Five”. The five largest media companies in the world, frequently in bed with each other, that control virtually all media. He starts with the innocent beginnings as struggling companies to media giants killing anything good in the world, including independence from the “Big Five”.
He sites real examples of chain newspapers techniques using quotes from leaders of the industry and the affected independents gobbled up before and after the event. The endnotes are very precise and lead belief in the legitimacy of Bagdikian’s claims. He writes about Gannett (the largest newspaper chain in the United States with 94 daily circulation newspapers to date). He specifically attacks President, CEO and Chairman of Gannett Allen Harold Neuharth, “More than anyone else in American newspaper publishing, Neuharth reversed the public posture of corporate journalism.” Gannett is the big bad wolf in this story of greed and corporate cooption of the media. Bagdikian shows us the insanity of monopolies in metropolitan areas of the United States compared to those in other industrialized parts of the world yet to consolidate. “In London, for example, there are twelve daily papers; in Paris, thirty-three; in Tokyo, thirty-one.” This basic fact screams to the lack of diversity presented to the American public by the media.
Bagdikian relays a story specifically showing the power of the media to all points of our interest. Richard E. Berlin, president and CEO of the Hearst Corporation in New York, wrote a letter to President Nixon requesting reconsideration about a bill, The Newspaper Preservation Act. Berlin spoke with the authority of 40 million in circulation, including his interested supporters (other newspaper chain owners). Berlin wanted the bill passed, which greatly contributed to the state of corporate journalism today. Richard Nixon, a famed anti-journalism President agreed to help pass the bill with the newspapers’ support. The two parties made a deal, killed competition between newspapers, covered up the Watergate scandal as long as possible, and changed the way newspapers could operate from that point forward. Bagdikan shows the largest abuse of power possible between some of the biggest power players in the world.
After laying into the “Big Five” for much of the book, Bagdikian relents and reloads on the corporate interests. How the corporate world’s shaping of media released to the public started as early as the 1950’s, when advertisers created their own television programming to ensure the messages’ clarity, to the current state of advertisers dictating programming with direct contact with producers, approving or canning different proposals from the media companies themselves.
Bagdikian gives the corporates respect with their control over the media. The only force strong enough to tame either of these wild animals is the ever-powerful dollar, maybe a distant second is political power.
Bagdikian eventually shows some hope in the process with the creation of the internet. “The one important medium not yet controlled by the media monopolies.” The hope with the internet lies in its independence. Bagdikian leaves little to hope for in this book, but a large portion pertains to the internet.
The strongest argument made by Bagdikian about why we should be outraged about the narrowing of focus brought by the greed and corporates very simply states that we own the mediums. Government innovation created airwaves for them to broadcast. They have perverted OUR tax dollars into their own private monopoly money. Bagdikian convincingly inspires action to stop the bludgeoning of the media by money hungry corporations.

Why do you hate the terrorists?

Are heroes in the United States heroes to everyone? Does every member of society equally like controversial leaders? Can a person with a revolutionary, anti-establishment background and belief be a hero to the public? Does Fred Hampton deserve a portion of Monroe named after him? The Black Panther Party still has the stigma of a terrorist group to almost everyone in the United States. The government of the time up until present day reinforces this notion of evil with every mention of the Black Panthers. Were the Black Panthers a terrorist group or were they freedom fighters? This paper will look at the actions of the Black Panthers against the assumed identity given by the government to the masses, that the Black Panthers took advantage of the communities they supposedly served.
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party in 1966 in North Oakland, California. The main objectives of the party were to free black citizens from racism and oppression by the United States government. The ten-point platform of “What We Want, What We Believe” comprised the basis from which all other Black Panther rules came from. The focus of this paper deals with community activism and aid to the community from the Black Panthers.
Community was most important to the Black Panthers. A grass-roots organization cannot succeed without the roots (the community). The Black Panthers wanted freedom, employment, ending the robbery of the community, decent housing and education, ending police brutality in the community and their own land and nation. The Black Panthers protected the community. They were not to gain anything from any of these needs or wants. It was a communal project. Huey Newton said, “Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny.” The Black Panther party wanted equality for everyone. They did not want power for themselves. They wanted it for everyone. Fred Hampton called for, “White power, red power, yellow power, black power.” For anyone to think otherwise is to miss the essence of the Black Panthers.
They sacrificed lives of their leaders for the fulfillment of a dream of equality for the black community. They sacrificed money and resources to further the advancement of the black community in a grassroots way that no other organization before or since has matched. The Black Panthers started community-based programs to help children of the community.
“In January, 1969, the first Panther's Free Breakfast for School Children Program was initiated at St. Augustine's Church in Oakland. By the end of the year, the Panthers set up kitchens in cities across the nation, feeding over 10,000 children every day before they went to school.” (www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/) Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, felt pressure to mimic the Black Panthers breakfast program and started increasing funding for a program of his own. This program, renamed Head Start, was given a government certification and remains to this day.
People pervert the Black Panthers image. The Black Panthers wanted freedom from oppression. The party rules show kindness towards all. “If we ever have to take captives, do not ill-treat them.” (8 points of attention) The Black Panthers did not want a war. They wanted freedom. Whatever means necessary precluded war as a last result, not a first-strike attitude.
History will someday show the Black Panthers as a revolutionary group working for freedom from the government that oppressed its own citizens. History will show the truth about the Black Panthers.

Prexy Nesbitt is in the top right corner in white.


Prexy Nesbitt is a natural resource. He teaches at Columbia College, speaks all over the country, consults and leads commissions all over the world with the goal of improving race relations. He is also a normal, nice guy.
His apartment is a forest of books. Bookshelves cover every wall. There are books stacked on chairs, the kitchen table, in corners, on every flat surface available. There are African artifacts from some of his 80 trips strewn across his living room with a large Nelson Mandela poster over the fireplace with the caption “There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere”, a telling comment into Mr. Nesbitt’s life.
Prexy Nesbitt was born in 1945 at Provident Hospital in Chicago, growing up on the west side during the turbulent 1960’s. He saw racism every day and fought against it at an early age.
“I grew up on the west side of Chicago when Julian Percy, a doctor, moved to Oak Park and his house was bombed and his daughter was burned. I protested it with my family at the age of 9,” said Nesbitt.
At the age of 20, Nesbitt became interested in Africa and studied abroad for a year in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania in 1965-1966. He was surprised about feelings toward racism in Africa.
“In Tanzania, they didn’t think about racism like we do in the United States. They thought about apartheid in South Africa,” said Nesbitt.
Along with apartheid, people of Africa were fighting against colonialism.
“We burned a British Rolls Royce and the British flag protesting the colonialism. I was arrested and spent the night in jail. The next day the President of Tanzania sent buses to pick us up. He scolded us publicly but he gave us a wink,” said Nesbitt.
Upon his return to Chicago in 1966, he volunteered for Martin Luther King’s Chicago summer campaign “Union to End Slums”, working to end slum housing, the racism in the real estate market, and creating jobs for African-Americans by soliciting work for the unemployed.
“Dr. King’s people told me they had never seen such violence and hate in the South as there was in Chicago,” said Nesbitt.
During this time, he was still a college student at Antioch.
“My senior year I founded the Antioch Committee on South Africa protesting the school’s involvement with businesses in South Africa in the spring of 1967. We had a sit-in to protest the school,” said Nesbitt.
After graduating college, Mr. Nesbitt was involved in many things.
He helped organize and found three unions, starting in 1972.
“I was raised pro-union. My father taught me that unions brought things to us,” said Nesbitt.
In 1979, he consulted for World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland, to end racism.
In 1986, Nesbitt got involved in politics, landing a job as a special assistant to the mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington.
“I worked on a special squad that answered to Mr. Washington or his top assistant,” said Nesbitt.
Mr. Nesbitt has worked nearly all his life for equality, racial or otherwise for many groups. He has helped aboriginals in Australia to the Dene in the Northwest Territory in Canada.
“You name it, Prexy’s there. For everything from Palestinian rights to gay/lesbian rights,” said Pablo Medina, Director of Intergroup Relations and Outreach, Chicago Commission on Human Relations, and longtime acquaintance.
Why does he do it?
“I was raised with a vision in a different kind of family. I have lived in many different places other than the United States. It does not have to be this way. Fair and equitable. I don’t know any other way to live,” said Nesbitt.
Mr. Nesbitt lives in Oak Park. He has two sons he spends most of his time with, Samora, 10 and Jele, 11. He also has 20 cousins living in the Chicago area.
For the past six years Mr. Nesbitt teaches African history at Columbia College as an adjunct professor. He also consults on multi-culturalism and diversity for Northeastern Illinois University, and works for the University of Chicago Laboratory School as a diversity advisor.
“He got me right away. I want to know everything he knows. I have a very high opinion of him,” said Rebekah Liteo, junior.
“Columbia College is a perfect example of the basic social pattern of America. Different groups of people going to college separating themselves living in a peaceful coexistence. There is so much to learn between the different ethnic groups,” said Nesbitt. “We are together from 9 to 5. Then the social apartheid starts.”
He also puts on “anti-racism workshops” to help promote equality.
“The initial step is to unlearn racism by critically thinking about one’s own lifestyle. The next step involves actively intervening when confronted with racism,” said Nesbitt. “It’s impossible unless a person is willing to intervene at every opportunity.”
Activity is a strong theme in Nesbitt’s solution to the race problem.
“My workshops bring people together to honestly discuss their issues with racism, and seek to learn and find solutions to the problems plaguing people around the world to this day. The bottom line for many problems is race.”
When will Prexy hang the fighting shoes up?
“[Prexy] is a permanent fighter for liberation. His stand has been unwavering,” said Myesha Jenkins, a friend, poet and cultural activist from South Africa.
“It’s easy to see his commitment towards self-determination and freedom. He’ll continue [fighting] for the rest of his life,” said Medina. “It’s a pleasure talking about him. He’s a great brother.”
For more information about Mr. Nesbitt’s causes, a deeper biography, or to inquire about an educational trip to Africa Mr. Nesbitt has a website. www.prexynesbitt.com