William Dean Singleton is the chairman and publisher of the Denver Post and the chairman of the board of directors of the Associated Press. Singleton is the CEO of MediaNews Group. The company publishes 56 daily newspapers in 12 states. Singleton likes to either buy his competition or run them out of business so that his print media is the only source of news in each market. Denver's other newspaper, The Rocky Mountain News, folded a couple of years ago and Singleton now controls the information in the Denver area. If you live in any of the areas controlled by Singleton, you are reading only what he wants you to know and nothing more.
With that control, Singleton allegedly has politicians "run things by him" to avoid bad press. Apparently, Colorado senator Michael Bennet is in good with Singleton. The Post refused to run a story about Bennet's controversial 2008 restructuring of Colorado school pension plans, placing them at the mercy of Wall Street, now costing Colorado tax payers a lot of money due to the LIBOR scandal. The Denver Business Journal broke the story instead of the city's only major newspaper.
The Denver Post also painted a very different picture of the Democratic then-candidate Michael Bennet in 2010. They portrayed him as a Washington outsider who would change things. In reality, Bennet grew up in D.C., is the son of a U.S. Ambassador and led a privileged Washington life attending the private prep school St. Albans. He also worked for the Clinton's, which explains why President Bill Clinton flew to Colorado to campaign with him and for him during his senate campaign.
Singleton isn't just friendly with the Democrats. He is an equal opportunity scumbag. He'll squash a story to save the reputation of any politician that will do him a favor. And Singleton isn't the only one.
According to Harper's Magazine, conservative businessman Douglas Manchester bought the Union-Tribune to run favorable stories about his own business deals. Real estate businessman Sam Zell pressured the Chicago Tribune to slam Blagojevich. And Democrat George Norcross recently bought the Philadelphia Inquirer amid an unpublished conflict of interest scandal.
So, what's the moral of the story? If you have the money, you can control the information. If you control the information, you can control the people and the way they vote. Controlling the politicians that you have now essentially voted into office with your money and your support will enable you to continue to screw the working class. Laws will favor you and your business with complete disregard for public welfare.
This is the very thing the Founding Fathers warned against. The Anti-Federalists worried that congress would be susceptible to bribes. They might not have known it would become an epidemic or that politicians in Washington sent to uphold the Constitution would be the very pawns used to destroy it for personal greed at the hands of big business.
America is no longer the "land of the free," but instead, the land of "those with deep pockets."
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
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Comments: 10
http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-will-buy-most-media-general-newspapers-2012-5
Is it OK if rich liberals like Buffett buy up newspapers?
"They are sent by e-mail from the Obama headquarters in Chicago to reporters who have interviewed campaign officials under one major condition: the press office has veto power over what statements can be quoted and attributed by name."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/us/politics/latest-word-on-the-campaign-trail-i-take-it-back.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2012/08/16/journolist-redux-aps-peoples-and-politicos-summers-write-oddly-similar-s
It is not the politicians that control the newspapers but vice-versa.
Most newspapers are owned by big. conservative industrialists or corporations. Amongst all the Big Lies told and re-told and repeated ad nauseum by right wingers the Biggest Lie is their insistence on the existence of a "liberal mainstream media". There is no such thing.
The mainstream media is the corporate voice and it sells corporatism 24/7. There is no liberal voice in America anymore, at least not one that can be heard or read by many people all at once. There are blogs and on-line news sources that bring a different perspective, but they make up a fringe only.
The politicians, by and large, are pawns in thsi game. You and I aren't even on the board.
Time to change the bongwater Rory.
I was actually not happy to read the Harper's article because I voted for Bennet and I attended the rally I mentioned where Bill Clinton came here to campaign for him. I saw them both together on stage and I blindly followed Clinton's endorsement, not knowing Bennet's true past.