Part I

by Media Lens

Early last century, industrial technology allowed business interests to produce mass media at a cost that outclassed the capacity of non-corporate media to compete. As a result, radical publishers were marginalized and media diversity rapidly narrowed. To counter claims that society was being, in effect, brainwashed by this media monopoly, corporate publishers promoted the idea of “professional journalism.” For the first time, reporters would be trained in special “schools of journalism” to master the arts of objective, balanced reporting. Big business moguls would be in control but, as good democrats, they would see to it that their journalists were scrupulously fair...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov05/MediaLens1103.htm



Thought Control and “Professional” Journalism (Part II)
by Media Lens

In Part 1 we described how the notion of “professional” journalism was developed precisely to obscure the significance of the fact that corporate power had gained a monopoly over the mass media. “Professional” journalism accepts that powerful interests -- the political and economic allies of the corporate media -- should be allowed to set the news agenda. Reporters are to channel the words of officialdom without expressing their own personal opinions. To express criticism of the powerful in news reports is deemed “unprofessional” -- that is, “crusading”, “committed”, “polemical” and “radioactive”. Curiously, the myth of professional “objectivity” exists alongside the clear fact that expressing support for the claims and actions of the powerful is not considered unprofessional...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov05/MediaLens1104.htm