The battle over who owns and controls the mass media, which ideas and information will reach a broad public is central to the question of whether rule by the people can or will exist. the failure of the American mass media to truthfully inform the public is predictable, and was predicted by the people who fought the commercialization of radio in the early 20th century. In a media system based on profits from advertising revenue, the attention of the audience becomes the product sold to the advertiser. The ideal audience is therefore not only large, it is one not in the habit of thinking critically . Critical thinkers will maintain their habits of mind through the commercial breaks, and that's bad for business. Fomenting ignorance and passivity through the manipulation of language was one of the key themes of George Orwell's dystopian novel of a totalitarian society, "1984." Robert Kane Pappas 2006 documentary, Orwell Rolls in his Grave, compares the manipulation of ideas by media in 21st century America to Orwell's totalitarian state. I have adapted it for radio for your listening pleasure this week as we administer an antidote to the propaganda flowing hot and heavy in this election season. Then a reading on the "diamond invention" a decades long advertising campaign to change the culture of courtship to profit DeBeers.
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