roundtable: Re: Content is the cargo of truth

roundtable: Re: Content is the cargo of truth

Re: Content is the cargo of truth

Rick Crawford (crawford@cs.ucdavis.edu)
Tue, 4 Apr 1995 16:32:16 -0700 

Date: Tue, 4 Apr 1995 16:32:16 -0700
From: crawford@cs.ucdavis.edu (Rick Crawford)
Message-Id: <9504042332.AA05474@ivy.cs.ucdavis.edu>
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: Re: Content is the cargo of truth


   > There is no
   > "propaganda system" in the world of text.

A brief reality check is in order.  Editor & Publisher v126, n3 
(Jan 16, 1993) reported that virtually all 150 newspaper editors in 
a 1992 Marquette Univ. study acknowledged interference by advertisers.  
93% of editors said advertisers tried to influence the content of their 
newspaper articles. 71% of editors said advertisers tried to kill 
certain stories outright. And 37% of editors were *honest enough* to 
admit that they actually had succumbed to this advertiser pressure.  
More than half (55.1%) said there was pressure from within their own 
newspaper to write or tailor news stories to please advertisers.  So 
much for "unbiased" dissemination of factual information, an essential 
basis for the efficient market hypothesis.

Here's some tidbits to flesh out the dry statistics.

-rick

Rick Crawford
<crawford@cs.ucdavis.edu>
------

Topic 190       Advertiser Censorship
studycommerc    media.issues     1:48 pm  Jul 23, 1992

                 ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO SELL

Censorship clearinghouse: In March, the Center for the Study of
Commercialism (CSC) released the report "Dictating Content: How
Advertising Pressure Can Corrupt A Free Press," which documents
how the news media tailor editorial content to suit advertisers.
To keep the spotlight on this disturbing trend, CSC will continue
to feature new examples of advertiser influence on the media.

~ Paramount Pictures pulled all advertising from Daily Variety
after film critic Joseph McBride panned the movie "Patriot Games"
as a "shallow" adaptation of Tom Clancy's "right-wing cartoon of
the British-Irish political situation."  Peter Bart, Daily Variety
editor, publicly apologized to Paramount, promising that McBride
would never review another Paramount movie.  Bart also hinted
that McBride's position as a critic was in question.  (NYT 6/10/92)

~ Financial analyst Graef Crystal, who launched the national debate
on executive salaries while at Fortune magazine, has been fired from 
a similar job at Financial World after advertisers complained
that their executives were getting bad coverage.  (CJR 6/92)

~ Ford and General Motors convinced Saturday Night Live producers
to take the companies' names out of a skit that cast them in a
negative light.  Titled "Tall Tales From the Recession," the original
SNL scene depicted Ford and GM chairmen competing to lay off the
most workers.  The final version used fictitious company names.
(Entertainment Weekly 4/8/92)

~ Popular computer pundit William Zachman quit his job at PC Week
after editors demanded he write friendlier columns about Microsoft.
The software company, one of PC Week's largest advertisers,
had complained about a series of critical articles.
The evening after editors tried to pressure Zachman, a Microsoft
official called to "reeducate" him on their product.  (WP 7/7/92)

~ General Motors sentenced Automobile Magazine to three months
without advertising after editor David E. Davis delivered a
scathing speech criticizing the motor company for closing 21
plants and eliminating 74,000 jobs. (NYT 6/26/92)

~ The Minneapolis Star-Tribune lost nearly all advertising from
Northwest Airlines after the newspaper published an advertisement,
paid for by a grassroots organization, that blasted Northwest's
campaign to win state financing in exchange for building maintenance
hubs in Minnesota.  Northwest also criticized the Star-Tribune for
covering the debate in regular news stories, even though an editorial
supported the airline's position.  (MST 3/28/92)

KNOW OF NEW EXAMPLES OF ADVERTISER-CENSORSHIP?
Call (202) 797-7080, E-mail, or write to:

                   Center for the Study for Commercialism
                   1875 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 300,
                   Washington, DC 20009

[ P.S. -- So many news outlets refused even to acknowledge the existence
          of the Center's report, "Dictating Content", that the report's
          story of advertiser censorship was -- itself -- voted one of
          the  "Top Ten Censored Stories of 1992"  by  Project Censored! ]
                ================================

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