“The media is the opposition party.” – Steve Bannon.
Today we hear prominent staffers in the Trump White House openly talking about the mainstream media as the true opposition, not the Democrats.
And we now see the mainstream media unashamedly producing false narratives – such as a ban on Muslims – to undermine the newly elected Republican president.
This is a crisis that was long in the making.
At one time President Dwight D. Eisenhower expressed his worry and concern about the coming power of television news to his own press secretary, James Hagerty. The founding fathers and the U.S. Constitution did not anticipate the power of television news, said Eisenhower. It could emerge into another equal branch of power, like the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch of government.
With one striking difference. The owners of the corporate media could not be impeached and would not be elected and were not really accountable to anybody. When the corporations that financed the television industry finally became powerful enough, they could get whatever they wanted.
Hagerty, who was close to the men who were at the heart of the industry, insisted that they were great men who exhibited flawless integrity. These men could be trusted.
David Sarnoff and William Paley had already met Eisenhower in Britain. Ike had needed help in broadcasting to the European continent after the D-Day invasion.
William Paley was involved in both “black” and “white” propaganda. He would establish radio stations that would broadcast truthful stories to the European continent and then when he had won the trust of the listeners, he would broadcast false information to help the allies.
Eisenhower worried. Just as he worried about the emerging military industrial complex. He told Hagerty that he was an old army man and that the army trusted systems, not individuals. You always have two men count the church offering, Ike said. Not because there aren’t any honest men in church but because a truly honest man wants someone else in that room with him.
By the way, James Hagerty left the White House to become the vice president of the ABC television network.
We have reached a turning point. The rise of Twitter, Facebook and other internet options allow the president to communicate directly with the people. Who in turn can express their views to their respective congressmen and senators. There is a brief opening for a correction in the balance of power. But this window may be too little, too late.
Keep in mind, the media is still extremely powerful. The hundreds of television and movie channels we watch are owned by six companies and those companies are sometimes owned by other companies that are getting money at zero percent interest, directly from the Federal Reserve and indirectly through major banks. Most of them are also getting money directly from the U.S. government. Corporate welfare now exceeds welfare for the poor.Those companies still influence language, culture and politics.
Nevertheless, there is an opening. And we have the first president since Dwight D. Eisenhower who recognizes the danger.
Doug Wead 
This is a good article but it has overlooked the fact that we have another player in the field………..George Soros……..he is pumping money into the media and promoting the unrest among the American people by paying some uninformed people to start riots. Until we get rid of him there is little we can do to get the truth except stay with Fox News.
Very good point. European coverage is even more influenced by Soros. My wife just got back from France. Fascinating.
Good story
Mark Jackson
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BILLIONS of dollars were spent in the last election cycle to demonize BOTH candidates and to BRAND them with specific talking points. You have never met either of them personally, but you probably HATE at least one of them… for the same reason you can recite McDonalds’ slogans and theme songs. Don’t get sucked in by Madison Avenue! Your REAL ENEMY is not who you think it is.
Good point.
Fascinating to see how and who runs our world.Should make a wall of charts showing who these people and Co.are..Thanks for your blog.
Doug, two corrections: “already met met Eisenhower” sounds like a dance craze (was a big fad with the kids in the 1950s after the cha cha went out of style).
Also, do *not* diss the founders, they perfectly well understood the power of the 4th estate: “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press” and although they could not have predicted television centralizing power, nor the internet decentralizing power, they documented the core freedoms necessary to resist the former and take full advantage of the latter: “…or the right of the people… to petition the government”
Eisenhower was wrong, in other words: the right of we-the-people to speak freely, bowing neither to political correctness nor to government censorship, and the liberty to found our own blogs and our own press entities should we find Big Media has left laissez faire profits right there in the market for the taking, is Constitutionally guaranteed. Whether it was a close call or not, in terms of the broad span of history, is one of those counterfactual things… but as the resident historian I bow to you expertise 🙂
What is urgent is that people, those reading this blog and those not yet so lucky, need to understand: the media is controlled, the internet is not YET controlled, there are still Constitutional liberties which permit we-the-people to speak, to tweet, to friend, to blog, and to peaceably assemble the in blog comments, plus should we wish, to found our own enterprises that broadcast truth-as-we-see-it. All of which is happening, and needs to *continue* happening, at an exponential growth-rate: trust no one, read widely, think for yourselves, and speak your mind, my fellow Americans.
MEANWHILE, back at the ranch, as the saying goes, the folks in the EU are in terrible danger right now, of crackdowns on so-called hate speech and fake news, the definition of which is expanding at light speed to encompass not just saying ‘hitler was kewl’ but also now saying ‘trump won the popvote’ and soon methinks it will no longer be legal to say ‘merkel must go’ for the unlucky old world citizenry… and thataway lies totalitarianism. Which always ends up in global war, be it Cold War or the other flavors, and which the USA will eventually be sucked into, unless we can head the censors off at the pass?
Just talked to a friend in Europe and my wife got back from visiting her parents in France and what you say is soooo true. Amazing.