Inventing Reality

Have you ever noticed, I mean really noticed, how all of mainstream media and most of alternative media in America and around the world is split into two camps? How there's "Liberal media" and "Right Wing media" going at each other's throats, but almost no media criticizing both camps, and almost no true "Left Wing media"? Here's why.

Everyone knows, or at least has heard of the book "Manufacturing Consent" with the subtitle "The Political Economy of the Mass Media". The book argues that U.S. mainstream media are in fact "powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion". However, two years before its publication Michael Parenti's book "Inventing Reality" with the subtitle "The Politics of Mass Media" was publicized, making the same argument albeit with stronger emphasis on the influence of capitalism, anti-communism and American Exceptionalism. The link for Parenti's book will bring you to a complete PDF version of "Inventing Reality"; I highly recommend it, as it is a much easier and funnier read than the dry language offered in "Manufacturing Consent". Parenti is easier to read because he's much more ideologically driven; he's an outspoken anti-capitalist.

Let's focus on the mainstream media simply because, as much as we like to think otherwise, most of what we see and hear in alternative media is still informed by what appears in the mainstream. Parenti starts with the observation that "issues" don't exist for the general public until they appear in the mainstream news media. This is the first and arguably the most important filter; public discourse is severely limited simply by what issues get airtime. The mainstream media are the sole arbiters of what becomes the "topic of the day". Parenti in his book makes a point I've often made myself in this blog: the so called "liberal" media aren't liberal at all, let alone leftist. I live in Europe and compared to European political parties, America has two right wing parties with one of them residing on the far right. When was the last time socialism was honestly covered in American media? Both sides, who are really on the same pro-corporatism side, agree on true leftism: they both despise it. They both complained about the BLM protests in 2020 being too violent, they both reject the progressive ideas behind the "Defund the Police" movement, and they both favor private or employment-based healthcare over universal healthcare.

And still the American mainstream media is steadily moving the Overton window even further to the right, no matter what the alt-right online snowflakes have to say about the country being ruled by a Marxist shadow-government. The FED, in collaboration with both political parties, is now deliberately murdering the manufactured middle class. The FED has not one, but two main directives, but they focus only on one of them: keeping inflation in check. They do so at the expense of their second directive, which is keeping unemployment down; when less citizens can afford to buy stuff, less stuff has to be produced, leading to less jobs. They simply state it as matter of fact: "The Fed says unemployment will rise. Here's who economists say would lose their jobs first."

The Federal Reserve escalated its fight against inflation this week, instituting a major rate increase and saying more will likely follow. The moves will cause a jump in the number of unemployed Americans by the end of next year, the central bank said.

The Fed has put forward a series of aggressive interest rate hikes in recent months as it tries to slash price increases by slowing the economy and choking off demand. But the approach risks tipping the United States into a recession and causing widespread joblessness.
_{source: ABC News}

When was the last time we heard an honest account of the causes of inflation? Workers are blamed; their demands are, supposedly, unrealistic. Government-aid is blamed: workers received some meager checks during the pandemic and the FED printed billions of dollars. Nothing about the PPP loan-forgiveness and nothing about the billions corporations received so that they didn't have to resort to mass-layoffs (but they still fired plenty). And last but not least: complete silence about the fact that corporations increased prices far beyond what's justifiable by money-inflation. They all operate by the adage "never waste a good crisis", and they've enriched themselves by making the citizen pay for their endless greed. Not a word about the fact that there's more than enough oil still, yet prices at the gas station are astronomically high. There's a name for this practice: price gouging.

What I've mentioned in the previous paragraph is not common knowledge. When popular talk-show host Bill Maher was reminded of the trillions of dollars received by corporate America during the pandemic right after the stock-market crashed on 20 February 2020, he didn't even know about it; he can be forgiven though because it was in the news only briefly. The meager checks received by regular citizens on the other hand are still in the news to this day, as they're blamed for inflation and the hard times ahead as a consequence of the FED's intent to keep upping interest rates in their mad dash to reduce the official inflation numbers.

I'll leave it here: the mainstream news media is nothing more than institutional propaganda in service of the same status quo supported by America's two right wing parties. The invented reality for most Americans has them believe that they have one conservative and one liberal party, and while that may be somewhat true when it comes to social issues, financially and economically they both side with their corporate masters. The trouble is that the social issues, by which the "liberals" try to distinguish themselves from the conservatives, are shaped by the financial and economical issues on which both parties largely are in agreement; rising fascism is the consequence. I'll now let Michael Parenti explain what his book is about. The below linked speech was taped in 1993, so it's rather dated, but the topics discussed are now even more relevant than they were back then. Also watch the above linked video, which discusses the fervent anti-communist and anti-leftist position of the corporate-owned media. Especially take notice of the March 1943 issue of Life Magazine disussed therein, as it had some surprisingly honest reporting on the U.S.S.R. and her role in the Second World War; that hones story is completely overshadowed by the invented reality most people now believe in.

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