MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media — June 13, 2002

THE MAD MULLAHS OF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA

Corporate Law, Capitalist Fundamentalism and the Media
Prologue – When Lies Are Killing People, Liars Must Be Exposed

As democracy and freedom continue to melt away beneath the withering heat of state-corporate power, it becomes ever more difficult to tell the truth. We live in an age when critical thought, honest dissent, speaking out against absurdity, are rarely experienced by the public. This gives the impression of a bland but civilised consensus, where in fact are found only stifling power, cynical silence, selfish compromise, and unthinking conformity.

In these conditions, dissent comes to seem frightening and strange – we have a sense of what is supposed to be said, supposed to be believed, of what is expected of us, and we fear isolation from the safety of the herd. The collapse of honesty is such that even 'radicals' live in dread that they might alienate the media gatekeepers whom they foolishly believe will somehow help them undermine the gatekeepers' own corrupt values, interests and positions. Many of us have been persuaded that cooperating with power is the only way to progressively enlighten and humanise power. We believe that entering a dark room with the profoundly self-deceived is the best way to increase the light.

This brings to mind the story of the Sufi figure, Mullah Nasruddin. One night some of Nasruddin's friends found him crawling around on his hands and knees searching for something beneath a lamp-post. When they asked him what he was looking for, he told them that he had lost the key to his house. They all got down to help him look, but without success. Finally, one of them asked Nasruddin where exactly he had lost the key. Nasruddin replied, "In the house." "Then why," his friends asked, "are you looking under the lamp-post?" Nasruddin replied, "Because there's more light here." (Quoted, Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, Seeking The Heart of Wisdom, 1987, p.95) Working with systems born of unrestrained greed to undermine greed is like looking beneath the lamp-post – it feels like there is more light there, more power. But in fact the key to resisting selfish power is found elsewhere – in compassion, in selfless concern for others, in honesty and courage. All the qualities that are filtered out by power.

When lies are killing people, liars must be exposed. Even the most compassionate and peaceful traditions support vigorous opposition to lies. An ancient sage of the Buddhist tradition notes of the truly spiritual individual:

"He will slander an unwholesome adviser of a person, and use harsh, severe words to move someone from unwholesome to wholesome action." (Quoted, Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p.139)

Corporate Fundamentalism And The Media

The term 'fundamentalism', or "strict maintenance of ancient or fundamental doctrines" (Oxford Concise Dictionary), is generally used in connection with belief systems deemed fanatical, intolerant, irrational and brutal. Nothing could fit the bill better than the corporate system, the corporate media included. This we learn from Robert Hinkley, who spent 23 years as a corporate securities attorney advising large corporations on securities offerings and mergers and acquisitions.

In his article, 'How Corporate Law Inhibits Social Responsibility', Hinkley explains how every jurisdiction where corporations operate has its own law of corporate governance. But, remarkably, the corporate