CNN and ABC merge: ministry of truth comes next

Total information domination requires a new propaganda instrument

America’s largest TV companies, CNN and ABC, may merge into a single TV news channel. Both companies explain this prospective merger with the crisis they are experiencing and with their drop in ratings. One more thing is also evident: to gain domination over the world, the USA needs a powerful propaganda engine, something similar George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.

Russia’s NTV.Ru has reported about the possible merger of two TV companies with reference to the Los Angels Times. The American newspaper declares that it learnt about the merger possibility discussed at an AOL Time Warner board of directors meeting (the company owns CNN) last week, the directors were well-disposed concerning the deal. Moreover, the information about merger talks was also been confirmed by both AOL and Walt Disney Co. (ABC News owner). AOL Time Warner press-secretary Bred Tarell told the newspaper that “talks have been held with both networks; however, no agreement has yet been reached.” Disney spokeswoman Zenia Mucha added that the talks have been held for the last 18 months already. The Los Angeles Times reported that the merger is likely to help both TV channels overcome the crisis connected with the decline in ratings and the reduction in advertising income. In any case, if the rumors prove to be true, a new information monster will appear in the world, which will be the largest ever seen. It is supposed that the annual profit of the merged news channels may exceed 1.6 billion USD. In this case, 600 million of the sum will go to ABC News and 1 billion USD to CNN.

It is very likely that the merger aims not only to increase profits. When America decides to pursue its interests in any part of the planet, the US Administration is unhappy to face considerable resistance, not only from countries of the third world, but also from its allies in Europe. The fact that the world's only superpower doesn’t hold a monopoly on the world's information is very distressing for America. For instance, at the time when the USA was hunting Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda terrorists, Qatar’s al-Jazeera television channel openly broadcasted new revelations of the Muslim jihad leader and interviews with his accomplices saying that the WTC was an easy target to blow up. At the same time, the European media circulated an unfavorable comparison of George Bush and Adolph Hitler all over the world. Therefore, there are many problems for US politicians and US Department of State analysts to think about.

What is more, CNN has always been the mouthpiece of the US Administration, pushing American values and standards upon the whole of the world. CNN’s strength and authority is based upon the concept of news in an American product for export. There is hardly a country in the world where news from the CNN point of view is not currently being broadcasted. In this respect, ABC is much weaker than CNN; however, it enjoys very strong positions on the domestic TV market.

An attempt to place control over the large information services under one editorial policy certainly raises hails of protest inside the USA, where believe that CNN and ABC have different slants. The TV market will considerably reduce in this case. But the USA is even ready to neglect such trifles for the sake of absolute information domination. Moreover, experience has already shown that any audience, even an American one, becomes used to any radical change rather quickly. Let’s remember the events in Russia’s NTV television owned by oligarch Vladimir Gusinky. Although the editorial policy of the channel has been considerably improved, NTV has retained its permanent audience. After the merger of both TV companies, the US Administration will have an unbelievably strong propaganda instrument that can exert influence not only in other countries of the world, but in the USA as well. This means that George Bush will never have problems with ratings, and he is sure to gain the support of the American people for any suggestion to wage war anywhere in the world. These ideological results mean that the USA won’t need to ask for permission of the US Security Council to bomb various countries. However, people born yesterday will continue to believe that the merger is about declining profits and ratings.

Dmitry Slobodanuk PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Maria Gousseva