Often the “Truth” can be very radical in message and presentation

BY STEVEN KASZAB

Finance and business media love to present statistical tables showing us where the wealthiest people on this planet reside. A kind of boasting aloud of the specific places where capitalism has achieved its most fruitful bounty, somehow saying that these wealthy people are responsible for their national economies flourishing and employment galore.

That is to say that 1% of the population is living the high life while the dirty unwashed among us strive to survive our financial journeys. In 2010 China declared that any one of its citizens relying upon less than $2.30 a day is living in poverty. Presently in 2024 the United Nations Statistics Department says over fifty million Chinese live in poverty. Since China will not allow free gathering of statistics in their territory we must rely upon state approved statistics. All statistics in China are political in nature.

America’s Federal Government Poverty Line has realized an escalating rate of poverty in America. In 1970 there were 12.6% of Americans living in poverty and that has risen in 2020 to 15.4%. Statistics lessen in gravity when the year enumeration occurs in an election year, so 2024 is showing a drop to 11% of Americans living in poverty. That is 34-40 million Americans living in poverty.

Business and financial media hardly ever mention: the little guy, the worker, the poor, and struggling in their powerful articles, do they? Much of the media has been tainted by the very approach of their owners. Seeking profit is and always will be the central credo of such media outlets. Socio-economic awareness is not encouraged, and in fact frowned upon by the 1% that ultimately own and control our economies.

How about printing statistics that mention these topics for a change:

• How many people who commit suicide are Black & Hispanic? Racial demographics that challenge society and not appease the 1%.
• Bankruptcies based upon race, region, education, voting record, sexuality etc. What, why and how?
• Which nations with the wealthiest people have the poorest nationals and why?

Knowledge is power, and the 1% does not want to share any knowledge with us, except the knowledge that will allow us to serve their goals and their financial-industrial needs. To the 1% the media is merely a tool to achieve and maintain power, and a tool of influence and manipulation directed towards the public. Yes, I seem to sound like a radical, but often the “Truth” can be very radical in message and presentation.

Society is politically and socially moving further to the rightwing way of thinking, directed by a majority of media outlets that are owned and operated by the 1%, who are most often right wing in their political and economically capitalistic views.

The media has the power to manipulate society and massage its: social, racial and political views. Look at the historic examples of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, not forgetting the national media arms of Iran, China and most other dictatorships.  Even Western media succumbs to the directives and the might of the national government.

Often the goals and methodology of a government do not match well with the media, but the media needs to placate its authoritative superior, the government. The government within a democracy is viewed as the representative of the people, and the media is supposed to be the people’s ears, eyes and voice.

When the media is tainted by undue pressure and manipulation by government, corporation, or even national tradition media becomes nothing more than a tool, a device of persuasion and propaganda.

Walter Cronkite once wrote “Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.” What is the press’s job but to investigate evidence, objectively tell the truth.

Capitalism’s hold upon Western media has quantified and monetized the telling of the truth.

“The function of the press in society is to inform, but its role in society is to make money” A. Liebling