To put the numbers in perspective, Omidyar’s six visits compare to four visits during the same period by NBCUniversal chief Stephen Burke, two by Fox News boss Roger Ailes, two by MSNBC’s Phil Griffin, one by New York Times owner Arthur O Sulzberger, and one each by Dow Jones’ Robert Thompson, Gannett/USA Today’s Gracia Martore and Omidyar’s fellow tech billionaire turned media owner, Jeff Bezos.Although I applaud the evidence the author has dug up regarding media visitors to the White House, I think by focusing so much interest on one tree, the Omidyars, he misses a view of the forest.
The White House functions as a nerve center for the Empire and is occupied by the directors of the One Percent ruling class. The evidence supplied here illustrates how the latter are so concerned about getting the Empire's stories covered properly that they have these frequent face-to-face meetings and other forms of contacts with media executives. Thus, the directors located in the White House serve as an Orwellian Ministry of Information. (By the way, it doesn't matter who is designated as "President" because whoever this person is, he/she functions as another public relations officer for the Empire.) If we truly had an independent media, do you think we would see such close collaboration?