It is worth repeating again and again that the bulk of America’s mainline media is owned and controlled by a mere 6 corporations. This, of course, means that unless you’re already consciously avoiding these mainline media sources, then most of the news and entertainment that makes it onto your screen and into your mind comes from a small pool of corporate sources, all of which play important roles in delivering propaganda, social programming and perpetual crisis narratives to the public.Most of the data presented in this article is based on data from 2011, and thus needs to be updated. Still, according to Wikipedia six corporations control 90% of the US media today. However this obscures the fact of overlapping ownership in addition to overlapping boards of directors in these corporation. Due to the tendency for capitalism to treat everything as a commodity to be bought and sold for profit, even companies are regarded as commodities which results in this ever changing and complicated ownership data.
Of course even common sense and the viewing of TV "news" programs, one can arrive at essentially the same conclusion. By hopping from one corporate TV station to another, one encounters much the same content delivered in a slightly different style.
Occasionally I've seen reports about CIA placing news stories with media corporations to manage the perceptions of people. For example, former CIA boss General Petraeus stated in 2006 that his strategy was to wage a war of perceptions conducted continuously through the news media. Reports of the CIA using social media have also recently surfaced. I've even read credible reports that CIA agents have been placed at all major media outlets (although I can't locate the sources immediately).
If things continue to get worse for the ruling capitalist class, who knows but that the Empire directors will follow the advice of a West Point professor as reported by The Guardian in an article entitled "West Point professor calls on US military to target legal critics of war on terror".
