The criticism of global corporations has increased tremendously over the past year, and in my opinion, rightfully so. Not only are they preventing governments from taking significant steps towards tackling climate change, but they are also responsible for preventing health care from being available for all, expanding the gap between the rich and poor, feeding America’s military-industrial complex, and maintaining our unsustainable and immoral status quo.

The corporate media is no different. I believe they are guilty of designing an incomplete, standard reality for its viewers. What we possess as knowledge determines our reality. We acquire this knowledge through what we hear, see, and read. If we are acquiring our knowledge from only a few different sources, our reality will consequently be limited.

I think we’ve all witnessed what happens when CNN gets ahold of celebrity gossip, like Tiger Woods’ infidelity or Michael Jackson’s death. Although you may be interested in the lives of these celebrities, is that really what you expect these professionally trained journalists to be covering? How about how American taxpayers dollars are being used in the Middle East? Most Americans do not want to be in Iraq or Afghanistan, yet out of the 67 columns written on Afghanistan in 2009 in the Washington Post, only six presented an anti-war stance. There’s a similar ratio in the New York times, where out of 43 columns on the war, only seven presented an anti-war stance. (FAIR, In Afghan Debate, Few Antiwar Op-eds, December 2009). Is this really the balance in reporting you’d expect on an issue as important as war from the nation’s two largest and most prestigious newspapers?

I believe everyone on this planet wants the same fundamental things in life and knows wrong from right. However, as a nation, we cannot accurately discuss, debate, and resolve important issues if we are only given a distorted account of events. Although I have been quite critical of the corporate media, I am not advocating complete abandonment. They have talented writers and possess the resources to cover a wide range of topics. What I am advocating is broadening the scope of where we get our news. . It is only through changing our access to information that we can have a more complete understanding of the world we live in.

The Ownership Chart: The Big Six