NEWS RELEASE about Media posted on February 18, 2010 by

On Corporate Media, Capitalism, the State, and February 2010 – A Communique

by anonymous

“The media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly” – Noam Chomsky

Coming from a privileged academic, we should try to push all irony aside, and use the above quote, as a good starting point for this discussion. The “reporting” we have seen from corporate media outlets such as CTV, Global, and The Province, during the 2010 Olympics has followed this model to the letter. The purpose of this communique will be to serve the interests of anti-capitalist, anti-colonial resistance and frame an analysis in contrast to established privilege, limiting debate and discussion accordingly. We’ve had their crap shoved in our ears, brains, and eye sockets long enough, it’s time to stomp on newspaper boxes, throw them into the street, and into the windows of banks and corporations, and it’s time to throw up our middle fingers!

“Let’s take revenge…. …for thousands of hours stolen from us at work. For thousands of moments we’ve felt humiliated in the bosses office. For thousands of moments we’ve swallowed our anger, against a cool fucking customer! For our dreams that have become advertisements, for our ideas that have become government lines and votes. For our constantly worsening life, for our very selves whom we witness becoming shadows in a repeating everyday life. We proceed altogether for all reasons! Because we deny our becoming shadows! Because we are angry, because we want to change everything!” – Written in Greece in December 2008

Corporate media sensationalism and control, is no small factor in our daily lives. When we fall into a political argument at work, on the skytrain, passing a blunt around, or even at the dinner table we are usually bombarded with word-for-word repetitions of the same lines given to us on the news. When a horrible tragedy strikes us or someone we love, we are displayed through the media, a view that sensationalizes aspects such as criminality, violence, abuse or heroism, twisting and belittling the pain, or triumphs we feel inside ourselves as a means of selling our stories to someone like ourselves.

Likewise, corporate media sensationalism and control, is no small factor in how the world sees a mega-event, such as the Winter Olympics. A rather extreme example of this was found at the 2003 FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) in Miami, Florida. People from independent media, were brutalized and arrested while those from corporate media outlets such as the Miami Herald were designated as “embeded journalists” like the ones we hear from in Iraq (always working with and for the interests of the state). The Miami Herald was like an olympic sponsor, it allowed the FTAA to have millions of dollars in free advertising, in exchange for exclusive coverage of events serving the interests of both parties. The result was of course the most ludicrous reporting imaginable. The reports were nothing other than “psy-ops” telling a story of alien demons who were no match for the strength and courage of the Miami Police Department.

CTV news reporters were on the streets of Vancouver, on Saturday February 13th, to cover the 2010 Heart Attack demonstration. When the riot cops were done brutalizing and chasing people away, the CTV news reporters were continuing the chase. Once catching up, the reporters filmed their faces, compromising their safety, and claiming assault when their cameras were pushed. They called this democracy and shared their footage with the police.

“Sabotage the systems of social control!”  - Some Vancouver Anarchists

Using “police” as a source, a CTV news report claimed that the Black Bloc on Saturday February 13th, was made up of Anarchists from “Central Canada”, and that the Black Bloc tactic originated during the Seattle WTO (World Trade Organization) demonstrations of 1999. Ironically, the corporate media coverage of that time in the US, claimed that the Black Bloc in Seattle was made up exclusively of Anarchists from Eugene, Oregon. Now, as well as then, we are everywhere, and came from everywhere. We came with the understanding that leaving our pain and our stories up to professionals and legitimate institutions was counter to our liberation. The destruction of a window is not nearly enough payback for the destruction of Eagle Ridge Bluffs, or the destruction of our communities through gentrification. The Black Bloc is believed to have originated in Germany during the anti-nuclear demonstration of the early 1980’s. Clearly it spread for a reason.

The psy-ops storm troopers of the corporate media, were out for the 2010 anti-olympic convergence, and they’ll be out there for years to come. Will we continue to allow their pervasion into our lives and minds? Or will we understand that no opinion or view of ours could ever be relayed through their medium of state, and corporate control?

-          Anonymous