Never in our nation's history has there been a greater need for independent news sources than there is today. All of the traditional news sources from newspapers to radio to television have been bought out and taken over by wealthy multinational corporations. Our freedom of thought, our ability to communicate and our right to free and equal elections are all at risk due to the lack of honest, independent news sources. In this article, we will look at how the ever increasing control over public communications has led to an ever increasing concentration of wealth and power by a handful of billionaires and drug corporations. We will then review how you can help change the course of history by starting your own independent news website. Create Your Own News Website offers us a chance to change this billionaire domination of online news. We will show you how to combine a Joomla website with a series of free tools designed to transform your Joomla website into a News website. These revolutionary tools put the power of the Internet back in the hands of we, the people!
Voters are forced to swim through an ocean of lies
Today, we face the tyranny of a billionaire financed corporate empire that threatens to enslave all of us. Yet many people remain unaware of the billionaire takeover of our media. They fail to understand that nearly everything they see on TV News and nearly everything they read in corporate newspapers are carefully crafted lies. We are like fish swimming in increasingly polluted waters.
Huge drug companies – which make hundreds of billions of dollars by convincing us we need their drugs - are not just the major funders of corrupt politicians, they are also major funders of the corrupt corporate media. These same drug companies are funded by some of the world’s richest people including Bill Gates. The pollution, the ocean of lies spun by the corporate media, affects not only our health but our very ability to think clearly, to make good decisions and to act for a better future for our children and grandchildren.
A Ray of Hope… The American People are Starting to Wake Up!
Thankfully, the American people are starting to catch on to this scam. Gallup Polls used to show that two out of three people trusted the corporate media to tell the truth. Now, after decades of lying to the public, the majority of the American people no longer trust the corporate media.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/651977/americans-trust-media-remains-trend-low.aspx
This means two out of three Americans are seeking alternative sources of information. These sources of information and new media are increasingly from independent online news websites. In the past 10 years, Internet news websites have passed newspapers as the Number One source of news and information. It is time for a new kind of independent media – one run not for pursuit of profit but for the pursuit of truth and the sharing of wisdom.
How Independent News Sources can restore Free and Equal Elections
Thirty states have a constitutional requirement that elections be “free.” Eleven of these states further require that elections be “equal” in addition to being free. These states include Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Illinios, Indiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming. Article 1, Section 19 of the Washington State Constitution states in part: FREEDOM OF ELECTIONS. All Elections shall be free and equal.
What does “free” mean in “All elections shall be free and equal?”
Some claim the word “free” only means that voters are free to vote for whichever candidate they want. However, this view fails to account for the meaning of the word “Election.” An election includes more than just the process of casting and counting ballots. An election includes the entire period from the time candidates declare that they are running for office through the time that the election results are certified. For an election to truly be free, every citizen must be able to run for office without paying any fees. Currently, in Washington state, a citizen must pay a thousand dollars or more to file to run for some offices. Clearly these fees prohibit less wealthy citizens from even filing to run for office.
What does the word “equal” mean in the phrase “All elections shall be free and equal?”
The word “Equal” means that each candidate will be treated the same as any other candidate for the same office. It is not equal when corporate media is allowed to write lengthy articles during an election promoting one candidate while demonzing and making false accusations against their opponent. Equality goes beyond the “fairness” doctrine. It means that during elections, all candidates should be given not merely a chance to respond to false allegations, but given equal space and equal time to explain their positions for the voters so that voters will be able to develop a “balanced” view of where each candidate stands on important issues.
The goal of each election should be that the person with the best ideas to solve important problems should win rather than the candidate with the most money. It also means that all candidates are to be treated equally by the media. Equal treatment means that all candidates are asked the same questions and their answers are published verbatim. If the paper wants to print an editorial promoting a candidate, equal space must be allowed for opposing candidates to express their ideas.
Unfortunately, we do not have free or equal elections in Washington state at the moment. This is why we need an alternative media – to provide voters with equal information about all candidates before they vote.
Important Components of a Free and Equal Election
Here are some important components of a Free and Equal election:
#1: Accurate Voter Rolls: Accurate voter rolls not only mean making sure that all qualified voters can register to vote, but also that anyone not qualified to vote is not registered to vote. If the voter rolls are not accurate, an independent press has a duty to report this fact to the voters.
#2 Voters have access to equal and balanced information on each candidate and ballot issue: In order for citizens to make informed choices at the ballot box, they need equal and balanced information about the candidates and ballot issues they are voting on. It is not a free or equal election when a ballot initiative has $10 million spent on the advantages of the initiative and $50 million spent by billionaires and corporations on lies convincing voters to vote against their own best interests.
#3 Any citizen can run for office: Anyone who is eligible to vote should also be eligible to run for office. There should not be any fee charged to run for office.
#4 Candidate forums should be freely held at local schools before the Primary Election: There should be opportunities for voters to directly ask candidates questions about important issues in a public forum and these events should be held at local schools and promoted by local school districts as well as being promoted by local independent news sources.
#5 All voters should be able to securely cast their ballot: Mail in ballots are inherently not secure. But they are even less secure when dropped off at the local post office. Independent new sources should warn voters to be aware of what happens with their ballot.
#6 Anyone who is not a registered voter should not be able to cast a ballot: There must be a verification process such as providing ID to make sure that the person voting is the person they claim to be. When illegal ballots are counted along with legal ballots, the result does not reflect the will of voters. Independent news sources are needed willing to expose the failure of election officials to clean their voter rolls.
#6 All ballots should have an equal opportunity to be counted.
The curing of ballots due to mismatched signatures should be equal in all counties. It is not a free or equal election when some counties use online gimmicks to “cure” ballots using insecure tools that violate Washington state election laws and federal election standards. Independent news sources should be courageous enough to expose the failure of election officials to follow state election laws and national election standards.
#7 Ballots are received by Election Day and counted accurately and the correct results are reported within a day of the election vote:
A ruling by a three judge panel in the 5th District Court of Appeals recently stated: “Congress statutorily designated a singular “day for the election” of members of Congress and the appointment of presidential electors. Text, precedent, and historical practice confirm this “day for the election” is the day by which ballots must be both cast by voters and received by state officials… Federal law requires voters to take timely steps to vote by Election Day… And federal law does not permit the state of Mississippi to extend the period for voting by one day, five days, or 100 days. Because Mississippi’s statute allows ballot receipt up to five days after the federal election day, it is preempted by federal law.”
Washington currently allows ballots to be accepted even two weeks after the election. To comply with federal law, this needs to change so that no ballots are accepted after the day of the election – so that ballots can be counted and the election decided in a timely manner.
History of a Free and Independent Press
Throughout history, a free and independent press has been the key to overthrowing corrupt rulers. Our first national revolution began with the courage of newspaper writers such as Ben Franklin who understood the power of the press to persuade people to rise up against an unjust King. The printing press had just come into existence – much like the ability of anyone to create your own news website has just come into existence today.
Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the First Amendment to the US Constitution, also maintained that a free and independent press is the cornerstone of our Democracy.
How a single Free and Independent Press Changed History
On June 6 1903, Mahatma Gandhi started a small independent newspaper called the Indian Opinion which organized and rallied his people into eventually overthrowing the British Empire. His newspaper had a small team of writers nearly all of whom spent time in jail for their articles advocating defiance against unjust laws. The Indian Opinion was a very small newspaper which was often only published once per month. They frequently ran out of the letter A in their typesetter. The paper lost a great deal of money and was often supported by Gandhi directly -who wrote most of the articles for the paper. At the end of 1903, there were 887 subscribers and a staff of 13 people making the equivalent of a dollar a day which was a common wage at the time. The original printer wanted to make a profit but could not. So Gandhi bought the paper in 1904 and managed it himself. His first act was to move the paper to a 100 acre farm and cut the wages of the workers in half - but giving them room and board while requiring them to grow their own food. The typesetting of the paper was done by hand and the press was often run by manual labor with Gandhi himself often putting “his shoulder to the wheel” cranking the handle of the press to turn out the paper.
At times, Gandhi devoted half of his wages to keeping the journal afloat – including all of his savings of 5,000 pounds – which today would be more than $150,000. The problem of breaking even was compounded by Gandhi's conviction that the newspaper should not sell advertisements – which Gandhi viewed as often promoting commercialism and lies. He wanted the paper to be educational and informative rather then merely commercial and entertainment.
By 2014, when Gandhi left for India, the number of paid subscribers had grown to 3500 with 500 more free subscriptions. The charge for the paper was one penny per paper.
“I believe that a struggle which chiefly relies upon internal strength cannot be wholly carried on without a newspaper. It is also my experience that we could not have educated the local Indian community, nor kept Indians all over the world in touch with the course of events in South Africa in any other way, with the same ease and success as through the Indian Opinion, which therefore was certainly a most useful and potent weapon in our struggle." Gandhi , Hind Swaraj (his first book) 1909 http://gandhimuseum.org/MGM/INDIAN%20OPINION.htm
The Rise of Lies
It is no coincidence that the billionaire plan to take over our government and our economy began with the consolidation of the media and the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine in the 1980s. The Fairness Doctrine required major media sources to provide both sides of the debate on important public issues as a condition of getting their license to use the public airwaves. With the loss of the Fairness Doctrine, the American people were no longer allowed to hear or read debate from both sides on major issues. Instead, we are only allowed to hear one side, the billionaire side of the debate, filled with lies exactly as predicted by George Orwell in the book 1984.
Today, we are witnessing the results of decades of media domination by the billionaires. Our elections have turned into a corrupt bribery and kickback scheme with fake billionaire sponsored politicians who claim to be on the side of the people but then write new laws to allow billionaires to take over our public airwaves and get billions in illegal tax breaks.
We are forced to pay for an out of control war machine that costs ten times more than the military spending by all the other nations of the world combined. This is trillions of dollars that could have and should have been invested in our young adults to provide them with the education they need to compete in the global marketplace of ideas.
At the bottom of this entire corrupt rigged system is the billionaire controlled media – which has managed to keep the people of the world in the dark by diverting their attention away from this robbery and onto fake meaningless topics like the million dollar divorces of Hollywood movie stars. Never in our history has their been such a concentration of the media in the hands of a few corporations controlled by a few billionaires. Today, the majority of the public media is controlled by just 3 corporations: Comcast (NBC & CNN), Disney (ABC & ESPN) and News Corp (FOX NEWS). Together these three mega corporations account for $150 billion in annual revenue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership
Here is a graph of America's most popular news sources:
It looks like there are a lot of choices. But what they all have in common is that they are owned by, funded by and or controlled by a few billionaires. Media researcher Ben Bagdikian, has written several editions of a book called The Media Monopoly about the danger of the media monopoly for the past three decades. Below is a graph of his analysis of the consolidation of the number of corporations controlling the majority of the media in the US.
Instead of having lots of choices, what people really wind up watching and reading are the same phony marketing slogans repeated over and over again. Consolidation of the media in the hands of a few billionaires makes it impossible for the public to learn the truth about the corruption that destroys our economy and our political system.
Not only has the quantity of sources plunged, but the accuracy of reporting also dropped as experienced reporters were fired and replaced by “talking heads” that do little more than repeat the press releases issued by their corporate masters.
The same powerful people who sit in the boards of the corporations of the military/industrial complex, the large banks, drug companies and oil companies also sit in the boards of the large media corporations. They have the power to hire editors and reporters who mislead the public and fire editors and reporters who tell the truth. Over time, this has led to the current culture of lies in the corporate news media.
This concentration of of the news media is so complete than people who get their information from the billionaire controlled media become brainwashed into believing that the unemployment rate is only 5% and economic recovery is just around the corner – when in fact, the debt level in the world is at the highest level in history. It is not possible to have an economy in which so many are unemployed and the wealth is so concentrated in the hands of the few. When the fake economy crashes, what will really be around the corner is the Second Great Depression.
Here are just a few other notable examples of how the corporate media has misled the public:
#1 Falsely promoting the lie that Iraq had “Weapons of Mass Destruction” - a lie that has cost American tax payers trillions of dollars and led to more than one million people being killed – primarily innocent women and children.
#2 Failing to investigate numerous disturbing facts about 911.
#3 Continuing to falsely report that the unemployment rate is only 5% - when in fact it is closer to 25% and close to 50% for young adults under the age of 25.
“I was once told by Gen. Edward Lansdale, one of the pioneers of CIA psychological operations, that his preference always was to plant propaganda in news agencies that were perceived as objective, that way people were more believing.” Robert Perry October 2015
Manipulation of information about important events is a common occurrence in the corporate media. Yet many people continue to listen to corporate news as if it were a bad drug habit
Control of Information Leads to Control of the People
We become what we watch, read and listen to. Social scientists have found that the strongest predictor of a voter’s decisions is no longer their economic status but what television stations a person watched and for how long. There are several good films worth watching that describe in vivid terms how the concentration of the media is able to brainwash people. One of the first was called Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky. You can download or watch this 2 hour video for free at the following link:
https://archive.org/details/dom-25409-manufacturingconsentnoamchomsk
“Democracy requires free access to ideas and information.”
Noam Chomsky Manufacturing Consent
You can also watch a short 24 minute 2012 video called Who Owns the Media at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ona0jYWa6s
In 2012, a 1 hour documentary called Shadows of Liberty was released. Here is a 2 minute summary of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SAUborWbPw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYv5SGV9Nu8
How We the People Can Reclaim the Media
It used to be that to create a fully functioning online news website (as opposed to posting a simple blog) required a team of computer programmers to hand code the website on a daily basis. This is actually how nearly all corporate news websites are still maintained. Even many online news organizations pay huge amounts of money to build expensive websites. However, thanks to recent improvements in a web building content management system called Joomla, it is now possible for each of us to create and maintain our own online news website without any knowledge of computer programming – at a cost of only a few dollars per month! Each of us can offer the public an alternative to corporate controlled news.
There are already hundreds of news websites run by individuals and small groups of people. However, many of these websites are using outdated tools that eventually turn the website into a mess. If you are going to take the time and effort to build your own news website, you should first take the time and effort to learn how to do it right.
In this course, we will show you how to create your own regional, national or international alternative news website the right way – using the Joomla content management system.
This course is part of our series of courses on using free open source tools to share knowledge and information. Open source means the source code, or software, is free and can be shared by anyone with anyone for any purpose. Open source is like a library...free and open knowledge shared with the community for the common good. No patents, no hassles, no barriers, no limits! For information on our other courses, visit: http://collegeintheclouds.org/
While it is not necessary that you have read our previous books, courses and websites in order to build your own alternative website, if you have the time, it would be useful to start at the beginning and complete our previous three courses before creating your own news website. With our books and courses, we show you how to have full control over the appearance, content and function of your website – without computer programming – simply by clicking on a series of buttons! With our courses, you will be able to create your own interactive website to bring in new customers now and expand to accommodate growth in the future.
In our next article, we will review a few news websites to see how they are made and explain how you can conduct your own research on how current news websites are formated. We will then describe the process for setting up a basic Joomla news website and finally describe how to add free tools to Joomla to expand the display options of images and articles and thereby create a news website that looks as official as any corporate news website ever made. Creating your own news website requires a commitment of time and effort – not only to research the content for your news website but also to learn how to transfer that content to the Internet and display it in an organized manner. If you are willing to put in this time and effort, we will show you how it is done. Let's get started!