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Democracy only exists and flourished when the public is informed. Though America doesn't have a direct democracy where citizens decide through voting every action the government takes, we do have a variety of methods of controlling the actions of our government: electing our leaders, protesting, boycotts. But whenever there is an issue commands American attention, representative democracy shows its vital dependence on the media. We have freedom of speech and freedom of the press as part of our first amendment. Those are the most important fundamental rights, essensial for maintaining a free nation. To prevent a government from partaking in actions that aren't for the benefit of its people, the people must be informed of the government's actions. But unfortunately in this nation, our media is being taken over completely by corporations and our government and being transformed into a propaganda outlet, and many questionable actions taken by our government and corporations are being censored.

"Fascism should be more properly called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power," said Benito Mussolini (Kick 6). The boss of a typical American worker is becoming the boss of the politicians that lead our country as well, and the boss of other sovereign nations. Under recent international trade negotiations in 1998, corporations can sue countries and any level of government directly. So basically if a corporation does business with a foreign nation and loses money, it can sue that country. Many liberal and liberatarian thinkers: Joel Bleifuss of "In These Times", Bill Dixon of "Democrat Left" and others believe the multilateral agreement on investment could pressure developing nations to deplete their natural resources (Kothari 32).

Many corporations are literally killing us with their products. Zeneca Pharmaceuticals is producing carcinogenic herbicides, produces tamoxifen which is suppose to reduce breast cancer, but doubles incidence of uterine cancer, and controls Breast Cancer Awareness Month trying to limit information regarding early detection and treatment. Producers of mammography machines General Electric and DuPont promote screening even though it increases incidence of breast cancer. Thanks to these companies, breast cancer has been increasing by one point each year since 1940 (Montague 35).

Corporations love to exploit their workers and customers as well when they can get away with it. Monsanto Corporation creates seeds that are infertile. So their genetically altered seeds need to be purchased over and over again (Raghavan 37). Multinational corporations are also hiring mercenaries to harass nationals who protest against environmental impact of their operations (Chatterjee 69). Also, Clairol, Crest, Cover Girl, and Vidal Sassoon contain carcinogens (Bliefuss 103)

The only way to get to some of these corporations and encourage them to stop their immoral behaviors is to hurt them financially. Americans could and would probably boycott these companies, if they actually knew the things that they were doing. But the media didn't cover any of these stories. Why would news anchors want to criticize the corporations paying their salaries. They'd much rather censor these stories.

Many Americans wonder why Iraqis hate America so much that they attacked the World Trade Center. These Americans don't seem to realize that Iraq had little or nothing to do with the attacks, but they are right that Iraqis for the most part hate us. We've been playing political games with them for some time now. The United States has very obviously supported UN search for weapons of mass destruction, yet the media neglects to inform its viewers that the US actually supplied Saddam with biological material between 1985 and 1989.

September 1989 according to Journalist Dennis Bernstein of "San Francisco Bay Guardian", US military officials invited several Iraqi techincians, along with some 400 other participants from 20 countries to attend a crash course on how to detonate a nuclear weapon. We kindly teach them how to detonate a nuclear bomb, while meanwhile US sanctions cause food and medical shortages. And Uranium weapons left behind from the Gulf War kill 150 children everyday (Bernstein 43).

During the Gulf War, the US deliberately destroyed water systems. Documents were obtained from the Defense Intelligence Agency proving the Pentagon was fully aware of potential impacts. One document was entitled "Iraqi Assessment of Current Health Threats and Capabilities" and discussed a strategy that would blame Saddam Hussein for the lack of safe water. The destructions of the water supplies are in direct conflict with the Geneva Convention (Nagy 50)

Americans are supporting death in various forms all over the globe, including murder. US tax dollars supposedly fighting "the war on drugs" are really funding death squads in Chiapas Mexico. Darren Wood reports that these death squads killing off social justice movements like Zapatista Resistance and the Popular Revolutionary Army, groups fighting for economic equality. Certain political affiliates in Mexico are being blocked from hospitals and some have been kidnapped and had sterilization forced upon them (Wood 54).

The media just lies sometimes. In an attempt to destroy congresswoman Cynthia McKinney's career, a quote was fabricated involving her accusing Bush having prior knowledge of September 11, but doing nothing so he and his supporters can make money during the war. Venezuelan President Chavez was reported by the New York Times as being unpopular and showed pictures of all anti Chavez protestors. He was called a dictator and was reported to have resigned after realizing he was unpopular. In all actuality he had been kidnapped at gunpoint and was to be murdered, though the coup leaders failed in their attempt (Kick 13).

The media is becoming a propaganda machine for our government's use. From June 1999 to March 2000, CNN employed military specialists in "psychological operations" to spread "selected information" (Cockburn 171). And anyone who disputes what the media says could be kidnapped and help overseas where torture and execution are legal (Chandrasekaran A01). Our right to know is being aggressively denied and the majority of Americans who rely on the evening news for information will never know the horrible things our corporations and are govenment are doing, and they will never take action.

Works Cited

Kick, Russ. Abuse Your Illusions. New York: The Disinformation Company Ltd., 2003

Kothari, Miloon and Tara Krause, "Human Rights or Corporate Rights?" Tribune Des Droits Humains April, 1998, Vol., Nos. 1-2

Montague, Peter. "The Truth About Breast Cancer" Rachel's Environment and Health Weekly 4 December, 1997

Raghavan, Chakravarthi. "New Patent Aims to Prevent Farmers From Saving Seed" Third World Resurgence

Bernstein, Dennis. "Made in America" San Francisco Bay Guardian 25 February, 1998

Wood, Darrin. "Bury My Heart At Acteal" Dark Night Field Notes

Chatterjee, Pratap. "Guarding the Multinationals" CAQ Fall, 1997, No. 62

Bliefuss, Joel. "To Die For" In These Times 17 February, 1997

Nagy, Thomas J. "The Secret Behind the Sanctions" The Progressive September, 2001

Chandrasekaran, Rajiv and Peter Finn. "U.S. Behind Secret Transfer of Terror Suspects" Washington Post 11 March, 2002, pg. A01

Cockburn, Alexander. "CNN and PSYOPS" Counterpunch 16 February, 2000