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Rarely does the public gain a glimpse of how tightly controlled is the entire media establishment. But recently, an insightful commentary in an editorial column (Los Angeles Times—Washington Post News Service, August 12, 1997) somehow got past the hoary eyes of the censors. In the column, Richard Hellis, Professor of History at the University of Texas, wrote:
"The similarities between Hollywood, the television industry, big-time sports, and the commercial publishing houses should not be surprising since they are mostly run by the same people.
Harper & Collins Publishers is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns 20th Century Fox, the Fox television network, TV Guide magazine, and soon the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.
Simon and Schuster, one of America's largest publishing houses, is a unit of Viacom, the parent of Paramount, MTV, and Blockbuster Video.
The Warner empire includes the Little Brown publishing house and the Book of the Month Club, as well as Warner Brothers, CNN, HBO, Cinemax, and the Atlanta Braves.
Bertelsmann owns the combined imprints of Bantam, Doubleday, Dell, and the Literary Guild, in addition to record labels in the United States and television stations throughout Europe."
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One can hope that the eyes of thousands were opened by Professor Hellis' revelations. Of course, longtime readers of Flashpoint who have studied books such as Circle of Intrigue and Dark Majesty were already aware of the extent to which the media is controlled by the elite.
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