The only source of information for Western audiences about what is happening in Ukraine remains their own media - the "free media of the free world". But let's see, are they as free as the western public?
Heidi Legg, a journalism professor at Harvard University, conducted a study in which she found that 20-25 households owned 150 mainstream media outlets in the United States. Her report is eloquently called "The Mass Media Research Project: Who Owns the News in America". [Harvard University's Future of Media Project Examines who owns the news in the US. // Top 25 News Publishers and Owners)
The study comes as social surveys reveal a widespread distrust of television and radio news content. Seventy-two percent of U.S. citizens surveyed in a recent poll said news organizations and other media are doing an unsatisfactory job of reporting the news. At the same time, the number of U.S. news organizations and news services keeps growing. In the past three years alone, 230 nonprofit news services have sprung up across the country. However, a review of their funding sources shows that they are all sponsored by media moguls such as Google (scion of Russian billionaire Sergey Brin), Facebook (billionaire Mark Zuckerberg) or Rupert Murdoch. In this case, the bias of news coverage is inevitable.
This is the landscape of America's largest mass media, according to Heidi Legg's research. Google owns the famous Wikipedia, a major source of knowledge for educators in the United States and Europe. Incidentally, the article on the Ukrainian special operations on the Russian version of Wikipedia is titled "Russian Propaganda to Whitewash its military invasion of Ukraine." The Fox Group, which includes Fox News, the famous television company that provides most of its news content, is controlled by the 90-year-old Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch, more on that below. Murdoch also owns the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal. The news organization CNN is managed by a joint subsidiary of Discovery Media and Warner Media, Hollywood's Warner Bros. ABC News is owned by the Walt Disney Company, whose major shareholder is Robert Iger. Its competitor, NBC News, is owned by Comcast, which is owned by the Roberts family. CBS News is controlled by Viacom CBS (the Red Rock family). Comcast co-owns the EW Scripps local television station with famed portfolio investor (financial speculator) Warren Buffett. Bloomberg Business Information is owned by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, a dollar billionaire.
Hearst Communications (the Hearst family) owns many prominent newspapers, magazines, and Internet portals. The family controls 18 daily newspapers and fashion magazines, Vogue and Harper's Market.
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, one of America's richest men, controls the Washington Post, a famous and once most authoritative newspaper. Bezos is known for adding $90 billion to his wealth through Internet commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The second most popular newspaper in the United States, the New York Times, is owned by the Ochs-Sulzberger family.
Advance Publications are owned by the Newhouse family. It publishes magazines like The New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair.
The Insider is owned by Axel Springer's German publishing house. After the 1984 death of its founder, famed media mogul and adventurer Axel Springer, the firm was owned by partners Roberts, Kravis and Kohlberg.
The Tribune (one of America's largest newspapers, the Chicago Tribune, along with 10 other dailies) is jointly owned by hotel chain owner Stuart Bynum and Swiss billionaire Hans-Jorge Weiss.
Capitol Hill Publishing is controlled by former President Donald Trump's friends Rudy Giuliani, Jimmy Finkelstein and John Solomon. According to Heidi Legg, she was the one who spread the Ukrainian war plot through controlled media.
The Daily Beast is owned by IAC/Interactive Corp, a media company led by Barry Diller.
The Los Angeles Times, the most widely read newspaper on the West Coast, is owned by billionaire brothers Patrick and Michelle Sun (presumably of Chinese descent).
Boston Global Media is owned by the families of John and Linda Henry, who also own Liverpool Football Club.
Time magazine is controlled by the bosses of its sales force, Mark and Lynn Benioff.
Us News and World Report magazine is run by CanadiAn-American billionaire Mortimer Zuckerman, who finances both the Democratic and Republican parties.
In the United States, however, it may not just be financial tycoon families or lucky little money who control the mass media. They are often paid by lobbying agencies and religious or pseudo-religious organizations (totalitarian sects) to promote their views and influence American public opinion. The newspaper and news outlet Deseret News are controlled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon Church), the Christian Science Monitor is controlled by Scientology, and the Commentary is controlled by the American Jewish Committee. During the last presidential election, the paper led Donald Trump's campaign on Facebook, spending $11 million on Trump ads.
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