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Does the separation between news and propaganda still exist?

Last week I read an interesting statement: “Even when they insist in denying it, media outlets are in fact at the service of money, not the truth.” (Xavier Alegre et al, Cuadernos de CiJ, April 200 .

The statement is interesting above anything else for its clarity and for the courage of Alegre and his co-writers to express it.

I have spent more than two decades as a professional journalist, first in South America and then in North America (Canada and the United States.) I agree with Alegre’s points of view: media outlets are serving money, not the truth.

If a story doesn’t sell, no coverage is given. If there is no market for that news (regardless of the definition of “news” you are using), then the story is not written. And if the publication of a story may lead to a loss in the market share, then the story is not published.

During the past 20 years I have seen how money has replaced the truth, not because journalist have forgotten their professional duties or because they have relaxed their ethical values. Quite the opposite, I believe today’s reporters are as professional and ethical or more than at any other time.

It is not the journalist’s fault. In fact, it is nobody’s fault. We just happen to live in a postmodern society where consumerism is the center of the world and, therefore, everything must have an economic value.

I remember reading –but I don’t remember the source- that “news” is no longer something extraordinaire that deserves to be published or broadcast. News is now
“information that gives me an advantage.”

For example, after watching the weather report, I will be better prepared knowing a storm is coming, and the report about the economy will help me to better manage my money.

News then has become information. But what kind of information? It has become information connected to and depending on advertisement or, even worst, propaganda.  It is no longer pure information. It is now an imposition.

You watch a movie and suddenly you see the image of a certain restaurant. You go to that restaurant and you will find yourself surrounded my marketing materials of the movie. Later you watch the news or read the paper and the same movie and restaurant appear as “sponsors.”

In another essay of the Cuadernos del CiJ (November 2004), a paragraph reads, “The mission of advertisement is, in fact, not to inform but to deceive.” News has become advertisement, and advertisement is just propaganda.

The same essay says advertisement is charismatic, income-generating, made “with screams and imperatives” (“But wait, there is more…” and “Buy now!” are two common examples), transforming in an absolute something that is totally superficial.

Is there anybody who actually thinks that buying a new deodorant will solve all his or her relationship problems?

Consumerism blinds us and makes us slow to think. For that reason, we believe everything the

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