Shadows Of Liberty Analysis

Recently in class, we viewed a very interesting documentary called, “Shadows of Liberty.” It discussed the major faults surrounding the mainstream media. Faults being, major media companies only show what they want the people to see. In the documentary it stated, “A clash between two worlds, big media corporations spinning public perception for profit versus the defenders of truth, that stand for liberty and democracy.” Everything revolves around money. The documentary discussed a few different scenarios on how the media and government or major corporations control our country, information is power. The following examples were discussed in the documentary to prove how to mainstream media is controlling due to the need for money and control

In 1997, a journalist, Rebecca Baskin, traveled to Vietnam to check out the factories and gain truth. Upon arrival she collected very disturbing information. Baskin noted that the word Nike became a verb meaning, to abuse your employees. She found out that there was physical abuse taking place in Nike factories. Women’s mouths were being taped shut and they were being hit over the head, face and neck with Nike sneakers. The average salary for these women was 16 cents an hour while Nike’s annual profit was $795,800,000. To Baskin, the Nike motto became, “Just do it...or else.” This became a huge issue. At the time Baskin worked for CBS and she tried very hard to get the footage and information out there for the world to see. Nike found out and due to their money and power they were going to do anything to make CBS get rid of this. CBS and Nike ended up making a deal. For the upcoming Olympics, CBS correspondents got winter coats made from Nike with a huge nike swoosh and a little CBS logo. Every time a CBS reporter was on camera following the Olympics, they had to be wearing these coats for the public to see that CBS was working with Nike. Baskin was mortified by this and stood up for herself and the people being affected by the horrific Nike sweatshops by questioning the deal. She was let go from the CBS company. CBS buried her reports. This example proves that major corporations own or control the media and this is not