You Can't Print That

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A short documentary of some of George Seldes' adventures as a journalist in WWI, Soviet Russia, Italy before and during the rise of Fascism, the war in Mexico, the Spanish Civil War, and Seldes' own newsletter called "in Fact".

Seldes' reporting on Spain showed that rather than a Civil War, Spain was fighting a Fascist Rebellion. In the American Press at the time, Spanish Loyalists were Red-baited in support of the Fascists forces which were also backed by Hitler and Mussolini. The Spanish Civil War proved to be a testing ground for German military tactics later in WWII. American newspapers that reported the truth about the Spanish Civil War were attacked and red-baited by just about everyone, including the Catholic Church.

Includes interviews with; Studs Terkel, I. F. Stone, Howard Zinn and George Seldes.

The Facts Are...

A Guide to Falsehood and Propaganda in the Press and Radio.

by George Seldes.

Published in 1942.

The complete digitized publication is available here, and is available for non-commercial, personal, research, or educational purposes, or any fair use.

Public opinion is the most powerful force in the world but as George Seldes put it, what makes public opinion is the press. Seldes reveals, in his 1942 publication, that the press is dominated by Big Business and corporate entities. He documents abuses of the American Press and Radio by special interests, big business, politicians and propagandists.

Why can't you trust the press?

Answer: because it has become Big Business.The big city press and the big magazines have become commercialized, or big business organizations, run with no other motive than profit for owner or stockholder (although hypocritically still maintaining the old American tradition of guiding and enlightening the people). The big press cannot exist a day without advertising. Advertising means money from Big Business. The truth about Big Business is told in the three or four hundred volumes of government reports (the 73 volume record of the investigation of the public utilities by the Federal Trade Commission; the 50 volumes of the two LaFollette report on the violations of the rights of labor; the threescore reports of the O'Mahoncy monopoly investigation and many more).

The facts are:

1. America is in the hands of 200 industrial and 50 financial families.

2. These families run this country.

3. They supply the funds which elect the officials of the United States, from state legislatures to the presidency.

4. They control billions in stocks and bonds, they control the economic life of the nation.

5. They control legislation; they control Congress; they maintain the most powerful lobby in Washington, and usually get what they want.

6. They use the American Newspaper Publishers Association (the big newspaper owners) as an instrument to maintain their control of America.

7. They use advertising (in newspapers and magazines) to make this stranglehold on public opinion possible.

Who's interest does the corporate media look out for?

There is only one viewpoint which the entire press of the nation expresses, respects, represents and works for: the viewpoint of business, money, wealth, and power represented by what is generally known as the God of Things As They Are, or the Status Quo.

The revelations of the corrupt American press by George Seldes are just as relevant in 2009 as they were in 1942.

While the major American news networks are owned by corporations like General Electric, News Corp, and Time Warner, our politicians are being lobbied by the advertisers who pay these corporations for airtime. In elections, corporate lobbyists pay thousands of dollars to both major political parties. At the same time, public debates which are supposed to serve the interest of the public shut out people who speak truth to power. People who don't support the corporate interests, rather, they support the public's interests.

In today's media, advertising and corporate interests make public opinion. In other words, falsehoods make facts, and facts are just falsehoods.