{"id":143548,"date":"2019-09-23T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T11:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=143548"},"modified":"2019-09-21T10:16:04","modified_gmt":"2019-09-21T09:16:04","slug":"russia-has-oligarchs-the-us-has-businessmen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/09\/russia-has-oligarchs-the-us-has-businessmen\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia Has \u2018Oligarchs,\u2019 the US Has \u2018Businessmen\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 150 NYT, CNN and Fox articles, \u2018oligarch\u2019 seems reserved for Slavic billionaires.<\/em><\/p>\n

14 Sep 2019 – <\/em>Even in corporate media, you will occasionally see references to the United States as an \u201coligarchy.\u201d That is the judgment<\/a> of former President Jimmy Carter, of peer-reviewed academic studies<\/a>, and even opinion pieces in our most prestigious media (e.g., Washington Post<\/strong>, 4\/8\/14<\/a>; New Yorker<\/strong>, 4\/18\/14<\/a>). Indeed, Paul Krugman has been saying it in the New York Times<\/strong> (11\/3\/11<\/a>, 5\/15\/15<\/a>, 7\/15\/19<\/a>) for years.\u00a0 Just three men hold more wealth<\/a> than the bottom 50% of the country combined, and the richest people in society use their money to influence media, society and the government.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But if the US is an oligarchy, then who are the oligarchs? One candidate who has been in the news of late is conservative multibillionaire David Koch, who died August 23 (FAIR.org<\/strong>, 9\/5\/19<\/a>). Koch was the world\u2019s 11th richest and 29th most powerful<\/a> person, according to Forbes<\/strong>, amassing a fortune of over $50 billion. The chemical and fossil fuel magnate used his enormous wealth to fund climate change denialists<\/a> and block efforts to address climate breakdown. He bankrolled a multitude of right-wing causes, including the Tea Party<\/a>, conservative media<\/a>, politicians<\/a> and think tanks<\/a>. Koch undercut unions<\/a>, opposed<\/a> gun restrictions, blocked public transport initiatives<\/a> and thwarted moves towards nationalized healthcare<\/a>. As such, he and his brother Charles have shaped the Republican Party and modern society more than almost anyone else.<\/p>\n

Yet in their obituaries, even media catering to a more liberal audience refrained from using the term to describe him. \u201cPhilanthropist\u201d was the preferred description in the Washington Post<\/strong> (8\/23\/19<\/a>) and NBC<\/strong> (8\/23\/19<\/a>). CBS<\/strong> News<\/strong> (8\/23\/19<\/a>) also described him as such, framing him as an \u201cicon\u201d who \u201ccommitted millions to various hospitals for cancer research.\u201d Meanwhile, the New York Times<\/strong> (8\/23\/19<\/a>) glowed over the \u201cgregarious, socially prominent\u201d \u201cman-about town philanthropist,\u201d who gave over $1 billion to charity. (See FAIR.org<\/strong>, 9\/5\/19<\/a>.)\u00a0 The tone of these articles was functionally identical to that of more conservative media, like Fox News <\/strong>(8\/24\/19<\/a>) or the Wall Street Journal<\/strong> (8\/23\/19<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Non-oligarch David Koch.
(cc photo: Fred Thompson)<\/p><\/div>\n

Many outside the corporate media bubble were highly scornful of the coverage. Independent journalist Caitlin Johnston (Medium<\/strong>, 8\/23\/19<\/a>) remarked that if Koch were Russian, he would be called an \u201coligarch,\u201d while the Appeal<\/strong>\u2019s Adam H. Johnson claimed on Twitter<\/strong> (8\/23\/19<\/a>) that \u201coligarch\u201d is a loaded term used exclusively for the elite of enemy foreign countries, and not our plutocrats.<\/p>\n

Who is and isn\u2019t an oligarch, according to media<\/strong><\/p>\n

To test these critiques, FAIR analyzed the 50 most recent articles using the search term \u201coligarch\u201d from the New York Times<\/strong>, CNN<\/strong> and Fox News<\/strong> websites. (Full documentation, including a complete list of sources, used can be found here.<\/a>) The study sought to ascertain:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Who is referred to as an oligarch?<\/li>\n
  2. Which countries are considered oligarchies?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Yevgeny Prigozhin, Oleg Deripaska, Viktor Vekselberg, Victor Pinchuk, Roman Abramovich, Aras Agalarov: That is the full and distinctly Slavic-sounding list of people identified by CNN<\/strong> as \u201coligarchs.\u201d Indeed, only two articles across the entire sample of 150 identified Westerners as such: one angry New York Times<\/strong> opinion piece (15\/7\/19<\/a>) that creatively decried people like Elon Musk and Richard Branson as \u201crocket oligarchs,\u201d and a Tucker Carlson Tonight<\/strong> segment (Fox News<\/strong>, 4\/2\/19<\/a>) in which an NRA spokesperson attacked gun control advocate Cory Booker as a \u201cconstitutional oligarch.\u201d The rest were all from Russia or former Eastern Bloc countries.<\/p>\n

    In the 150-article sample, Russia was described as an oligarchy in 89, while Ukraine was labeled as such in 35. The word was also used in connection to other ex-Eastern Bloc states in 13 articles: Those states were Moldova (6 times), Kazakhstan (twice), Hungary (twice), Georgia (twice) and Azerbaijan (once). Guatemala was also once referred to as possessing oligarchs. In all, 98% of countries referenced in connection to oligarchs were either Russia or formerly Soviet-dominated states.<\/p>\n

    In contrast, only 1% of articles mentioned the US in connection with oligarchs, which is all the more remarkable, considering all the outlets in the sample are US-based and devote vastly more time, space and words to US issues than Eastern European ones.<\/p>\n

    The fact that oligarch has taken on ethnic connotations was made doubly clear in a New York Times<\/strong> article (5\/22\/19<\/a>) about the changing world of soccer. It noted (emphasis added):<\/p>\n

    In 1997, the Egyptian <\/em>businessman and department store owner Mohamed al-Fayed took control of Fulham, a London team in the second division, and led its promotion into the Premier League; in 2003, the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who had made his fortune in oil, aluminum and steel, bought Chelsea; in 2007, Stan Kroenke, <\/em>the husband of a Wal-Mart heir, began accumulating shares of Arsenal. That same year, the family that had controlled Liverpool for half a century sold out to two American <\/em>businessmen, Tom Hicks and George Gillett.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    The word, defined in the Cambridge Dictionary<\/em><\/a> as an individual or group of powerful people that control a country or industry, is surely as applicable to the Walton dynasty as to a mining giant like Abramovich, but US billionaires are merely \u201cbusinessmen\u201d\u2014when they aren\u2019t \u201cphilanthropists\u201d\u2014while Russians are \u201coligarchs.\u201d In other words, our elites are engaged in normal economic activity or else looking out for the betterment of humanity, while theirs are nefariously dominating politics.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>

    \u201cEspecially in Russia\u201d (Late Night, 7\/20\/17).<\/p><\/div>\n

    Many articles stressed these oligarchs\u2019 apparent connections to President Vladimir Putin (e.g. CNN<\/strong>, 3\/20\/19<\/a>, 3\/22\/19<\/a>), even when the oligarchs in question aren\u2019t from Russia (Fox News<\/strong>, 3\/21\/19<\/a>, 5\/14\/19<\/a>). Late Show<\/strong> host Stephen Colbert (7\/20\/17<\/a>) defined \u201coligarch\u201d as \u201cRussian for \u2018rich guy don\u2019t ask where his money came from.\u2019\u201d (\u201cOligarch\u201d actually came to English from Ancient Greek.) To be fair, Colbert joked about the selective use of the term\u2014explaining that \u201cover there, the political system is controlled by wealthy elites who buy influence and pull strings of the government, whereas in America, we speak English.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, however, was apparently quite serious with his xenophobic comments<\/a> that Russians were \u201cgenetically driven\u201d to nefarious ends like co-optation and gaining favor. The guest of one Fox News<\/strong> show (5\/7\/19<\/a>) referred to a \u201cRussian\u201d before switching that to a \u201cUkranian oligarch,\u201d suggesting the entire region was an amorphous mass of devious, plotting, squatting<\/a> Slavs.<\/p>\n

    There was very little difference between how the three outlets used the term. Fox News<\/strong> was a little more likely to reference Ukraine, primarily because it closely covered the story of Joe Biden\u2019s son Hunter\u2019s connection<\/a> to a Ukranian business executive, while CNN<\/strong>\u2019s commitment to Russiagate<\/a> encouraged it to connect oligarchs personally to Vladimir Putin. But overall, the three outlets displayed a shared tendency in how and to whom they applied the word.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    While not labeling its own wealthy and powerful elites as \u201coligarchs,\u201d US corporate media do, as noted, occasionally acknowledge that the United States itself is an oligarchy. But even those admissions are few and far between, appearing for the most part only in articles devoted to arguing exactly that point. Otherwise, the US is overwhelmingly presented <\/a>as a democracy and a force for good in reporting.<\/p>\n

    And when a politician like Bernie Sanders suggests that these oligarchs influence the media, senior editors react angrily, claiming he is \u201cridiculous<\/a>\u201d and a \u201cconspiracy theorist<\/a>.\u201d What a strange country the US is\u2014an oligarchy without any oligarchs.<\/p>\n

    ______________________________________________________<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Alan MacLeod is a member of the Glasgow University Media Group. His latest book,<\/em> Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent<\/a>, was published by Routledge in May 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Go to Original \u2013 fair.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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