Friday, February 20, 2015

The corporate coup d'etat: TTIP, TTP, CETA, NAFTA

A really important news story - one that should be getting lots of coverage in the US because of its huge financial and environmental implications - is instead getting the silent treatment from corporate media.

A massive trade deal called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is almost completely flying under the media radar in the US.

This trade deal includes a provision that basically gives multinational corporations the ability to sue national governments over environmental or other regulations and policies they don't like. As a result, US taxpayers could be on the hook for potentially billions of dollars in payouts and legal fees. You'd think that might be worth at least some media coverage.

But according to Media Matters for America, the TPP hasn't been mentioned at all by ABC, CBS, and NBC during the 17-month period from August 2013 to February 2015. During that same period, Fox News and CNN each mentioned the TPP trade deal once.

As Truth Out puts it, "The mainstream media's complete and utter silence on one of the biggest stories of the year, maybe even the decade, is shocking but not all that surprising." That's because they and their corporate advertisers and backers want the TPP to be ratified.

Corporate coup d'etat

Read the entire article