What is a Conspiracy Theory, really? Does it consist in much more than the sense that some powerful elite/cabal is controlling events in such a way as to serve their own selfish goals to the expense of everyone else, and concealing this fact because if it got out, people would be angry?
And to this you might add the sense that this fact is known but hidden. The News people KNOW this, but won’t discuss it.
And of course the rebuttal, such that it is, is that if such and such a thing were true WE WOULD KNOW IT. Someone would tell us.
As far as the news, this obviously isn’t true. What is a news/journalistic organization anyway? It is a for profit provider of a specific service. They are paid by how many people consume their service, and specifically, how many PAY for their service. For entities like CNN this is mostly advertisers.
At root, when you really get down to it, all these companies are for sale. Their services are going to be precisely what someone who controls them SAYS they are going to be. Full stop. This is known and acknowledged by all.
Anyone who controls both the news entity itself, as well as the bulk of paying advertisers, can control the content. This is not really subject to dispute.
You may say, well, journalistic ethics and all that. Well, you can have ethics and not have a job, right? Or you can have a job and no ethics. Your choice. They don’t care. You are a body in a seat.
And with regard to the first element, do not all bodies of belief partake in this basic emotional sense of threat? The Left believes “Big Business” is trying to control all our lives, and take away our freedoms. It’s ridiculous–within broad boundaries, particularly given that most Big Business is now enthusiastically Democratic–but that is what they believe.
Conservatives believe–in my view with considerable justice–that Left wing politics and politicians are being used to vitiate the Constitution and erode our freedoms, with the end goal being their complete elimination.
Christians believe that Satan is out there trying to subvert all of us.
Atheists believe that all talk of spirituality is dim witted, and that Christians are in general trying to ruin their lives.
It goes on and on. Most people, if you frame the thing correctly, are to lesser or greater extents conspiracy theorists. And why not? Powerful people scheme, don’t they? WE ALL SCHEME. It is just that the schemes of the powerful affect more people.
And news is for sale. This is obvious. This applies, obviously, even to so-called Public Radio, which if it did not deliver the sort of news its subscribers want, would be out of “business” in a New York minute.
In the same way most families don’t want the stories told of the crazy Uncle or Aunt or Cousin, no group wants the crazy people in their midst talked about.
Conspiracy theory, in the end, is just applying to the world what we all know to be true in our own personal lives.