“People understand how, with the concentration of ownership, the things that make up their lives are increasingly under the control of fewer and fewer hands. We see a great, popular demonology of corporate villains that especially tends to focus on the leaders of the culture industry, such as Rupert Murdoch, who is a very widely hated figure.”
“These sensibilities are old, 19th century, republican ideals. That attitude has pretty much gone away. I've been reading muckraking books from the 1930s, when there was still this intense hatred and fear of monopolies - especially newspaper chains.”
“As we all know, Nike is a terrible exploiter of labor in other countries while advertising themselves here as being the bearer of "authenticity," with products that will put you back in touch with "real life." They even had a series of commercials several years ago about "the revolution," which was basketball when played from the heart and not for love of money.”
“In America, we no longer have an institutionalized, organized way of calling business to task - of taking them to account for what they've done - and this is especially true in the cultural realm.”
“I think there's great potential for autonomy, but we have to remember that we live in a world where people may have free will but have not invented their circumstances.”
“These days, of course, the focus of talk about popular liberation through products is mostly associated with the Internet. I've been collecting computer ads and ads dealing with Internet industries.”
