"The Insider"

The other day I was watching the Michael Mann film "The Insider". I first saw it in the theater and really liked it, but seeing it again really made me realize the genius of this film. Two things have caused me to view "The Insider" in a wider context. First I started working in the media and second I became aware of the massive corporate monolith that is crushing our culture.

The film deals with a former tobacco executive who turns whistle blower and grants an interview to 60 minutes detailing the evil that is big tobacco. I think that was the films big problem. Big Tobacco is such an easy villain. If you focus too much on the specific industry you lose sight of the big picture. The real villain is the American corporation. Back in 1999 I couldn't see that, all I saw was a man being destroyed by a single company.

R.J. Reynold's has and will behave like any modern American corporation. They are faceless, interchangeable, money making machines. Money, money, money. That's all they care about, that is all they are interested in. Jeffery Wigand made a choice and that choice hurt the bottom line of a very powerful company. Their response was to quickly and ruthlessly destroy him.

The greatest thing about this film is that it captures the demise of journalistic integrity in this country. Every major media outlet in America is now owned by a large corporation. These corporations want revenue generating assets, they don't want costly lawsuits from other corporations. Sixty Minutes caves in, betrays its legacy, destroys its integrity, because its corporate parent told it to. That was the beginning of the end of journalism in this America.

Without a objective media, a watchdog for the American people, anything is possible. In 1998 they started injecting cows with hormones, those hormones are now in your milk. In most cases the increase is 300 percent! Did you know that? Have you ever seen it on television or in the paper? Did you know that 70 percent of the corn in this country is genetically modified? Do you want to eat it? Guess what, you are. Did you know that only 94,000 dollars of your salary is taxed for social security? That means that if I make 94k, you make 180k, and Bill Gates makes 33,000,000 dollars or 33,000k we are all paying the same in social security taxes. If the politicians really want to save social security like they seem to like to tell us so much, why not raise the tax on million and billionaires? The corporate owners of this country down want that. They're not interested in saving social security. They don't need it. What they need is for us to keep doing as we're told and they will crush anyone who says otherwise.

Jeffery Wigand was the last one to take a real stand, risk it all for what's right. That's why I love "The Insider."

Viewing: For those of you that want to know more about what I was referencing in my post, you might want to check out the following films: "The Corporation" "The Future of Food".