information? manipulation? profit.

“In opulent and commercial societies, besides, to think or to reason comes to be, like every other employment, a particular business, which is carried on by very few people, who furnish the public with all the thought and reason possessed by the vast multitudes of that labour. Let any ordinary person make a fair review of all the knowledge which he possesses concerning any subject that does not fall within the limits of his particular occupation, and he will find that almost everything he knows has been acquired second hand. From books…a very small part of it only, he will find, has been the produce of his own observations or reflection. All the rest has been purchased, in the same manner as his shoes or his stockings, from those whose business it is to make up and prepare for the market that particular species of goods. It is in this manner that he has acquired his general ideas concerning the great subjects of religion, morals, and government, concerning his own happiness or that of his country.”-Adam Smith from a 1767 draft of The Wealth of Nations.______________________________________________________________________few- not many, hardly any, a small number___employment-business, paid work, an activity in which a person is engaged, a person's trade, profession, or occupation.___business- commercial transactions or engagements, total bookings or receipts.___prepare- make ready, assemble.___species- a class of things having some common qualities or characteristics.___goods- saleable commodities, mechandise, wares.___market- the action or business of buying and selling, a commercial transaction.___purchased- aquired by payment. ( all definitions from the "shorter [only 500,000 definitions] oxford english dictionary" )______________________________so then a relatively few individuals ( campared to the general population ) make it a commercial enterprise in pursuit of profit to assemble information ( the editor is not about style ) of a specific nature/slant/ viewpoint which becomes the commodity they in they vend in the "marketplace of ideas" to a specific audience ( we all have our commodity preferences...why not information...even if it eludes the facts ) which we then "purchase", probably both monetarialy and philosophiocally...if you can call media philosophical...i have my doubts...certain lack of ethics as with all capital...mid-eighteenth century media criticism via the scottish enlightenment...as a side note, the "invisible hand" does not appear in " the wealth of nations"...the "invisible hand" is the invisible hand of jupiter and its impact on the solar system that crops up in a book on astronomy adam smith wrote in the mid 1750s...if economists admitted they hadn't read it it would be amore honest world...then again economists lie every bit as much as politicians do...theologians of greed that they are...everything old is new again.