The Free Press Fantasy

By: Zarah Sultana

We often hear that the media’s job is to hold power to account — but in reality, its function is to project the views of the powerful across society.

Illustration by Mel Haasch.

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‘The ruling ideas of every age,’ Karl Marx famously declared, ‘are the ideas of the ruling class.’ Those who control ‘material production’, Marx went on, have the money and the power to control ‘mental production’ too: to shape how we think about the world. How can that be true in a liberal democratic society like […]

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‘The ruling ideas of every age,’ Karl Marx famously declared, ‘are the ideas of the ruling class.’ Those who control ‘material production’, Marx went on, have the money and the power to control ‘mental production’ too: to shape how we think about the world. How can that be true in a liberal democratic society like […]

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‘The ruling ideas of every age,’ Karl Marx famously declared, ‘are the ideas of the ruling class.’ Those who control ‘material production’, Marx went on, have the money and the power to control ‘mental production’ too: to shape how we think about the world. How can that be true in a liberal democratic society like […]

‘The ruling ideas of every age,’ Karl Marx famously declared, ‘are the ideas of the ruling class.’ Those who control ‘material production’, Marx went on, have the money and the power to control ‘mental production’ too: to shape how we think about the world. How can that be true in a liberal democratic society like […]

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