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Media Beat

With CBS News In Tow, The AOL Juggernaut Rolls On

By Norman Solomon

There's no doubt that America Online has become one of the most important media outlets in the country. At the end of last year, AOL's membership topped 15 million. Now, AOL is joining forces with CBS for an unprecedented alliance.

"CBS News will be guaranteed a major and ongoing presence throughout AOL," a joint announcement said in early January. "America Online has also committed to showcase the talents of CBS News correspondents, producers and editors."

Meanwhile, CBS has pledged to boost AOL via "extensive on-air promotion within each of its news broadcasts" -- including "CBS Evening News," "Face the Nation," "48 Hours" and "60 Minutes."

Eager to spur enthusiasm among investors, the two media firms are touting financial synergy: "CBS and AOL have agreed on an exchange of value for CBS News products featured on AOL and on-air promotion of AOL within CBS News programming."

It's all very cozy. Two huge media organizations are now joined at the corporate hip after making a deal to ceaselessly hype each other.

As the nation's overwhelmingly dominant Internet provider, America Online is on a roll. No wonder AOL's chief executive, Steve Case, sounded so cheery in a recent cyber-letter to AOL subscribers:

  • "The next century will be defined by the integration of the Internet into people's lives, into society and into our global economy," Case wrote. "So, as we start the new year, it seems like a good time to take stock of our progress in building something we can all be proud of."

    The notion that a century could be "defined" by the use of Internet technology makes for rhetoric that is interesting but delusional. Likewise, the pretense that we're all involved in developing the Internet on a remotely equal basis -- you, me and Steve Case -- is comforting but absurd.

  • "By almost any measure, the Internet truly came of age in 1998," Case reported. He added: "Interactive services like personal finance and online shopping skyrocketed in popularity."

    Apparently, the term "interactive" has become so debased that it's now applied to actions such as paying bills, making investments and shopping on the Internet.

  • "Another great strength of the online medium -- and one you know is a high priority for AOL -- is its ability to bring people together.... Nearly 90 percent of online consumers say they regularly or occasionally go online to communicate with friends and family, and almost all say that the online medium makes communicating with friends and family easier."

    Commonly obscured is the fact that we don't need AOL or any other hyper-commercialized online service in order to send and receive e-mail.

  • "Almost half of laptop owners say they take their machines with them on vacation...and over one-quarter of online consumers check their e-mail on vacation."

    This is progress?

  • "Of those who meet new people online, over 90 percent say it is easier in cyberspace than the real world."

    Now we're in deep waters: Connecting with a modem is so much more gratifying than old-fashioned human contact. Why bother with the "real world" when you can keep looking at a computer screen?

  • "And, of course, the new online ways to research products and shop online is also a significant driver of the medium's success."

    Of course. Despite Case's tangled grammar, the message is clear: Big money is driving Internet development.

  • "Nearly three-quarters of the online consumer population say they go online to get information about products to buy."

    At this rate, the Internet will mainly serve as an amalgamation of every shopping mall and boutique in the universe.

  • "And almost half think that being online has a more positive influence on children than watching television."

    Talk about low standards.

  • "Only one-quarter of American households are online today and, of those, nearly two-thirds got connected within the past two years. As more people get connected, and people embed interactive services even more in their lives, I'm sure we'll see attitudes change even more dramatically over the years."

    That will probably be gratifying for true believers in the virtual world of America Online. But what about the rest of us?

    Norman Solomon is co-author of "Wizards of Media Oz: Behind the Curtain of Mainstream News" and author of "The Trouble With Dilbert: How Corporate Culture Gets the Last Laugh."

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