Blog 11: The Yes Men

The "Yes Men" documentary, or mockumentary details events that they set up to fool and satirize public knowledge. They use mass media such as public news and private functions such as investor meetings to get their points across. They prey on the fact that people listen to the news and take the knowledge it conveys as true to the letter. Also, it shows that news is full of bias as the events that led to their impersonation of Dow/Union Carbide brought back news that viewers were not aware of. People did not know that the problems are not solved over at Bhopal. It would appear that corporate America does a fantastic job of containing news and controlling mass media, despite the fact that certain truths are filtered by medial bias. What I enjoyed the most was the comedic but impactful use of the New York Times to distribute artificial (optimistic) news through one of the most trusted sources. Many times I feel like the New York Times chooses what does into history, they make the news. If it wasn't for the internet and the ability for individuals to write their own information down, the NYT would be the only historical repository for information. The way the Yes Men depict corporate control is similar to commodity fetishism as the opinion the public has about a company can be broken down into monetary form.