The Insider

  The Insider is an American film that gives an account of a true story. Jeffrey Wigand, a consultant in the Brown & Williamson Tobacco company blew the whistle and revealed the secrets of the tobacco industry in a 60 minutes interview including the dangerous addictive properties, the dangers of smoking, nicotine spiking, major tobacco companies, tobacco-related illness and other potential health risks (Salter Chuck, 2002). This film reveals the corruption of big business in the U.S and the role of media in protecting the public when the criminal justice system fails.  After breaching the confidentiality agreement, Wigand is fired and the Big Tobacco corporations threats Wigand and his family. 

  The Insider film portrays corporate America in a negative light. The screenwriter's view of corporate America is that the big corporations focus on maximizing profit without valuing the social well-being.  In other words, large corporations have dominated in the developed nations and the majority of these big businesses are interested in production, operations, demand, supply and higher profits (Monks, 2012).  The film also reveals that the big businesses have created a capitalist market economy where many of the business are owned by individuals or groups and are less regulated and accountable. The executives in these businesses have hierarchical powers and the higher power influences the government. Despite the fact that these create a higher income growth, economic and political freedom, their power influences the government and in turn, the government favors their operations allowing them to exploit the natural resources, global poverty, affects the small companies and destroys the environment (Monks, 2012).   

 Another truth of the American corporations is that they have a higher financial power that controls the political field.  In other words, corporations and politics have mixed to an extent where CEOs are making the political contribution. Corporations have also expanded their lobbying power, powerful CEOs are above the law, the government has failed to regulate and to tax the corporations, there are no set of obligations that corporations should follow and the government has failed to hold corporations accountable (Kennedy, 2017). The film tends to reveal the reality of modern corporate America and all these problems occur since the corporate governance has failed to monitor the corporations. Failure of the corporate governance to take its responsibility has made corporate America capture the democratic government. The economic power of the big corporates have turned out to be political power and this has brought disastrous effects to the American people (Kennedy, 2017).  The corporations have dominated the public institutions and this denies the government the power to control the corporations, to protect the American people and to address the important issue in America such as global warming and economic crisis.

 

The movie supports a conflict that exists between the corporate American and the media.  The media in the well-being of the society and it is also a platform in which the researchers understand the social trends, public health threats, and measures the well-being. On the other hand, the big corporations do not comply with the business laws and ethical standards while doing the business but they want to go beyond what is mandated by the legal and financial law (Monks, 2012). Since the corporations focus on profit maximization and ignore the corporate ethics, the media play a significant role in revealing the ethical issues of these corporations.  Media reaves the corporate standards and raises public awareness to prevent the public from health risks (Monks, 2012).  In the case of Wigand, there is a war between the media and the tobacco industry since the media wants to punish the industry and this leads to war and enmity. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

 Salter Chuck. (2002). Jeffrey Wigand: The Whistle-Blower.  Fast Company.  Retrieved from: https://www.fastcompany.com/65027/jeffrey-wigand-whistle-blower

 

  Kennedy Liz. (2017). Corporate Capture Threatens Democratic Government.  Center for American Progress. Retrieved from: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/news/2017/03/29/429442/corporate-capture-threatens-democratic-government/

 

 Monks Robert. (2012). The Corporate Capture of the United States.  Harvard Law School. Retrieved from https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2012/01/05/the-corporate-capture-of-the-united-states/