By Jim Wittebols
Buffalo, NY – With the end of the latest round of George Bush's permanent state of war, a distinctly new form of journalism has emerged which may affect the news and views we hear via corporate media for some time to come. One tends to think of journalism as a vital component in a democratic society and despite its many flaws, post World War II journalism has filled that role in many ways. Exposing the racism of the deep South through footage of African Americans being fire hosed by local police forces, exposing the futility of the military debacle in Vietnam when journalists were independent and not embedded with the military and publishing the secret Pentagon account of a war which was immoral in every sense of the word were a few of the highlights of journalism at a time when it helped define the proper role of journalism in a democratic society.
But that "democratic" journalism has been supplanted with the journalism of imperialism. Democratic journalism had been in decline for some time as the increasing concentration of ownership of our media system eroded the values by which most journalists had been trained over the last half century. Democratic journalism has been on life support ever since the attacks of September 11 and the plug was clearly pulled and democratic journalism was left to die sometime during the run up to what is surely becoming a debacle in Iraq.
The emergent form of imperial journalism is seen most obviously in the 24 hour cable news services. The firing of Phil Donahue at MSNBC, the stenography to power performed by Fox News and cable news' general obsession of the moment, which disdains key aspects of news such as history and context, have brought forth a vacuous form of television news which serves the interests of advertisers and the politically powerful but leaves citizens unable to make sense of what is going on in the world. Few news outlets have seriously covered the erosion of civil liberties, whether it means ignoring the arrest of a man in a mall for wearing a "give peace a chance" t-shirt, not reporting the overzealous school principal who suspends students for wearing anti-war slogans or going lightly on a religious fascist posing as Attorney General. These same outlets celebrate what they call American freedom through programs in which hosts routinely berate dissenters, present a constant stream of pundits and patriotic police who call any deviation from the Bush party line un-American and continue to give the benefit of a doubt to an Administration whose propensity for lying and secrecy has long since surpassed that of a president impeached for lying about extramarital sex.
An imperial press will also cover the donning of military garb by a president and his indulgent behavior in welcoming troops home without mentioning that he was AWOL for the last 18 month of his national guard duty. An imperial press will have little to say about the stationing of U.S. troops in places like Uzbeckistan, where the leadership's behavior bears a strong resemblance to that of a whole host of former U.S. sponsored dictators such as the Shah of Iran, Ferdinand Marcos, Manuel Noriega and yes, Saddam Hussein. An imperial press does not concern itself with civilian casualties, dismissing such questions as too difficult to answer. An imperial press will not be able to bring itself to tell the American public that civilian casualties from both of Bush's wars now easily doubles the number of September 11 victims. It will also studiously underplay the reality that Afghanistan is far from liberated and that the people of Iraq do not feel liberated as the imperial governors take up their posts in Saddam's palaces.
It is not surprising then, when one profit making war has receded that many of the mainstream media outlets are asking the question "Who's next?"
In this environment, it is also not surprising to see polls wildly in favor of a self deluded Administration. Some are doing so out of a rose colored glasses perspective on U.S. war making and many are doing so out of fear. I feel genuine compassion for those journalists who are trying to make a living with integrity. I feel nothing but contempt for those so-called journalists who have turned the profession into a house of harlots.
The only way I see out of this morass is to stop subscribing to the news outlets which put out this kind of journalism, to turn off the cable news channels and to spend some time getting access to foreign sources of information. Truth in the United States has become a casualty of profit, patriotic correctness and delusions of grandeur in both the White House and the news rooms of this country. The very foundations of democratic governance are at stake here and there is not much time to turn things around.
Commentator Jim Wittebols is a professor of communications studies at Niagara University.