Soil
of Good Democracy
Doris "Granny D" Haddock
Looking
At America from Far Away
Jim Schultz
An
Eye on Power
Bill Moyer
Exception
to the Rulers
Amy Goodman & David Goodman
The
Problem of The Media
Robert W. McChesney
A
Healthy Democracy Needs Independent Journalists
Julie Norman
The
Bodhisattva Peace Training
Lama Shenpen Drolma
Ashland's
6th Annual World Peace & Prayer Day
Steve Traisman
The
Ecological Garden
Toby Hemenway
"We're
Number One"
Chant Thomas
Peak
States of Consciousness
Grant McFetridge
The
Wild Harvest
Julie Gauss, CCH
Cosmic
Calendar
Salina Rain
Deborah
Mokma, Editor
Words have power. Lots of power. The power to start fights. Even wars. Poet Robert Lax, when asked how he saw words affecting change, replied: “For me, it’s all about communication. By definition, this is an attempt to unite two people by getting a message from one to another … Communication simply is—there’s no reason to force anything. It’s authentic. There’s no need for persuasion. When somebody starts to persuade, inflection and projection may twist meaning … but if you are a talented persuader, if that’s your gift, pray heaven you’ll be persuading people to do the right thing.”
When the majority of reports which appear on radio, TV, and in daily newspapers include all the same news stories—using the same vocabulary—in any given news cycle (typically 12-24 hours), they are in effect persuading the public to believe that certain things are true. Like the need to invade another country.
In this regard, the US mainstream media has fallen short in its journalistic responsibilities. New York Times White House reporter Elisabeth Bumiller recently admitted how intimidated the media became after September 11, explaining they became “very deferential” and reporters were loathe to challenge the President to his face because “it’s live, it’s very intense, it’s frightening to stand up there.” Bumiller went on to say journalists ignored polls which showed the nation split on the Iraq question. A survey done between March 10 and April 20, 2004 by The Pew Research Center, The Project for Excellence in Journalism and The Committee of Concerned Journalists, found that more than 51% of national and local journalists from print, online and broadcast media believe that their profession is “too timid” (read more about this survey on page 10).
According to the New York Review of Books, “The nearer the war drew, the less editors were willing to ask tough questions.” The few stories that provided a critical analysis of the Administration’s war plans were buried in the back pages. And according to veteran Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus, the placement of these stories was no accident: the Post’s editors, he said, “went through a whole phase in which they didn’t put things on the front page that would make a difference.”
But at least the Post actually published critical stories. The NY Review article notes, “The performance of the New York Times was especially deficient. While occasionally running articles that questioned adminis-tration claims, it more often deferred to them.” And a NYT editorial last May, which admitted some of the articles they printed leading up to the invasion of Iraq were “problematic,” barely addressed the fact that they allowed unsubstantiated reports, mostly from NYT correspondent Judith Miller, to run day after day—frequently on the front page. These stories, which were also picked up by other national publications who trust the The New York Times to be a reliable source, helped make the case for invading Iraq (for more on this see page 12 and 15).
Even public broadcasting has fallen short in their journalistic responsibilities. The New Yorker Magazine (NewYorker.com) released an article last May entitled, “Big Bird Flies Right,” which exposes several recent inci-dents that demonstrate the way ideologues within the Corporation for Public Broad-casting are seeking to shape public TV and public radio. The CPB’s mission has always been to protect programming from political interference, but it now appears to have a partisan agenda. Perhaps due to the Bush administration’s most recent CPB ap-pointees, Gay Hart Gaines and Cheryl Halpern, and their families, who have given more than $800,000 to Republicans since 1995. Bill Moyers, whose highly acclaimed PBS show Now with Bill Moyers has been cut from 60 minutes to 30 minutes beginning next fall, said “This is the first time in my 32 years of public broadcasting that CPB has ordered up programs for ideological instead of journalistic reasons.”
Whether it is a Democratic or Republican President who appoints them, CPB board members tend to be political donors who often come with ideological agendas. This seems particularly true of the current board. Call CPB Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson, (800) 272-2190, and let him know how you feel about public programming.
And a new Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) study has found National Public Radio, though founded as an alternative media outlet that would “speak with many voices,” relies on largely the same range of sources that dominate mainstream commercial news. Conservative critics accuse NPR of being “liberal” radio, but this study showed NPR has more Republican than Democratic voices. FAIR’s study looked at every on-air source quoted in June 2003 on NPR’s four main news shows, think tank sources and regular commentators were also analyzed (see page 17 for the report). Public radio listeners have undoubtedly noticed the use of the same vocabulary on the NPR daily newscasts as in the commercial media, which is of great concern.
A well-informed citizenry is vital to the health and well being of our nation. We must all strive to read, learn, and share as much as we can from trustworthy sources (see Granny D’s suggestions on page 7). Please see the list we’ve included on this page for some excellent news sources which are available online. These organizations provide reports, analysis and commentary from journalists who are not afraid to conduct themselves with integrity, and who strive to seek out the truth. Many offer list serves with excellent daily and weekly updates and coverage of breaking news, like the Center for American Progress (americanprogress.org), which sends out a daily report containing important information missing from the mainstream coverage of each day’s news cycle.
For people with satellite television receivers, there are now two viewer supported stations—LinkTV and Free Speech TV—which offer national and international programming that provides a window to the world currently unavailable on the commercial stations. Democracy Now!, an independent news program, can be seen on Free Speech TV, and is also broadcast on Pacifica, community, and National Public Radio stations, public access cable television stations, shortwave radio and online at democracynow.org (see page 12 & 17).
Our words
have power too. If we continue to allow the mainstream media to decide
what information our national conversation is going to be based upon,
we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves. It’s time the public
lets the media know it wants news that’s really fit to print.
Call your representatives in the Senate and Congress toll free at (800)
839-5276; write letters to the editors of your local newspapers, and to
magazines; talk to friends, family and neighbors. Let them know how you
feel, what you think. Be of good heart and positive frame of mind when
communicating in all of these situations. Remember the old saying, “You
can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” Be for something—not
against someone, or some-thing. Be inclusive. When we feel and speak in
terms of “us” and “them” we draw a line that is very
hard to cross, no matter how hard we try. We may disagree on many things,
but we can also find we ultimately agree on the most important issues.
Like adequate employment opportunities. Social justice. Healthcare for
all (would you want your child, parent, or spouse to be turned away from
lifesaving health care because you couldn’t afford to pay for it?).
Excellent education available to all children. These are things which
are not possible when billions of dollars are being wasted on military
expenditures.
By becoming aware of the misleading information that permeates most of our media, we can avoid being drawn in to fear and separation. Please join us in creating a healthy future for all. Together, we can.
