[Mb-civic] Stenographers to Power

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

"There is such an enormous gap between our words and deeds! 
Everyone talks about freedom, democracy, justice, human rights, 
and peace; but at the same time, everyone, more or less, 
consciously or unconsciously, serves those values and ideals only 
to the extent necessary to defend and serve his own interests, and 
those of his group or his state. Who should break this vicious circle? 
Responsibility cannot be preached: it can only be borne, and the 
only possible place to begin is with oneself." 
- Vaclav Havel 


-------------------


http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1123-26.htm

  Published on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 by The Nation  
Stenographers to Power  
by John Nichols 
  
The best question asked in the aftermath of the 2004 US election 
came from a British newspaper, The Daily Mirror, which inquired 
over a picture of George W. Bush, "How can 59,054,087 be so 
dumb? 

Now, another British newspaper has answered the question. A new 
marketing campaign for The Weekly Guardian, one of the most 
respected publications in the world, features images of a dancing 
Bush and notes that, "Many US citizens think the world backed the 
war in Iraq. Maybe it's the papers they're reading." 

The weekly compendium of articles and analyses of global affairs 
from Britain's liberal Guardian newspaper has long been regarded 
as an antidote to government controlled, spun and inept local 
media. Nelson Mandela, when he was held in South Africa's 
Pollsmor Prison, referred to the Weekly Guardian as a "window on 
the wider world." 

But is it really appropriate to compare the United States in 2004 with 
a warped media market like South Africa during apartheid days? 

Actually, the comparison may be a bit unfair to South African media 
in the apartheid era--when many courageous journalists struggled to 
speak truth to power. 

No serious observer of the current circumstance in the United 
States would suggest that our major media serves the cause of 
democracy. Years of consolidation and bottom-line pressures have 
forced even once responsible media to allow entertainment and 
commercial values to supersede civic and democratic values when 
making news decisions. And the determination to color within the 
lines of official spin is such that even the supposed pinnacles of the 
profession--the New York Times, the Washington Post and CBS 
News' 60 Minutes--have been forced to acknowledge that they got 
the story of the rush to war with Iraq wrong. 

There can be apologies. But there cannot be excuses because, of 
course, media in the rest of the world got that story right. 

And there are consequences when major media blows big stories. 
As the Weekly Guardian's new marketing campaign suggests, a lot 
of Americans voted for George W. Bush on November 2 on the 
basis of wrong assumptions. 

According to a survey conducted during the fall campaign season by 
the Program on International Policy Attitudes--a joint initiative of the 
Center on Policy Attitudes and the Center for International and 
Security Studies at the University of Maryland School of Public 
Affairs--a lot of what Americans know is wrong. 

Despite the fact that surveys by the Gallup organization and other 
polling firms have repeatedly confirmed that the vast majority of 
citizens of other countries opposed the war in Iraq, the PIPA survey 
found that only 31 percent of Bush supporters recognized that the 
majority of people in the world opposed the Bush administration's 
decision to invade Iraq. 

Amazingly, according to the PIPA poll, 57 percent of Bush 
supporters assumed that the majority of people in the world would 
favor Bush's reelection, while only 33 percent assumed that global 
views regarding Bush were evenly divided. Only 9 percent of Bush 
backers correctly assumed that Kerry was the world's choice. 

That wasn't the end of the misperception. 

"Even after the final report of Charles Duelfer to Congress saying 
that Iraq did not have a significant WMD program, 72 percent of 
Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq had actual WMD (47 
percent) or a major program for developing them (25 percent)," 
explained the summary of PIPA's polling. "Fifty-six percent assume 
that most experts believe Iraq had actual WMD and 57 percent also 
assume, incorrectly, that Duelfer concluded Iraq had at least a 
major WMD program." 

"Similarly," the pollsters found, "75 percent of Bush supporters 
continue to believe that Iraq was providing substantial support to al 
Qaeda, and 63 percent believe that clear evidence of this support 
has been found. Sixty percent of Bush supporters assume that this 
is also the conclusion of most experts, and 55 percent assume, 
incorrectly, that this was the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission." 

PIPA analysts suggest that the "tendency of Bush supporters to 
ignore dissonant information" offers some explanation for these 
numbers. And there is something to that. After all, Kerry backers 
displayed a far sounder sense of reality in PIPA surveys. 

But unless we want to assume that close to 60 million Americans 
look at the world only through Bush-colored glasses, there has to be 
some acceptance of the fact that good citizens who consume 
American media come away with dramatic misconceptions about 
the most vital issues of the day. 

Sure, Fox warps facts intentionally. But what about CBS, NBC, 
ABC, CNN, USA Today, the New York Times and the Washington 
Post, as well as most local media across the country? They may 
strive to be more accurate than Fox or talk-radio personalities such 
as Rush Limbaugh. But they still fed the American people an 
inaccurate picture when they allowed the Bush team to peddle lies 
about Iraq and other issues without aggressively and consistently 
challenging those misstatements of fact. 

America has many great journalists. And there are still good 
newspapers, magazines and broadcast programs. But, taken as a 
whole, US media--with its obsessive focus on John Kerry's Vietnam 
record, its neglect of fundamental economic and environmental 
issues and its stenographic repetition of even the most absurd 
claims by the president and vice president--warped the debate in 
2004. 

Some of those 59,054,087 Bush voters may have been dumb. 

But a far better explanation for the election result is summed up by 
the Weekly Guardian's observation that, "Maybe it's the papers 
they're reading."

John Nichols, The Nation's Washington correspondent, has covered 
progressive politics and activism in the United States and abroad for 
more than a decade. He is currently the editor of the editorial page 
of Madison, Wisconsin's Capital Times. 

© 2004 The Nation

###
 
 
 

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Action is the antidote to despair.  ----Joan Baez
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