All News that is Fit
for Print
What I love about this church is how people question basic
assumptions and conventional wisdom about matters of faith. People come to
question the validity of Jonah being swallowed by a whale or the creation story
or even the resurrection. Whether it is
fact, fiction, or metaphor people draw meaning from it and people are free to
disagree. I am curious, do you question
other areas of your life?
What grade
would you give yourself in regard understanding the mass media? Are you able to ferret out what is censored or
if there is a spin? 2 Timothy talks about
people who smooth talk themselves into the homes of people.
The early framers of the country advocated that the media is
the Fourth Estate or Fourth Branch of government- it was to keep a check on the
judicial, executive and legislative branches. Jefferson stated, ‘an enlightened citizenry is
indispensible for a functioning democracy.’
Functioning is the key word here.
The media has a far greater effect
on our culture than religion. There is
no institution more important in the public sphere in America than the
media. The media links private
individuals with the larger society. That is why powerful people—corporations,
government and the wealthy have a vested interest in controlling it.
As followers of Jesus, we need to ask, what kind of society
do we want to live in? One that is
managed by others and dissident voices are silenced or do we want to live in a
democratic society where all views are shared.
Let’s go back a few years to 1916 when Woodrow Wilson was
elected president of the US on the platform of “Peace without Victory.” It was in the middle of WWI. The population
was extremely pacifistic and saw no reason to become involved in the European
War. But Wilson wanted to get into the
war.
Wilson had to devise a plan that would drum up support for
the war, so he created the Creel Commission or what is often called CPI—Committee
on Public Information. The
committee used newsprint, posters, radio, telegraph, cable and movies to
broadcast its message. It recruited about 75,000 "Four Minute Men," volunteers who spoke about the
war at social events like church gathers, movie houses, etc. Within six months CPI turned a
pacifist population into a hysterical, war-mongering population which wanted to
destroy everything German. It was a very
impressive achievement. Creel was so
successful at engineering consensus on social and political issues that
business and politicians took notice, Adolf Hitler was a notable student.
Walter Lippmann writing in 1922,
The common interests very largely
elude public opinion entirely, and can be managed by a specialized
class whose personal interests reach beyond the locality. That the manufacture of consent is capable of
great refinements. The creation of
consent is not a new art. The purpose,
then, is not to burden every citizen
with expert opinions on all questions, but to push that burden away from him
towards the responsible administrator.
The public must be put in its
place, so that it may exercise its own powers, but no less and perhaps even
more, so that each of us may live free of the trampling and roar of a
bewildered herd.
In Lippmann’s understanding of world, which still continues today in intellectual circles,
the public should be passive spectators and experts will inform and mobilize
the citizens on issues.
Edward Bernay’s, the Father of Public Relations stated, it
slightly differently in his 1928 with book Manipulating
Public Opinion: The Why and the How:
It is the
power of the group to sway the larger public in its attitude.
Public opinion can be manipulated,
but in teaching the public how to ask for what it wants the manipulator is
safeguarding the public against his own possible aggressiveness.
Bernay’s was a brilliant PR man. His uncle was Sigmund Freud. Bernay’s was instrumental to get women to
smoke with his ‘Torches of Freedom’ campaign.” Another cigarette manufactured
refused to change the green box of cigarettes.
So Bernay’s was given the task to change America’s preference to
green. Bernay’s recruited beautiful
woman to march down 5th Avenue wearing green and smoking. He talked with department stores to use
green, he spoke to fashion editors to use gree,….. in the end it worked. He also
provided PR for the US overthrow of a democratically elected leader in
Guatemala in 1954.
I won’t run through the litany of how public opinion has shaped
issues like the Ludlow Massacre, the Red Scare, the Cold War, the two wars in
Iraq, NAFTA, or the current wars in the Middle East.
What is important is that propaganda and information is
aimed at the educated class, not the poor.
You need the educated class to buy into the issue of the day. That is why you see a list of experts,
scholars on the TV or in the news telling you how to think and believe.
Let’s turn to the news.
Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky released a book in 1988
called Manufacturing Consent they
state the US media “serve, and propagandize on the behalf of the powerful
societal interests that control and finance them.” They have developed a model
called the ‘Propaganda model.’ To my knowledge it has never been refuted,
people do not like it, especially the media, but it has not been refuted.
I used their model to look at print media in post–apartheid
South Africa. I demonstrated how market forces restrict the media more then
they did under apartheid.
Herman and Chomsky state news goes through five filters
before it hits the audience. Each of
these filters, restricts, limits, and or taints the news we receive.
1.
Ownership-media companies are large for–profit
organization with multiple business interests.
For example, the Washington Post recently was heavily invested in for-profit
colleges and as a result did not want any regulation for for-profit
colleges. Now they are owned by Jeff
Bezos of Amazon. Disney has multiple financial holdings as does New Corp.
Corporations (Fox) will protect their interests first, they are mandated to do
so.
Furthermore, board of directors, investors
often come from other prominent businesses and these wealthy corporations want
to maintain their status quo and position within society. These people share common interlocking social,
political, economic interests with one another. As a result, news will reflect
the interests and desires of media owners and those who finance them. In
1983, 90% media owned by 50 companies,
2011 6 companies control 90%.
With increased media consolidation
and ownership you have
-Decreased
competition and diversity of opinion
-rise
to sensationalism
2.
Advertising – Where does money come from for
these for profit corporations? The NYT
and WSJ are written for the top 5% of the market. Media corporations are selling audiences, not
newspapers, they actually lose money when you buy the newspaper. The audience
is the product.
You are not going to run negative stories
in the Houston Chronicle about developers, car dealerships, real estate agents
or even energy companies. Newspapers
will naturally suppress or self censor themselves if negative stories appear
about here advertisers. You can’t offend the ones paying the bills. It is protection money. The NYT for example, changed its coverage of
the first Persian Gulf War when advertisers started pulling out. Reporters
quickly learn not to offend advertisers.
3.
Sources.
When you look at a news story or read an article in a magazine or
journal look at the sources. Generally
the higher up the chain gives the article more authority. Sources come from businesses, corporations, think tanks, and
trade organizations because they are trusted sources for stories considered
newsworthy. They come from the same
socio economic class. Poor people rarely make it into a news articles. As a result,
"The mass media are drawn into a symbiotic relationship
with powerful sources of information by economic necessity and reciprocity of
interest."
Editors and journalists who offend these powerful news sources,
perhaps by questioning the veracity or bias of the furnished material, can be
threatened with the denial of access to their media life-blood - fresh news.
Thus, the media become reluctant to run articles that will harm corporate
interests that provide them with the resources that the media depend upon.
In short, reporters pay a prices
for access: they become dependent on
their official sources.
4.
Flak.
Flak is a negative response to a media statement, article or show. A
negative story of Israel or a
positive view of Palestinians or Hamas will trigger an immediate response, a
hundred percent of the time. There will be flak with this sermon.
Flak has a way of containing what
is acceptable to talk about. For example,
James Risen, a Pulitzer award-winning writer for the NYT, is being threatened with
jail time by the Justice Department about sources in a story he had written. His
being threatened sends a chilling message to other reporters. What you find is
a decrease in investigative journalism and increase in sensational crime, love
stories, sports and other things that do not challenge the existing power
structures. Challenging power will
always result in flak, or in the case of
MLK, Gandhi, Romero, Jesus it is death.
5.
The fifth filter is anti-communism—but it is
something more general: fear. People
need to be frightened so that the state will protect the people. The war on terror, the war on drugs, the cold
war, fear of losing out on a trade deal attempts to arouse fears, shape
understanding, and direct and support for campaigns. We live in a very fearful society, it all goes
back to WWI and the Committee on Public Information—the public can be aroused
quite easily.
These five filters serve to reduce any unwanted information
or debate about issues affecting the elites consensus. Furthermore, filters work in an undemocratic
way that restricts a free flow of information.
Let’s look at stories in the WSJ and NYT last month: restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba. As you can predict they present a very narrow
one-sided view of the story. I want to highlight a few things.
There must have been about 20 articles since the story
broke. Some interesting observations can
be made.
1.
There was no mention of life in Cuba before the
revolution under Batista
2.
No mention that Cuba has a lower infant
mortality rate than the US
3.
No mention that Cuba scores higher in education
then the US
4.
No mention that since 1992, the UN General
Assembly has passed a resolution condemning the illegal trade embargo declaring
it to be a violation of the Charter of the UN and international law.
5.
There was little mention of paramilitary groups
in Florida
6.
There was one sentence about the Cuban
Five. The Cuban five came to America to
spy on paramilitary groups in South Florida.
7.
There were two sentences about assassination
attempts against Fidel Castro.
8.
No mention of covert plans like Operation
Mongoose, biological and chemical attacks, kidnappings, bombing of foreign
embassies, the blowing up of a Cuban airliner.
Cuba has suffered more terrorists attacks by the US than any
other country in modern history. These
issues were simply off the table.
Let me address two main issues that are in the papers: human rights and property that was
confiscated.
First confiscated property.
(Show two articles) Until Friday,
there was no mention of returning Eastern Cuba back to the Cuba. A little over
110 years ago the US held a gun to Cuba’s head and made them accept the Platt
Amendment which granted the US control over Guantanamo. All of it was in violation of the Vienna
Convention.
The second issue is human rights. (Read from the article)
“Cuba’s record on human rights is well documented. The State Department’s
annual human rights said this year that the Cuban government carried out
arbitrary arrests, failed to hold fair elections, spied on private
communications, opposed free speech, restricted its citizens access to the
internet and refused to recognize independent human rights groups.” Sounds like our own NSA.
What about people held against their will in Guantanamo,
with no charges, no due process? There
was no mention of the recent CIA report about rectal feeding, which is
essential rape of people in CIA custody.
(Read last section) “Most human rights abuses were official
acts committed at the direction of the government, the State Department report
says, ‘ Impunity for perpetrators remained widespread.” How
about our own government? Were Dick Cheney, President bush held accountable for
their illegal acts? How about the
bankers who brought down the economy?
What you see are two sets of standards. You can draw your own conclusion why that
occurs, the propaganda model predicts it quite well
A moral person, at the very least, will apply the principle
of universality, or the golden rule- the standards we apply to others we will apply
to ourselves. If not more stringently.
In closing, the media is a very powerful force in our lives,
few people fully grasp how issues are framed, what information has been left
out. For the most part, mainstream
agenda setting media is tailored to the wealthy.
The world I live in is much bigger than that. I subscribe to a value system that talks
about the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized. There are clear instructions about orphans,
widows, the mentally ill, the prisoner, and the homeless.
It is my hope that this series will help you reflect on the
images, symbols, and information that is being sent to you 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, week after week, year after year. People in the advertising and public
relations are some of the smartest people in our society. As followers of Jesus we need to understand
the world we live in and the institutions that have influence within our lives.
Dietrich Bonheoffer stated the test of the morality of a
society is how it treats its children.”
This can be reframed for the US media
‘the test of the morality of
the US are how the poor, oppressed, and marginalized are presented and
covered within the media.’
We have much work ahead. Let us continue on the journey.
Amen
