• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNcACfx1RTM

Tragedy and Farce:How the American Media Sells Wars,

Spins Elections, and Destroys Democracy

and What You Can Do to Change Things

Book by John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney

Presentation by Maral Cavner

The Function of The MediaAccording to The Founders

• “A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.” – President and Founder James Madison

• Clearly we need help from the media to help the electorate serve as a check on the government as a whole, but as Jon Stewart said, this is not exactly what is happening.

The Central Problem With The Media

• Largely as a result of pressure on all media sources to turn a profit, media companies are run like businesses and “treat Americans as consumers, not citizens” who are attracted by entertainment itself rather than stories.

• Additional problems include: the rise in sensationalism, blatant fabrications of stories, the need to fit a slim definition of patriotic, and the widespread bribing of journalists.

Explanations for The Modern Day CrisisIn Journalism

• The increasing concentration of ownership into giant media corporations driven solely by profit.

• A decline in objective reporting and the rise of partisanship.

• The reluctance of governments to operate in full disclosure mode, which would open themselves up to possible criticism.

• Additionally, the authors state structural and historical factors which have contributed to the crisis, namely the decline in “professional journalism" and changes in the function of journalism itself.

The History of Journalism In The United States

• The Founders called for “democracy sustaining” journalism which would have three crucial components:

• It must be a rigorous watchdog of those in power or rising to it.

• It must present a wide range of informed views on the most pressing issues of the day.

• It must be able to expose deception and permit the truth to

rise to the top.

• “Professional journalism” is reporting with the notion of objectivity.

• “Professional journalism” is actually a fairly recent development in the United States and is presented as the solution to the blatant partisan crisis in media today.

The Pros and Cons of “Professional Journalism”

• Strengths:

– It gives editors and reporters a measure of independence from the owners’ politics and from commercial pressures to shape the news to keep advertisers and the bottom line happy.

– It places an extreme emphasis on being fair and accurate in reporting equating fabrications and exaggerations to cardinal sins.

• Possible Weaknesses:

– Reliance on official sources solely can turn reporting into dictation.

– It becomes difficult to contextualize stories without showing at least some partisan inclinations or making small value judgments.

– “Dig here, not there,” a built-in bias concerning what stories are to be reported and especially in a positive or critical fashion.

The Two Central Assaults on Journalism From The Commercial and Political Sides

• A wave of media consolidation and conglomeration, in addition to loosened federal regulations, resulted in a commercial attack on the autonomy of “professional journalism.”• Owners of media corporations want control over what

their media sources report.

• The right-wing attack on “liberal news media.”• Emerged dramatically in the 1970s and again in 2008

with the help of Sarah Palin who criticized the media for being too liberal and too sympathetic to traditionally liberal policies and ideals.

Assaults on Journalism From The Commercial and Political Sides Continued

• Side-Effects: • A decrease in the number of journalists, an increase in

the number of political pundits who are less expensive, a middle to upper class bias in stories reported, less people following the news, and a shift in focus to entertainment/celebrity news.

• Connections: • It is important to note that these assaults complement

each other. “The same political figures that bellyache about the “liberal” media are in bed with the corporations that own them and carry their water in Washington D.C.”

The Caliber of A Media System Can Be Tested Through Political Means

• The first test measures how the press system covers elections, providing the information citizens need to determine who will hold political power and who will not.

• The second test involves how the press system enables citizens to monitor the government’s war-making powers.

• The authors consider the coverage of the war in Iraq to be “one of the darkest moments in the history of journalism in the United States and consider it to have been the main contributing factor to the ‘dismal’ election coverage in 2004.”

Wartime Propaganda

• In nearly all major wars that the U.S. has been a part of (WW1, WW2, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War etc.) a clear pattern emerged: “The President wished to pursue a war while the American people had severe reservations. In nearly every case, the White House ran a propaganda campaign to generate public support for going to war, and a campaign that bent the truth in line with the strategy that the ends (war) justified the means (lies).”

The Media’s Handling of Journalism During The Buildup To The War in Iraq

• Never more so has this bending been so blatant than during the presidency of George W. Bush when dealing with the war in Iraq about which the authors go into great detail.

• Journalists felt pressure:

• To fit the slim definition of what was ‘patriotic’ during the uniquely unified post 9/11 era and keep the pro-war line all to avoid severe and potentially career ending criticism from the Right.

• To not thoroughly investigate the President George W. Bush’s words because they should carry credibility simply from the office which he held.

• To keep their media institution’s largely conservative ownership happy with their reporting.

The Contemporary Crisis In Journalism

• Corporate downsizing has been especially prevalent in terms of international coverage, resulting in a reduction of foreign reporters.

• The problem with not having many foreign correspondents who understand the language, customs, history, and culture of a region is that it makes it much more difficult to provide context for stories and thus a lessened capacity to provide a counterbalance to whatever story comes from the government.

Dennis Kucinich

• Problem: He couldn’t capturethe media

• Why?• Journalists thought that he was

the “fringe candidate” for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination vote from the beginning and wanted to give attention to “more deserving and legitimate” candidates

• “Long-shot candidate” from the start

• Started to discuss media monopoly

Drama

• Drama #1: Diebold, Inc. (one of the nation’s largest voting equipment manufacturers) scandal– Employees voiced reservations about the accuracy of the product

– No way of ensuring the truth behind the votes because there is no paper trail and could be fraud or errors

– Should be meaty story: presidential candidate took on a major corporation and won on an issue that is fundamental for American democracy, but it wasn’t publicized anywhere

• Drama #2: Ted Koppel of Nightline New Hampshire 2003 debate incident– Clearest act of media policing

– Koppel wanted to silence Kucinich and tried to steer the debate away from real issues, like the war in Iraq and national health care, but Kucinich shot back applause and response

Reforming America’s Media

• Breaking up major media conglomerates• Expansion of funding for public broadcasting channels

on television and radio and expansion of support for community-controlled media

• Requiring TV networks to provide substantial free air time for candidates and parties during election campaigns

• Open up regulatory process so local citizens can challenge licenses of local broadcast outlets

• Permitting not-for-profit groups to obtain FM radio stations

• Withdrawal of the US from the World Trade Organization – keep media open instead of placing trade sanctions on it

But even with all of that…

Kucinich was still ignored.

Howard Dean

• Also began to talk about media monopoly

• 11 companies in American control 90% of what people read and watch

• Blamed Michael Powell (Federal Communications Commission chair) and President George W. Bush

• Dean became the Democratic front-runner for the party presidential nomination, which wouldn’t stand with the media. The same media that had made him popular was ready to tear him down.

• Media framed him as psychologically insane and mentally ill– “Deaniacs”

• Drama #1: NPR 9/11 scandal

• Drama #2: Confederate flag comment “flag flap”

• Drama #3: “I-Have-a-Scream” speech in Iowa

• Dean’s problem was that he talked aboutfundamental issues that needed to be addressed and changed in American society

• John Kerry seemed more “electable” – he steered clear from controversy

• Dean was done.

• John Kerry was ill-suited to be the presidential nominee in 2004 because he believed that American media was an independent, responsible and trustworthy outlet

• George W. Bush, who openly did not read newspapers, did better because of his lack of experience and knowledge –didn’t trust the media, knew he had to manipulate the media to get proper coverage

• Bush rarely faced the sort of scrutiny past presidents had experienced because bosses of journalists are classic corporate managers who need the White House’s cooperation to obtain government stories in order to sell papers/magazines/advertisements and get viewers

• Michael Jackson, Martha Stewart, and other celebrity gossip graced covers over Bush – worked to his advantage – When Bush was covered, it was about his

personality, which people still liked better than Kerry’s – policy rarely discussed

• Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation ties – lavished with attention and stories for positive press

• Coddling of the President – Carole Coleman interview and backlash

• Did Kerry serve in Vietnam? power of staged stories• Kerry did not stand up to the media• “Rathergate” controversy: Dan Rather attempted to

unravel the mysteries of Bush’s National Guard service during the Vietnam War– Blogger retaliation – Marian Carr Knox: “documents could be forged or real”– No fact checking or concrete evidence– CBS decided not to air documentary made to out Bush’s

media manipulation before election because it showed bias

• Al Qaeda tape aired right before election • Sinclair Broadcast Group and anti-Kerry documentary:

Stolen Honor

• Bush won.

• Why? Media scared, lazy and dysfunctional, scared of criticism, and easy to manipulate because conglomerates want money

• “Counting on the media to do its job was entirely in character for the Massachusetts senator who was similar in so many ways to the man he challenged for the presidency in 2004 – both attended New England preparatory schools, both graduated from Yale, and both received advanced degrees from prestigious East Coast colleges – but who had developed dramatically different reading habits” (144).

• “Maybe it’s because of the papers they’re reading”

– Americans thought that foreign countries respected and backed the Bush Administration and the Iraq War because media fed them incorrect information

– “Bush-colored glasses”

• Media system not a free market system –government plays a huge role in the realm of media

• 4 Branches of the Media Reform Movement:– Media criticism/education/literacy

– Producing independent media

– Political organization for structural media reform

– Promoting powerful democratic trade unions for media workers

• All to create an informed public and an unbiased media

• Six Core Areas for policy making in the media reform movement1. Policies to promote accountable, transparent self-

government2. Media ownership policy 3. Regulation and governance of the Internet4. Subsidies and institutional structure to support

nonprofit and noncommercial media5. Hypercommercialism (marketing in every nook of

our lives)6. Global media policy

• Book authors created Free Press in 2002 – group to popularize media policy debates and link grassroots concerns with mainstream media

• Other values than commercial and conglomerate

Discussion Questions• Excluding entertainment news, do you agree with the authors’

belief that “if the government is not talking about it we (referring to the media as a whole) will not report on it?”

• During the authors’ examination of reporting during the war in Iraq, they refer to the Bush administration’s controlling of the “consciousness of the average American.” Do you believe that your consciousness is controlled more so during times of war?

– Consider the policy put into place by President George Bush that barred the covering of the arrival of the caskets of fallen soldiers in the United States.

• Do you think the media framed Romney as the “bad” candidate in today’s election?

• Do you think John Kerry was really naïve or did he not speak up against the media because he did not want a Dean-like controversy?