Sylvain’s Panama Adventure

I’ve long been arguing with my American friends and acquaintances that their main stream news media is so desperately deficient, the average American is woefully uninformed about the real world. This was painfully apparent in the aftermath of 9/11, when virtually all the American media went totally numb, and refused to show any news report that was even remotely critical of the Bush Administration. It was somehow seen as “unpatriotic” to criticise anything the government was doing in that time of crisis and sorrow. But I argued that it was precisely during that time that it would have been MOST important to keep the government in check and the population informed.

Most Americans have no understanding of who Muslims are, fundamentalists or otherwise. They have no idea what makes them tick and they are convinced that Muslims hate America because of its success and freedom, which is far from reality.

Reporting the true horror of the war would also have been a good thing. While Americans heard about the good deeds, and saw video game-like footage of missiles leaving the ships, tracer rounds leaving the armoured vehicles, and bombs dropping from planes, they almost never saw the horror at the other end where those munitions landed. They also don’t see their soldiers coming back in body bags or badly maimed.

So when the Bush administration manipulated intelligence and revelled in scare mongering propaganda, the media thoughtlessly and merrily repeated it all, playing right in the hands of the White House. It was no wonder that at the time some 85% of Americans were convinced that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11, had WMDs, and was a threat to America. And thanks to Fox News’ popularity and incredibly partisan reporting, to this day a large segment of the American population still think those assertions about Hussein were true, and that this is a just war. Surprisingly, many Americans still do not understand the monumental blunder the Bush Administration perpetrated, or all the laws that they broke, and they would gladly do it all over again if they could go back to square one.

If you have never watched Fox News, do yourself a favour and watch it for a while, especially Bill O’Reilly. I suspect that like me you will be amazed at the irrationality of it all; it would be comical if it wasn’t so tragic. Fox News is anything but “Fair and Balanced”, it is basically an echo box for the Bush administration and the religious right. Everything that Bush does, no matter how appalling, is cheered and encouraged. Meanwhile instead of reporting on dissenting points of view, they simply ridicule them. No lies or distortions of facts are beneath them.

But the rest of the media, even the so called “liberal” media is not much better. While perhaps a little less partisan than Fox News they are no better, perhaps even worse, at reporting on important events, or informing the American people. It is a sad reality that political comedy shows like John Stewart’s The Daily Show often contain more information than the mainstream newscasts, and often address issues that no one else seems to have the courage or desire to. The mainstream news are all about entertainment and ratings, much more concerned with showing the public what they want to see, things like celebrity gossip or mildly entertaining documentaries that tell people what they want to hear. Local news stations are no better, seemingly dominated by local celebrities, car crashes, house fires, and lost pets.

Now, I know that Canadian media is not that great either, certainly not as good as it should be. But I would argue that at least they are not afraid to criticise the government, and of showing us the horrors of war and the body bags coming back home. Our media is also controlled by corporate interests, but it has managed to retain a modicum of independence and a will to inform the population.

Here is an excellent article entitled “You Don’t Understand Our Audience” that appeared in this month’s MIT Technology Review. It was written by John Hockenberry who worked for NBC’s Dateline for 12 years. It is a scathing commentary on the American mainstream news media. If you don’t want to read the whole thing, you can read this blog entry over at Dangerous Intersection that resumes it well.

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