All the King's Media

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

William Greider meditates on the multiple scandals now roiling Washington, comparing the situation to prerevolution France. Traditional broadcast media, he observes, are among the institutions whose credibility is rapidly disppearing: "Heroic truth-tellers in the Watergate saga, the established media are now in disrepute, scandalized by unreliable 'news' and over-intimate attachments to powerful court insiders. The major media stood too close to the throne, deferred too eagerly to the king's twisted version of reality and his lust for war. The institutions of 'news' failed democracy on monumental matters. In fact, the contemporary system looks a lot more like the ancien régime than its practitioners realize. Control is top-down and centralized. Information is shaped (and tainted) by the proximity of leading news-gatherers to the royal court and by their great distance from people and ordinary experience."

Main Source: 
The Nation, November 21, 2005
Topics: 
Journalism
U.S. Government

Comments

stephane mot replied on

Not that wrong. The King found his legitimacy in a tailor suited god. Dubya just traded the high heels and wigs for oversized cow boy boots and stetsons. Commoners also pay in order to get a meeting with the little big man (see "Lobbyist Sought $9 Million to Set Bush Meeting" in yesterday's NYT).

The difference with today's France ? At least, this side of the Atlantic, when everything is going wrong, there is a true debate. 2005 may be an annus horribilis for us, we enjoyed a real discussion about Europe and social implosion.

And when one of our generals tries to cover up a criminal act by the French Army in Ivory Coast, he is both suspended by the Army and sued by the justice. The man who prones torture is not likely to become the head of justice (does DOJ stand for Denial Of Justice ?).

Anyway, I guess today's French Revolution is the actual one : the poor are getting poorer, the masses are getting poor and the wealthy have already left the country.

To make it even worse, France's next ruler is supported by the country's top media conglomerates : Nicolas Sarkozy has the favors of Martin Bouygues (Bouygues-TF1), Arnaud Lagardère (Lagardère-Hachette) and Serge Dassault (Dassault-Socpresse-Le Figaro). Not to mention King Dubya himself and his followers (including Dick Perle and the so-called church of scientology).

Some call you the elites...

______________________________________________________________________________________ Stephane MOT - http://www.blogules.com ______________________________________________________________________________________