Monday, May 09, 2005
No longer a Fourth Estate
No longer is there a Fourth Estate. Instead we see the press being co-opted as part of the Exceutive Branch of government. According to Frank Rich ("Laura Bush's Mission Accomplished." New York Times, May 8, 2005), the White House press has become the public relations' arm of the executive branch. Reporting of Laura Bush's performance at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner is a case in point. Mrs. Bush did a marvelous job following her scripted lines, but they were just that - someone else's writing. The problem is that the press bought into the "burlesque" routine and even promoted it.
This is typical of the way the press has reported the White House, says Rich. Reviews of the President's "top gun" performance two years ago on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln were "reminiscent" of the reporting of the White House Correspondents' gala. The problem two years ago was that the President was claiming the war in Iraq was over and the press was buying into "the big sell." According to Rich, the administration has become masterful at "erecting propagandistic virtual realties that the news media have often been either tardy or ineffectual at unmasking." Such was the case with the false "town hall meetings," hiring Armstrong Williams to support its policies, and even the placing of Jeff Gannan, a Republican Party hack into the White House press corps. In that case, it took the press corps two years to report who Gannan really was.
The role of the media should be one of presenting alternative voices and views. Their failure to present opposite viewpoints about going to war in Iraq is an example of where their capitulation to the government line has tragically cost the U.S. in over 1500 dead, billions of dollars squandered, and its reputation even further tarnished. The war has spawned more terrorism and killed many thousands of innocent Iraqis. Whether there will be a democratic form of government is still in doubt. And unless the media do their job, the willful negligence of the press in reporting government may still bring about greater harm to our representative democracy.
This is typical of the way the press has reported the White House, says Rich. Reviews of the President's "top gun" performance two years ago on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln were "reminiscent" of the reporting of the White House Correspondents' gala. The problem two years ago was that the President was claiming the war in Iraq was over and the press was buying into "the big sell." According to Rich, the administration has become masterful at "erecting propagandistic virtual realties that the news media have often been either tardy or ineffectual at unmasking." Such was the case with the false "town hall meetings," hiring Armstrong Williams to support its policies, and even the placing of Jeff Gannan, a Republican Party hack into the White House press corps. In that case, it took the press corps two years to report who Gannan really was.
The role of the media should be one of presenting alternative voices and views. Their failure to present opposite viewpoints about going to war in Iraq is an example of where their capitulation to the government line has tragically cost the U.S. in over 1500 dead, billions of dollars squandered, and its reputation even further tarnished. The war has spawned more terrorism and killed many thousands of innocent Iraqis. Whether there will be a democratic form of government is still in doubt. And unless the media do their job, the willful negligence of the press in reporting government may still bring about greater harm to our representative democracy.
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