Beyond Boston and Media Reform for 2012: Supposed End of Times
Should Marshal a New Beginning for Media Democracy in Action
By Mickey Huff
Reformers who are always compromising, have not yet grasped the idea
that truth is the only safe ground to stand upon. Elizabeth Cady
Stanton
As we approach the prophetic and supposed media hyped end-of-times
year of 2012, hysterical speculation will abound. But the ubiquitous
corporate media dont seem to notice that We the People of these
United States already stand at our own precipice the potential end of
what has been deemed the Great American Experiment, the institutional
embodiment of human freedom protected by government of, by, and for
the people.
Of course, for many, the promises of equality and democracy that lie
therein may never have existed in the history of the United States.
Certainly, racism, sexism, classism, and imperialism, have all played
the role of antagonist to said promises. However, Americas founding
documents were particularly rife with rhetorical flourishes that were
supportive of liberty, freedom of expression, the pursuit of
happiness all of which actually sprouted many social and political
movements that changed American culture by striving toward those
founding principles, achieving them in varying degrees. In this
regard, America has succeeded in realizing the essence of some of its
promises. But in reality, the US, in historical terms, has fallen
short in myriad ways across the demographic spectrum and that trend is
not abating. This is in large part due to Americans reliance on
reform over revolutionary ideals and action as tools for change.
Arguably, the root of these aforementioned problems within democracy,
beyond exclusion or manipulation of the franchise, chiefly resides in
the controlling of public information and education, and access to it.
Thomas Jefferson once offered a possible solution to these issues when
he wrote, The functionaries of every government have propensities to
command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There
is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves, nor can
they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free,
and every man able to read, all is safe. The focus then is to
achieve a truly free press and a literate citizenry in maintenance of
democratic government. More timely, this was purportedly the focus of
the organizers and A-list participants of the National Conference on
Media Reform this past weekend in the historic (once revolutionary?)
city of Boston. However, these reformers have also fallen short of
achieving this goal.
We the people should go straight to the root of our problems with
media, which means taking a radical approach in dealing with the
current problems of our supposed free press to ensure that all are, as
Jefferson put it, safe. For starters, we should move well beyond
reformist calls for attenuating institutional dials, changing a few
metaphorical channels, or appointing new FCC commissioners. This has
not worked. The root of democracy is with the people, in education,
in literacy, in media awareness, and the path to change comes from the
people, not the president. That we move beyond a reform ethos
concentrated on elite media control must be agreed upon by all those
aware of the problem in order for real change to take place. And
while moving beyond reform, we cannot succumb to hope and change we
can believe in, which was promised, yet never delivered after the
2008 election where many reformers focused great efforts to no avail.
These eventual outcomes of reform serve to create a subculture of
acceptance in defeat, living to fight again
in another four years.
That is a long game. And we have played it for a long time. It is
true that reforms play a role in radical changes, though they are
stepladders to paradigmatic changes. The time to unite, face reality,
and act to rebuild a new and relevant democracy on the foundation of a
truly free press is upon us as we are in dire straights as a country,
as a world.
Like falling empires of old, the US today is mired in multi-front,
unilateral wars and is engaging in new ones ongoing while living well
beyond its means at home; ignoring domestic affairs when not outright
waging internal wars against those who actually expect elected and
appointed officials to live up to our founding Enlightenment
principles. These current so-called wars on terror have cost over
$3 trillion to date and occupy a great deal of time of political
leaders. All the while, the US boasts record declines in middle and
working class incomes and opportunities; a jobless recovery in the
wake of the economic collapse of 2008 (caused in large part by the
biggest banks on Wall Street which subsequently were not held
accountable and instead bailed out at taxpayer expense); a crumbling
infrastructure; failing schools (including public and private
charter); abysmal records on access and quality of healthcare given
the overall wealth and technological prowess of the country; rising
infant mortality rates; increasing homelessness; skyrocketing
foreclosures; collapse of community development and non-profit support
systems; faulty elections procedures; the use of torture abroad and at
home; the list goes on and on.
Last but not least, we suffer a hyperreal condition as a society,
spurred on by fearful, factless, and feckless news programming by the
nations supposed leading journalistic outlets. This is why most
people in America do not seem to notice the inevitable descent.
America is so disconnected that even while individuals may suffer in
large numbers they lack a collective adhesive in a modern media
landscape. They erroneously believe they suffer alone, and thanks to
corporate media propaganda, are often afraid of the wrong things.
Yet, a truly free press should help build and protect democracy for
the people, not destroy it.
All this is taking place in what appears to be absolute decline
across the board for most Americans as the upper few percent of the
population control most of the nations wealth. A real free press
would tell us to forget the GDP and focus on community building and
works programs, not abstract market fluctuations. America is a debtor
nation and has not made much outside of weapons and related
technologies accompanied by military industrial media complex
propaganda/advertising for years all masquerading as official foreign
policy and the news. The US government, along with this massive
military industrial complex, has now armed the world to the teeth to
justify a permanent warfare state.
America, its government of and by corporations over the people, is
now locked in a self-created, last-ditch effort to occupy the nether
regions of oil, industrial capitalisms dwindling lifeblood. The US
forces the rest of the world to trade on the dollar to maintain global
hegemony, funding its expansion of over a thousand military bases in
over 130 countries. Meanwhile, China, Russia, and several South
American countries, are already operating outside this monetary
imposition, which as the late scholar and author of the Blowback
trilogy Chalmers Johnson argued, is what would spell the end of
American empire fiscal bankruptcy. The collapse of the dollar would
hasten that. Indeed, that time draws nigh as the cry for austerity
from ostentatious leaders rings hollow across the land.
But again, dont expect the so-called mainstream media to explain all
this to the public. After all, according to the mainstream media in
the US (in actuality, it is the corporate media, but the term
mainstream is used so often people tend to forget it is not so
mainstream) there are teachers to blame and public workers to vilify,
and there is an ever ready supply of immigrant populations to enslave
or deport as well as exotic lands Americans cant find on a map to
invade in efforts to rout evildoers that supposedly cause our current
calamities. And if thats too much to handle, big media in the US can
intersperse a steady diet of junk food news where Americans can
vicariously feast on celebrity gossip and sport spectacles ranging
from Charlie Sheen and Dancing With the Stars to the Super Bowl and
March Madness in hopes that the problems we all face in the real world
will simply just go away.
These are the same issues many in the media reform movement also
decry, and rightfully so. Reform efforts have been laudable. But the
solutions reformers offer mostly seem to involve fixing the system
by focusing on influence of advertisers or regulating ownership (which
to date have not achieved reformer objectives). Other reformers want
the government to step in to fix the system by creating a public
media, without noting government has played a big role in the current
problem and even while public media is under attack by Congress, PBS
and NPR have hardly stood out in major ways to challenge the
plutocracy in the name of the people.
These reform notions do not go to the root of the problem, they do
not map out a radical solution. And, despite reformers benevolent
instincts and intentions, dont always expect reformers that criticize
the big media messengers behaviors to realize that the system they
spend so much time trying to repair is now defunct, if it ever existed
in any democratically functional means in the first place. This is
why we, the media literate citizens of this dying republic, must now
move beyond reform to create a new way.
We need to be the media in word and deed, not lobby those in power to
reform their own current establishment megaphones for their own power
elite agendas, as that will not happen, and indeed, it has not in the
past. In order to achieve real change, we need not have elaborate
conferences that rely on power elite voices, their foundation monies,
and their apologetic reformist rhetoric. In the words of 19th century
American activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, we need to embody the true
change she channeled when she said, Reformers who are always
compromising have not yet grasped the idea that truth is the only safe
ground to stand upon. Indeed.
The time to speak truth to power, to media power elites and their
political allies, is now. Media reform is an important movement, but
it should not be seen as the only path to create a more just and
democratic media system. More radical approaches are needed at this
point. So just say no to reform driven agendas delivered as so much
managed news propaganda and embrace the possibilities of a radical
media democracy in action, of, by, and for the people. Show it with
actions through citizen journalism and support of local and
independent, non-corporate, community media. Do it after the reform
spectacle of vicarious deference to power and celebrity is over in
Boston this year, as the real change only begins with true, radical
action at home. Thats the only way a truly free press can be
created, preserved, and grown to be a tool of the people and not the
reformers with their unrequited overtures to the media power elite.
The time to act is now. We may not have time enough for the next
reform conference to save us.
Mickey Huff is Director of Project Censored, on the board of directors
for the Media Freedom Foundation, and Associate Professor of History
at Diablo Valley College in the San Francisco Bay Area. Contact:
[email protected]
and [email protected]
===========================
Suggested Reading:
See Truth Emergency Meets Media Reform by Peter Phillips, Mickey
Huff, et al, in chapter 11 of Peter Phillips and Andrew Roth, eds,
Censored 2009, NY, Seven Stories Press, 2008, pp. 281-295.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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