Transcript A Progressive Response to an Undemocratic Media Wally Bowen Mountain Area Information Network Asheville, North Carolina © 2005 Wally Bowen.

A Progressive Response to
an Undemocratic Media
Wally Bowen
Mountain Area Information Network
Asheville, North Carolina
© 2005 Wally Bowen
Misperceptions, The Media, and the Iraq War
“Those who receive most of
their news from Fox News
are more likely than average
to have misperceptions…”
The PIPA/Knowledge
Networks Poll
Jurgen Habermas
winner, 2004 Kyoto Prize
“The Public Sphere”
“Theory of Communicative Action”
20th Annual Kyoto Prizes for
Lifetime Achievement in Arts and
Philosophy awarded to
Jurgen Habermas
June 11, 2004
The 2004 Kyoto Prize for Arts and Philosophy was chosen from the field of
Thought and Ethics and awarded to philosopher Jurgen Habermas, Ph.D., 75, of
Starnber, Germany.
Habermas received the award for achievements in social philosophy, in particular
his establishment of the communicative action theory and discourse ethics.
Considered among the world's leading awards for lifetime achievement, the Kyoto
Prizes are presented to individuals and groups worldwide who have contributed
significantly to human progress in the areas of “Advanced Technology,” “Basic
Sciences,” and “Arts and Philosophy.”
“In private life we associate with people who
share similar outlooks and values. In public
life we meet people from backgrounds unlike
our own. The first principle should not be
that we’re all the same — an assumption
privileging dominant cultural groups — but
rather that we are dissimilar. This leads to a
recognition of the moral ambiguity of politics,
the awareness that we cannot expect simply to
impose our values.”
Harry C. Boyte, “The Pragmatic Ends of Popular Politics” in
Habermas and the Public Sphere, MIT Press (1992), pp. 351-52.
“The First Amendment . . . rests on the assumption that the
widest possible dissemination of information from diverse
and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the
public, that a free press is a condition of a free society. Surely
a command that the government itself shall not impede the
free flow of ideas does not afford non-governmental
combinations a refuge if they impose restraints upon that
constitutionally guaranteed freedom. Freedom to publish
means freedom for all and not for some. Freedom to publish
is guaranteed by the Constitution, but freedom to combine to
keep others from publishing is not. Freedom of the press from
governmental interference under the First Amendment does
not sanction repression of that freedom by private interests.”
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in ASSOCIATED PRESS v. U. S., 326
U.S.1 Argued Dec. 5, 6, 1944, Decided June 18, 1945
“In 1850, census data showed that
95% of all U.S. newspapers had a
political affiliation … Traditional
party journalism … eased
readers’ participation in politics
by creating an accessible political
world.”
C. Edwin Baker, Advertising and a
Democratic Press, Princeton University
Press (1994), p. 5.
“The province of men with money, the newspaper
business generally represented their interests.
That was why a region whose voters were
roughly half Democrats and half Republicans
had an overwhelmingly Republican press. The
men who put up the capital, the Northern
business class, were predominately
Republican... Through the press, the well-to-do
had the opportunity, largely unavailable to any
other social group, to disseminate their
conception of politics and partisanship and set
the public agenda.”
“The Press Transformed” from The Decline of Popular
Politics: The American North, 1865-1928 by Michael
McGerr, Oxford, 1986.
“The public must be put in its place... so that
we may live free of the trampling and the
roar of a bewildered herd... The common
interests very largely elude public opinion
entirely, and can be managed only by a
specialized class whose personal interests
reach beyond the locality.” This specialized
class of “public men” is responsible for “the
formation of a sound public opinion.”
“Manufacturing consent” is the means by
which public opinion is directed in support
of “the national interest.”
Public Opinion by Walter Lippman, Macmillan, 1922.
“Leo Strauss was very pre-occupied with secrecy because he was
convinced that the truth is too harsh for any society to bear; and
that the truth-bearers are likely to be persecuted by society specially a liberal society - because liberal democracy is about as
far as one can get from the truth as Strauss understood it.
“Strauss's disciples have inherited a superiority complex as well
as a persecution complex. They are convinced that they are the
superior few who know the truth and are entitled to rule. But they
are afraid to speak the truth openly, lest they are persecuted by the
vulgar many who do not wish to be ruled by them.”
Shadia Drury, author of Leo Strauss and the American Right
(1998) and The Political Ideas of Leo Strauss (1988).
Christopher Hitchens, “Voting in the Passive Voice” Harper’s Magazine,
April 1992.
“Opinion polling was born out of a struggle
not to discover the public mind but to
master it. It was a weapon in the early wars
to thwart organized labor and in the battle
against Populism . . . .
“. . . as all pollsters will tell you privately, the
answers to poll questions are very greatly
influenced by what has lately been defined
as important by the television news. . .”
Christopher Hitchens, “Voting in the Passive Voice” Harper’s Magazine,
April 1992.
[Pollster Pat Caddell quoted]: “It’s all part of
an attempt to keep order. It defines politics
and politicians to suit those already in
power. . . .Like many other technologies in
politics [polling is] and instrument for
deception whereby the truth is obscured and
the public will be excluded and ignored.”
The Father of Spin: Edward
L. Bernays and the Birth of
Public Relations by Larry
Tye, Henry Holt & Co., 1998.
“In the United States the 170,000 public relations employees
whose job it is to manipulate news, public opinion and public
policy in the interests of their clients outnumber news reporters
by 40,000. A study in 1990 discovered that almost 40 percent of
the news content of a typical U.S. newspaper originates as
public relations press releases, story memos, and suggestions.
The Columbia Journalism Review reported that more than
half the news stories in the Wall Street Journal are based solely
on corporate press releases (cited in Korten 1995:146 [When
Corporations Rule the World]).
“United States corporations spend almost half as much on
advertising (approximately $120 per person) as the state spends
on education ($207 per person).”
—Richard Robbins, “Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism,” (Allyn
and Bacon, 1999) p. 138.
Media Orientations
“ …the impartial, objective form of television
news situates the viewer as a ‘passive
observer, a mere consumer of news. [By
contrast] commercials ask us to become
active, … to do something, to change,
indeed to improve something. But what
we’re asked to improve is not the world but
our own private situations and
selves’…news (objectivity) and commercials
(partisanship) act together to ‘position
viewers as depoliticized consumers…”
C. Edwin Baker, Advertising and a Democratic Press,
Princeton University Press (1994), p. 28, 41, 43.
From the March, 1926 “Midwest Employers Bulletin”:
“ Think of the speeches that may go forth. Wild
and radical speeches listened to by hundreds
of thousands. These wild men in their wild
talks regardless of consequences, may reach
the ear, possibly inadvertently, of your
influential and trusted employee, who may be
detracted from paths favorable to his
employer’s success.”
Cited by Robert W. McChesney in Telecommunications,
Mass Media and Democracy: The Battle for Control of U.S.
Broadcasting, 1928-1935, Oxford University Press, 1993.
“There is not room in the
broadcast band for every
school of thought, religious,
political, social and economic
to have its separate
broadcasting station.”
From General Order 40 of the Federal Radio Commission,
cited by Robert W. McChesney in Telecommunications,
Mass Media and Democracy: The Battle for Control of U.S.
Broadcasting, 1928-1935, Oxford University Press, 1993.
NOT ALL MINERS ARE
CREATED EQUAL:
Nine months of a dramatic coal strike against the
Pittston Company in Virginia (23 network
minutes) received far less coverage than eight
days of a coal strike in the Soviet Union (37
minutes). The takeover of a coal processing plant
by the Pittston strikers — the first major plant
takeover since the Flint (Michigan) sitdown strike
of 1937 — was ignored by all three networks and
the New York Times.
Source: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, www.fair.org
The Sound Bite
Society:
Television And
The American
Mind
(Four Walls Eight
Windows, New
York : 1999)
by Jeffrey Scheuer
“Television, in nearly all its forms and functions, and
for both economic and structural reasons, acts as a
simplying lens, filtering out complex ideas in favor of
blunt emotional messages that appeal to the self and
to narrower moral-political impulses.
“For reasons that are inherent in the nature of
ideology and do not impugn the politics of the left or
right, simplication promotes, and epitomizes,
political conservatism. Indeed, simplicity and
complexity are the basic polar organizing principles
of the political spectrum.”
Jeffrey Scheuer, The Sound Bite Society: Television and the
American Mind, Four Walls Eight Windows, 1999.
Conservative agenda is minimalist:
• less government
• less regulation
• focus on individualism
• democracy and market capitalism are
synonymous
“This simpler, minimalist view of the world is
more vividly and coherently portrayed via the
commercial media's ‘sound bite’ culture.”
From Sound Bite Society by Jeffrey Schnerer
Progressive agenda is more complex:
• bigger role for government
• collaborative approaches to social ills
• market capitalism and democracy are not
synonymous
• democracy requires checks and balances on
corporate and government power
“The more complex, nuanced progressive
perspective requires context and detailed
explanation. Commercial media is not
structured to portray this worldview accurately.”
From Sound Bite Society by Jeffrey Schnerer
“The problem with public broadcasting
is bias — programming that does not
disseminate a common culture but
imposes a partisan attitude... Remove
Federal funds and you remove
officials’ ability to influence the
system... to make programming more
truly national and better able to serve
its legitimate unifying purposes.”
“How Not to Fix Public Broadcasting” by Leonard
Garment, New York Times, Dec. 21, 1994.
Evolution of U.S. Media
“Architecture is
politics.”
Mitch Kapor
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Public Sphere
Information Commons
Public Domain
Public Space
Creative Commons
Innovation Commons
Posted on Mon, Dec. 15, 2003
Battle to control Internet threatens open
access
By Michael J. Copps
A new battle is brewing at the Federal Communications Commission. It's about
the future of the Internet. Entrenched interests are threatening open consumer
access to the Net and stifling innovation and competition in the process.
The Internet was designed to defeat government or business control and to
thwart discrimination against users, ideas or technologies. Intelligence and
control were consciously placed at the ends of a non-discriminatory network.
Anyone could access the Internet, with any kind of computer, for any type of
application, and read or say pretty much what they wanted.
This Internet may be dying. At the behest of powerful interests, the FCC is buying
into a warped vision that open networks should be replaced by closed networks
and that the FCC should excuse broadband providers from longstanding nondiscrimination requirements.
A Net of Control
Unthinkable: How the Internet could become a tool
of corporate and government power, based on
updates now in the works
By Steven Levy
Newsweek International
Issues 2004 - Picture, if you will, an information infrastructure that encourages
censorship, surveillance and suppression of the creative impulse. Where
anonymity is outlawed and every penny spent is accounted for. Where the
powers that be can smother subversive (or economically competitive) ideas in
the cradle, and no one can publish even a laundry list without the imprimatur
of Big Brother. Some prognosticators are saying that such a construct is nearly
inevitable. And this infrastructure is none other than the former paradise of
rebels and free-speechers: the Internet.
http://www.mediaaccess.org/programs/broadband/MSNBCNetControl.htm
Justices question cable's control of Net access
By Scott Lanman and Greg Stohr
Bloomberg News
March 30, 2005
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday questioned federal rules
that say Time Warner and other cable-television operators
don't have to open their Web-access networks to rival
Internet service providers...
Keep control of TV local
October 19, 2003
By Richard Burr and Jesse Helms
“Supporters of the FCC's decision to raise the ownership
cap from 35 percent to 45 percent argue that it promotes
the benefits of deregulation.Yet the whole point of
deregulation, especially among conservatives, is to place
more power in the hands of local decision-makers.
Deregulation is worthless when it leads to the
nationalization of a single product, policy or point of view
that can’t be adjusted to reflect the diverse needs of our
local communities.”
Free Press
www.freepress.net
Advertising
• Advertising Regulation
The spread of advertising, both in public spaces
and within programming content, can and should
be controlled.
• Billboards and Outdoor
Through local policies, communities can regain
control of their natural environments and
preserve their distinctive characters.
• Online Marketing
The web's potential as a democratic
communications medium should not be
overshadowed by commerce.
Broadcast and Cable
• Broadcast and Cable Regulation
Regulations need to be crafted for the public, which owns the
airwaves, not the profits of commercial interests.
• Children's Programming
Truly educational programming must be encouraged and
marketing toward children must be stemmed.
• Low-power and microbroadcasting
Support of technologies and policies for delivering diverse
programming to local audiences is crucial.
• Public Access
Public access to cable and satellite systems for local
community programming must be preserved as technology
evolves.
Education
• Commercialism in Schools
The disturbing trend toward increased advertising
and marketing in our schools needs to be reversed.
• Media Literacy
Initiatives that enable citizens to critically
understand, consume and
create media are absolutely necessary.
• Student media
Student groups and the unrestricted exploration of
the issues they face can be better supported.
Global Media
• Global Media Governance
International dialogue and solidarity will give
citizens a chance to balance the interests of big
business in shaping media policies worldwide.
• Global Trade & Media
Media and culture should be excluded from global
trade deals that would otherwise stifle creativity
and restrict public-interest media.
• World Summit on the Information Society
This United Nations Summit is a chance to build
momentum for the democratization of global media
policy.
Media Subsidies
• Arts Subsidies
Any platform in support of structural media reform
should include greater access to money for the arts.
• Independent Media
Support for this vital tool for challenging the
corporate media structure and creating an
informed democracy is crucial.
• Postal Subsidies
Mailings from nonprofits and publications without
advertising should benefit from a lower-cost
mailing distribution policy.
Communication Rights
• Copyright
Copyright law and policymaking should be democratized to
encourage the free interchange of ideas in the public domain.
• Freedom of Information
Public access to information pertaining to government policy
through the Freedom of Information Act should be defended.
• Information Policy
Demanding the public's access to information is vital to
democracy, as is protecting our own privacy in this era of
constant surveillance.
• Privacy
Only direct policy can protect our individual privacy, especially
with the emergence of the Internet.
Digital Frontier
• Broadband
Efforts to democratize the Internet should involve open access to
networks to support independent voices and efforts to increase
Internet access for the underserved.
• Internet Regulation
Internet policymaking must be an open, democratic and inclusive
process.
• Spectrum
The most valuable resource of the Information age is owned by the
public—and should be used to benefit the public interest.
• Standards
The rules of the road on the Internet should favor openness and
fairness.
• Telecommunications
The increasing convergence of communication technologies must not
occur at the expense of the public.
Judicial Front
• Corporate Reform
The burden of proof should be on media
corporations to prove that their activities are not
detrimental to the public interest.
• First Amendment
Citizens' First Amendment rights must be protected,
and media ownership polices should be judged with
the First Amendment in focus.
• Legal Challenges
The courts are increasingly important in the fight for
media democracy, as legislation is increasingly
drafted by and for corporations.
Media Workers
• Diversity in Staffing
It is vital to have a minority media sector controlled and
operated by minorities themselves.
• Journalists
Journalists and journalism must be buttressed against
increasing strain from media conglomerates and other
sources.
• Labor Rights
The rights of media workers must be protected against
corporations that make decisions based on the bottom line.
• Recording Artists
The negative effects of media concentration on musicians
and other recording artists must be highlighted and
reversed.
Ownership and Control
• Antitrust and Media
Antitrust prosecution is potentially a powerful
recourse in the fight against media consolidation.
• Media Ownership
The loosening of media ownership restrictions must
be reversed.
• Minority Ownership
Accurate representation of minorities and can only
result from greater minority ownership.
• Radio Ownership
The diversity of voices and local nature of radio can
be reinvigorated through policies supporting
ownership diversity.
Politics and Media
• Campaign Finance / Political Advertising
The public can and should require broadcasters to
provide free political airtime to candidates.
• Candidate Debates
Political debates should be opened up to allow
access to those outside the two dominant political
parties.
• Lobbying & Regulatory Reform
Reform of campaign finance structures and the
powerful media lobby will encourage more open
and public debate.
Nonprofit Broadcasting
• Community Broadcasting
Support for programming by and for local
communities is essential.
• Public Broadcasting
Only when supported with sufficient and insulated
funding will public broadcasting be able to genuinely
serve the public interest.
• State-based Initiatives
Some states have taken their own initiatives to
broaden what is offered on public broadcasting.
Citizens for Media Literacy
www.main.nc.us/cml
• Media Literacy
• Commercialism in Schools
• Public Access
The Media Arts Project
www.themap.org
• Digital Standards
• Copyright
• Recording Artists
URTV
www.urtv.org
• Public Access TV
for Asheville/Buncombe County