|
May 29, 2002
Bill Christison
Disastrous US Foreign Policy:
Part 2, Globalization
May 28, 2002
Michael Leon
Lincoln
Brigades Memorial
Scott Lucas
Christopher Hitchens:
No Longer an Authentic
Voice of Dissent
Nelson P. Valdes
Castro,
Bioterrorism and
the State Department
Harvey Wasserman
What Does the White House Know
About Atomic Terror?
Norman Madarasz
France,
Brazil, the Politics
of the World Cup
May 27, 2002
Dave Marsh
Why I Voted for Nader:
Ticketmaster's Stranglehold
on Music and Politics
Robert Fisk
The Coming
Firestorm:
Bush's Crazed Remarks
May 26, 2002
Alexander Cockburn
Diary of a Northwest Trip:
Why Reds Live Longer
May 25, 2002
Chris Floyd
General
Principles:
Unmasking Colin Powell
Gavin Keeney
All Politics is Local? The Unbearable
Lightness of NGO's
Jeffrey St. Clair
A Hero
of Our Time:
Stephen Jay Gould
May 24, 2002
Edward Hammond
Documents Prove Pentagon Violated
Bioweapons Act
Mark Weisbrot
Bush
Administration Scandals:
Beginning of the End?
Feingold / Corzine
Halt Executions Nationwide
Bill Christison
Former
CIA Analyst:
Big Changes Needed in
US Intelligence Agencies
May 23, 2002
Dean Baker
Attack of the Clowns:
The Real Bush is Back
Susan Abulhawa
Israel
and South Africa:
Apartheid's Accidental Prophecy
Uri Avnery
Sharon the Great Reformer?
Behzad Yaghmaian
Travails
of a Middle Eastern Migrant: Accosted at the Border
May 22, 2002
Brian J. Foley
Dick Cheney's Obscenity
Gavin Keeney
Bete Noire
Enron & the Great Game
Fran Shor
Follow the Money
Bush, bin Laden & Carlyle
May 21, 2002
George Monbiot
Riddle
of the Spores:
The FBI and Anthrax
Yulie Khromchenko
Displaced Reality:
Impressions from Jenin
Bernard Weiner
Kenny
Boy to Bush:
"Welcome to the Club"
Ron Jacobs
Confusing the Face
of the Enemy
Gary Leupp
"War
on Terrorism" in Yemen
May 20, 2002
Rep. Ron Paul
Say No to Military Draft
Dave Marsh
Music Monopolies
Jordy Cummings
Israel, Jews and the Left
Francis Boyle
In Defense
of a Divestment
Campaign Against Israel
Christian Salmon
The Bulldozer War
Edward Said
Crisis for
American Jews
May 19, 2002
Philip Farruggio
Where's Twain's Protector Government
Now?
Norman Madarasz
Canada,
NAFTA and Kyoto
May 18, 2002
M.G. Piety
Economic Fiction:
From Here to Annuity?
Michael Colby
Bush Fiddled
While
New York Burned
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published March 15, 2002
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
|
May
30, 2002
Journalism Should Never Yield
to 'Patriotism'
by Robert Jensen
'Are you an
American first, or are you a journalist?"
Unfortunately that question--posed to
a journalists' meeting in Salt Lake City in April by distinguished
newsman Bill Kovach--is necessary after Sept. 11, as the few
who dared critique the rush to war were attacked for being
insufficiently patriotic. Too many journalists responded to
the post-9/11 hyper-nationalism by waving the flag, literally
and figuratively.
Even Dan Rather, perhaps the most vocal
journalistic patriot after the tragedy, has had second thoughts,
confiding in a BBC interview May 16 that "patriotism
run amok" has led to self-censorship by journalists, himself
included.
Kovach's challenge and Rather's confession
are compelling, but unfortunately formulated in a way that diverts
journalists and citizens from a more crucial question: Are
you an American first, or are you a human being? That's the
question for everyone after Sept. 11.
The answer depends on the meaning of
patriotism. Two definitions competed after the terrorist attacks.
One was the patriotism of President George W. Bush: "You
are with us, or you are with the terrorists," meaning "get
on board with plans for war, or ..." Or what? The implication
was that real Americans rally around their government and traitors
raise critical questions.
This poses an obvious problem for journalists,
who get paid to raise questions. But for anyone--journalist
or not-- such a crude patriotism abandons moral responsibility.
What if a war violates international law or is prosecuted using
immoral tactics? Nations--including ours--are not benevolent
institutions, and U.S. history is replete with inhumane acts.
If patriotism requires we support such acts, then patriotism
becomes inhumane.
An alternative, kinder-and-gentler patriotism
is offered by others, especially war opponents: patriotism not
as reflexive support for a policy or leader, but allegiance
to American ideals of freedom and democracy.
Freedom and democracy certainly deserve
our allegiance. But what makes them uniquely American? Is there
something about the United States that make us better able to
achieve freedom and democracy than, say, Canadians or Indians
or Brazilians? Are not people around the world--including those
who live in countries that do not guarantee freedom-- capable
of understanding and acting on those ideals?
If the justification of this notion of
patriotism is that these values are realized to their fullest
extent in the United States, then there will be questions from
the people of Guatemala and Iran, Nicaragua and Vietnam, East
Timor and Panama. Victims of U.S. aggression--direct and indirect--
might wonder why our political culture, the highest expression
of the ideals of freedom and democracy, overthrows democratically
elected governments, supports brutal dictators, funds and trains
proxy terrorist armies, and unleashes brutal attacks on civilians
in war.
Before claiming America is the fulfillment
of history, the ultimate expression of liberty and justice,
we might think a bit about our history--the near extermination
of Indians, for instance.
At its worst, patriotism can lead people
to support brutal policies. At its best, it is self-indulgently
arrogant in its assumptions about our uniqueness. But rejecting
patriotism isn't moral relativism. We should not be afraid
to judge systems and societies, using principles we can articulate
and defend--so long as they truly are principles, applied honestly
and uniformly, including to ourselves.
And we should maintain a bit of humility.
Instead of claiming, "America is the greatest nation on
Earth," we might say, "I live in the United States
and have deep emotional ties to its people, land and ideals,
and I want to highlight the many positive things while working
to change what is wrong."
We can say that without suggesting other
people are less capable of understanding democracy or defending
freedom. We can believe that and encourage spirited debate about
policy.
In such a world, the question by Kovach,
chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, would be
irrelevant; there would be no conflict between being an American
and a journalist. Journalists would simply pursue professionally--
with the extra time, training and resources they have--what
everyone would pursue privately: questioning those in power
and challenging ourselves.
Everyone, including journalists, needs
to ask: Can we move beyond being American?
Given the destructive capacity of the
United States--and our history of using it in the interests
of power, not people--never before has our answer been more
important.
Robert Jensen
is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin,
a member of the Nowar Collective, and author of the book Writing
Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream.
His pamphlet, "Citizens of the
Empire," is available at http://www.nowarcollective.com/citizensoftheempire.pdf.
Other writings are available online at
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/freelance.htm.
He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
|