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CounterPunch
February
24, 2003
War and the Press
Watchdogs,
Lapdogs and Sleeping Dogs
by WILL POTTER
Journalists like to think of themselves as watchdogs,
nipping at the heels of the powerful and guarding democracy.
Progressive critics see them as lapdogs for the political and
corporate elite. More often reporters are just tired old dogs
asleep on the porch.
Take a recent Sunday morning adventure
at NBC studios in Washington, D.C., where I joined a pack of
these wet dogs taking shelter from a downpour in the NBC lobby.
The NBC staff wheeled out a TV cart so reporters could watch
"Meet the Press" with Tim Russert. Russert interviewed
Richard Perle, chairman of the Defense Policy Board (a Pentagon
advisory panel charged with overseeing military preparedness),
and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio Democrat who has emerged as
one of the few strong congressional voices against war.
It's a Sunday routine: At the end of
the show, reporters gather outside the front door and beg the
guests for a few soundbite scraps.
Until then, they sprawl out on benches
in the lobby, absent-mindedly watching the interviews. This is
the state of American media, the free press: reporters and camera
crews watching an interview on television as it takes place just
down the hall. Journalists don't like the ridiculous setup, but
they don't have much choice. They have to meet the demands of
the corporate media conglomerates they work for, and to do that
they have to play the game.
Some read newspapers. One takes notes.
Another reporter talks on a cell phone to his wife. "Yeah,
they're just bickering right now No, I don't know how much longer
it will be."
They listen to Perle beat the drums of
war. It leads to a discussion of democracy. He says that it would
be good if Israel were surrounded by democracies. He says it
would be good if Iraq were a democracy.
"Democracies," Perle says to
Russert, "do not engage in aggressive wars."
The dogs awake.
"What? Is this guy smoking crack?"
one reporter nearly shouts. Everyone laughs and nods in agreement.
The reporter expressed the frustration and outrage that millions
of people around the world know, and what many journalists understand,
but almost never articulate.
As I watched the interview, I wondered
if Russert was also thinking, "What is he smoking?"
I hoped he would say, "Well, Mr. Perle, either the laundry
list of foreign aggressions in U.S. history (covert actions like
those in Guatemala in 1954, proxy aggressions like in Nicaragua
in the 1980s, and overt aggressions including Vietnam and Panama)
are make-believe, or the United States is not a democracy. Which
is it?" Russert never questioned the core of Perle's arguments:
his assumptions on democracy, power, and violence. He moved on
to the next topic. His silence spoke volumes.
The dogs go back to sleep.
The program ends. The reporters trudge
outside and assume their positions. The first to pounce was the
reporter who made the "smoking crack" comment. But
she didn't pounce. She asked a generic question nearly identical
to one Russert asked Perle. Perle gave a nearly identical answer.
The reporters asked questions they already knew the answer to,
and Perle handed them scripted answers (reporters sometimes do
this so that on their broadcasts they can use their footage instead
of a clip from a talkshow). Voila. News is made.
It's like a game with unwritten rules,
but neither party wants to admit they're playing. Journalists
are not dumb. Most of them have an idea of how the world works
and how power structures operate. They are generally informed
of world news. They have the ability to ask questions, like those
on the minds of the millions of people who took to the streets
weeks ago, yet most choose not to. They operate in a much larger
system of corporate-controlled media, and must base their decisions
on what they think is the best way to survive in that system.
Journalists who want to work for the
national bureau of a major network know they must not only ask
the right questions but also avoid asking the wrong ones. Asking
hard questions could earn a reporter a reputation as a troublemaker
(it once could earn the reporter a reputation as a "muckraker").
There are rewards in this system for complacency. There are few
rewards for critical thinking. At that moment, I couldn't handle
it. Moments earlier this reporter had seen through the lies.
I wanted to grab her and yell, "YOUR COVER IS BLOWN. I know
you aren't clueless. You know the truth, and you have no excuse
for not speaking it."
Something had to be said, so I jumped
in and asked, "Mr. Perle, you said that democracies do not
engage in aggressive wars. Could you please explain, then, how
you view this 'pre-emptive war,' against the will of the international
community and millions of people around the world?"
I think it caught the reporters more
off-guard than it did Perle. He avoided the question, and calmly
said that this is not an aggressive war because Iraq has violated
U.N. resolutions. He answered another reporter's question and
walked away.
Next came Kucinich, and the situation
repeated itself. The reporters repeated Russert's questions nearly
verbatim. They were more aggressive with Kucinich, though, and
I had trouble getting a question in. So, when Kucinich walked
away, I followed him and asked a few questions about his vision
for a Department of Peace in the federal government, which angered
the other reporters.
"Why don't you come say that over
here so we can all use it?" they yelled. Kucinich didn't
respond. "Fine," one reporter shouted, curtly. "Goodbye
to you too." We had broken the rules of the game.
The behavior of some journalists is frustrating,
but it is not enough to simply blame them for acting like lazy
dogs. Journalists work within larger institutions that constrain
them. [For more on these constraints, check out the propaganda
model presented by Ed Herman and Noam Chomsky in Manufacturing
Consent or in Herman's Myth of the Liberal Media.] They can,
and should, push against the constraints of those institutions,
but that is only a partial solution. We need media reform movements
working to change the ownership and regulation of media. [For
more on this see the work of Robert
McChesney and check out his new book with John Nichols, Our
Media, Not Theirs.]
In a media system not dominated by corporations
and money, it would be easier for journalists to do more than
beg, roll over, and have their bellies rubbed. They could refuse
to walk on a leash. They could bark, growl, and sometimes bite.
Will Potter
is an intern for a national newspaper based in Washington, D.C.
He has written for the Texas Observer, the Chicago Tribune and
the Dallas Morning News. In his spare time he pays attention
to politics and the state of American media. He can be reached
at will.potter@lycos.co.uk
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