Blog PostsBaffled Leftist Journalists
By Peter Ward at Mar 31, 2009 |
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Laura Flanders announces today she can't "make sense" of among other things Israel's construction of a separation wall but suggests it might have something to do with Israeli "self-righteousness". I've pointed this tendency before re: Doug Henwood's dazzled reaction to the recent economic meltdown. What I can't makes sense of is how professional leftists can be so dumb. Israel has declared its intention to take land currently occupied by the Palestinians and building the wall facilitates this by creating a de facto border and in other ways.
I think in fact the perplexity is phony. That Flanders like Henwood is a bet-hedger. Expressing just enough populist concern to keep an audience but calculating not to say anything seriously offensive to the powers that be. And I think it's worth drawing attention to this hedging both because it does some harm in perpetuating confusion and because these are people we can put to good use if we get them sincerely on our side.
By the way, the argument that professional journalists have to make these sort of compromises to be able to print any thing at all leaves me cold. At present, at least apropos highly impolite truths such as US-Israeli's crimes against humanity, the position they take is useless. They stand well behind the courageous activists who are the reason we pay attention to these issues at all. If journalists aren't the first to expose these injustices so the world can react they aren't doing their job and either they better shape up or find a new one.
By Shapiro, Tali at Mar 31, 2009 18:38 PM
I disagree, Peter. Journalists are human beings- they can be stupid, misinformed, or corporate puppets. Realistically speaking, the majority of journalists don’t have to conform to anything, they are originally employed because they have not one original thought in their head, and the curiosity of an overfed cat. Remarkable people are rare, why should journalism be any different in percentage than any other field? Anyone who “can’t make sense of something” (or thinks it’s “hard to keep track” WTF?!) is lacking information and is absolutely no authority on the issue. We readers should spot these amateurs and stop consuming them- maybe news companies will get the idea, when people stop paying for their sorry excuse for reporting.
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By Ward, Peter at Dec 06, 2009 12:03 PM
My point was specifically re: self-styled left journalists who are essentially self-published, such as Doug Henwood (Left Business Observer). Not journalists who write in a mainstream journals such as the New York Times.
In some cases you have Christopher Hitchens types, who are purely cynical and when confronted simply drop the pretense. But their are others, like Flanders, who, I think, have enough decency they can be embarrassed into reporting responsibly. Since they're out there we are better of capitalizing on it.
But to a certain extent this is true of mainstream journalism. In order to remain relevant, like politicians, the media can't ignore the concerns of the public entirely. Otherwise the propaganda apparatus stops working. Therefore, minority activist journalism can effectively push mainstream outlets further to the left (within limits, of course).
Obviously, we want to eliminate the mainstream media, in its present configuration, entirely, but there are two obstacles at present --
a) most people rely, to the extent they pay attention to the news at all, on the mainstream media
b) alternative media don't have sufficient resources as this time to deal with more than a handful of problems
In the same way, our existing political arrangement is completely rotten but we are for the time being still left putting pressure on incumbent politicians to act on our behalf, against their own wishes. By putting pressure, I don't mean asking them politely, by they way.
As far as left journalists--the ones I have in mind--go, they are not dependent on the ruling establishment to exist. Therefore, to the extent they are principled individuals, there is no major obstacle to them telling the truth consistently rather than hedging for a safe bet. Sure, they may be too afraid to do that, but the same is true for leftist in general.
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