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A
WEEKLY LOOK AT THE US MEDIA BY NORMAN SOLOMON, THE NATION'S TOP MEDIA
CRITIC
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NEW
– December 22, 2003
Announcing the P.U.-litzer Prizes for 2003
The
P.U.-litzer Prizes were established more than a decade ago to give recognition
to the stinkiest media performances of the year. As usual, I have conferred
with Jeff Cohen, founder of the media watch group FAIR, to sift through
the large volume of entries. In view of the many deserving competitors,
we regret that only a few can win a P.U.-litzer.
And now, the twelfth annual P.U.-litzer Prizes, for the foulest media
performances of 2003.
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NEW
– December 14, 2003
Prosecuted: For telling the truth
Few
Americans have heard of Katharine Gun, a former British intelligence
employee facing charges that she violated the Official Secrets Act.
So far, the American press has ignored her. But the case raises profound
questions about democracy and the public’s right to know on both
sides of the Atlantic. Ms. Gun’s legal peril began in Britain on
March 2, when the Observer newspaper exposed a highly secret memorandum
by a top U.S. National Security Agency official. Dated Jan. 31, the
memo outlined surveillance of a half-dozen delegations with swing votes
on the U.N. Security Council, noting a focus on “the whole gamut
of information that could give U.S. policy-makers an edge in obtaining
results favorable to U.S. goals” – support for war on Iraq.
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NEW
– December 11, 2003
Breakthrough and peril for the Green Party
Up
against the campaign of a wealthy businessmanwho outspent him nearly
10-to-1, a strong progressive candidate nearly won the runoff election
last Tuesday to become San Francisco’s mayor. Some national news
stories depicted the strong showing for Matt Gonzalez as a big surprise.
But it shouldn’t perplex anyone when vigorous grassroots organizing
combines with a sound strategy to get breakthrough results.
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here to download (36kb)
December
4, 2003
Howard Dean faces the corporate media machine
Howard
Dean is asking for media trouble. On Dec. 1, the frontrunner for the
Democratic presidential nomination went where few national politicians
have dared to go — directly challenging the media conglomerates.
Don’t get me wrong. Dean’s record in Vermont hardly reflects
an inclination to take on corporate power. His obsession with balancing
budgets and coddling big business often led him to comfort the already
comfortable and afflict the afflicted. Low-income people suffered the
consequences of inadequate social services.
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here to download (36kb)
November
20, 2003
Linking Iraq occupation with the ‘War on Terrorism’
Reuters
is one of the more independent wire services. So, a recent news story
from Reuters — flatly describing American military activities in
Iraq as part of “the broader U.S. war on terrorism” —
is a barometer of how powerfully the pressure systems of rhetoric from
top U.S. officials have swayed mainstream news coverage. Such reporting,
with the matter-of-fact message that the Pentagon is fighting a “war
on terrorism” in Iraq, amounts to a big journalistic gift for the
Bush administration, which is determined to spin its way past the obvious
downsides of the occupation..
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November
13, 2003
Media clash in Brazil: A distant mirror
After
a quarter-century of intensive grassroots organizing and a victorious
presidential campaign a year ago, Brazilian social movements are in
a strong position as they push the left-wing Workers Party government
to fulfill its promises. The contrast to Washington’s current political
climate is as diametrical as the opposite seasons of the two countries.
Yet Brazilian activists are now giving heightened priority to the same
concern that preoccupies an increasing number of people in the United
States — the imperative of challenging the corporate media.
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here to download (36kb)
November
4, 2003
The Iraq trap: Watch out what you ask for
Media
outlets are filled with bad news about Iraq. A theme is emerging: This
administration doesn’t know how to run an occupation. Those who
oppose President Bush may welcome the recent shift in the media climate.
But when war-makers get frustrated, they’re inclined to heighten
the violence. And some critics of the occupation’s management are
reinforcing assumptions that lead to more bloodshed. The New York Times
Magazine started off November with a long essay by David Rieff lamenting
that “the United States is playing catch-up in Iraq.” Rieff
declared “the mess that is postwar Iraq is a failure of planning
and implementation.” His piece epitomizes what’s wrong with
so much of the media’s criticism of the occupation.
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November
2, 2003
The steady theft of our time
One
of the worst things about today’s ultramodern systems of communication
is hiding in plain sight: They waste our time. Sure, gizmos like computers
and cell phones and pagers can be real time-savers. But what’s
less obvious is the great extent to which high tech keeps us waiting.
Whether you’re rich, poor or somewhere in between, time probably
seems to be in short supply. And when intrusions keep draining away
precious moments, you probably feel some combination of annoyance, frustration
and anger.
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October
31, 2003
The politics of media filtration
Now,
after all the national media have done for George W. Bush, the guy’s
complaining. “There’s a sense that people in America aren’t
getting the truth,” he says. What an ingrate! “I’m mindful
of the filter through which some news travels,” the president groused
recently, “and sometimes you have to go over the heads of the filter
and speak directly to the people.”
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October
16, 2003
Brand loyalty and the absence of remorse
Midway
through this month, a Wall Street Journal headline captured the flimflam
spirit that infuses so much of what passes for mass communications these
days: “Despite Slump, Students Flock to Ad Schools.”
Many young people can recognize a growth industry, and the business
of large-scale deception is booming. But if Madison Avenue makes us
think of subliminal twists and brazen lies, then Pennsylvania Avenue
should bring to mind a similar process of creating and perpetuating
brand loyalty.
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October
9, 2003
Media tips for the next recall
Now
that California’s electorate has rewarded a dramatic recall effort,
some sequels are likely elsewhere in the near future. It’s a good
bet that political operatives in many states will try to learn from
this fall’s Golden State extravaganza.
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here to download (36kb)
October
2, 2003
Unmasking the ugly ‘anti-American’
Strong
critics of U.S. foreign policy often encounter charges of “anti-Americanism.”
Even though vast numbers of people in the United States disagree with
Washington’s assumptions and military actions, some pundits can’t
resist grabbing onto a timeworn handle of pseudo-patriotic demagoguery.
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September
25, 2003
Wesley & Me: A real-life docudrama
Here’s
the real-life plot: A famous documentary filmmaker puts out a letter
to a retired four-star general urging him to run for president. The
essay quickly zooms through cyberspace and causes a big stir. For Michael
Moore, the reaction is gratifying. Three days later, he thanks readers
“for the astounding response to the Wesley Clark letter” and
“for your kind comments to me.” But some of the reactions
are more apoplectic than kind.
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September
18, 2003
The get-rich con: Are media values better now?
Presidential
candidates have become fond of asking whether Americans are better off
now than they were four years ago. Looking back at a sensational Time
magazine story that appeared in late September 1999, we might want to
ask a similar question: “Are media values better than they were
four years ago?”
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September
11, 2003
Triumph of the media mill
The
Bush administration never hesitated to exploit the general public’s
anxieties that arose after the traumatic events of September 11, 2001.
Testifying on Capitol Hill exactly 53 weeks later, Donald Rumsfeld did
not miss a beat when a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee
questioned the need for the United States to attack Iraq. Senator Mark
Dayton: “What is it compelling us now to make a precipitous decision
and take precipitous actions?” Defense Secretary Rumsfeld: “What’s
different? What’s different is 3,000 people were killed.”
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September
8, 2003
The political capital of 9/11
The
Bush administration never hesitated to exploit the general public’s
anxieties that arose after the traumatic events of September 11, 2001.
Testifying on Capitol Hill exactly 53 weeks later, Donald Rumsfeld did
not miss a beat when a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee
questioned the need for the United States to attack Iraq. Senator Mark
Dayton: “What is it compelling us now to make a precipitous decision
and take precipitous actions?” Defense Secretary Rumsfeld: “What’s
different? What’s different is 3,000 people were killed.”
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September
6, 2003
The
quagmire of denouncing a ‘quagmire’
When
I hear pundits warn that Iraq is becoming a “quagmire,” I
wince. “Quagmire” is a word made famous during the Vietnam
War. The current conflict in Iraq comes out of a very different history,
but there are some chilling parallels. One of them has scarcely been
mentioned: These days, the editorial positions of major U.S. newspapers
have an echo like a dirge.
Of course, the nation’s mainstream press does not speak with a
monolithic editorial voice. At one end of the limited spectrum, the
strident and influential Wall Street Journal cannot abide any doubts.
Its editorials explain, tirelessly, that the war was Good and the occupation
is Good – and those who doubt are fools and knaves. (LBJ called
such dissenters “Nervous Nellies.”
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August
27, 2003
How
fair and balanced are the 10 Commandments?
A
national media spotlight has focused on the battle between the Constitution
of the United States and some religious fundamentalists who viewed themselves
as angels of Montgomery. The removal of a big Ten Commandments monument
from an Alabama courthouse on Wednesday was good news for people who
prefer democracy to theocracy.
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August
15, 2003
News
flash: This is not a ‘silly season
Contrary
to media cliches about “the silly season,” this is a time
of very serious – and probably catastrophic – political maneuvers.
From California to the U.N. building in New York City to the sweltering
heat of Iraq, the deadly consequences of entrenched power are anything
but humorous.
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August
7, 2003
To
err is human, to truly correct is divine
For
America’s newspapers, the New York Times is a pacesetter. And this
summer, with the Times expanding its daily “Corrections” slot
on page two, some other papers seem open to more rigor in setting the
record straight. This is commendable. But the limitations of the genre
leave much to be desired.
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August
5, 2003 (from Newsday)
U.S.
media are too soft on the White House
This
summer, many journalists seem to be in hot pursuit of the Bush administration.
But they have an enormous amount of ground to cover. After routinely
lagging behind and detouring around key information, major American
news outlets are now playing catch-up.
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here to download (36kb)
July
31, 2003
The
gang that couldn’t talk straight
We’re
living in an era when news coverage often involves plenty of absurdity.
That’s the case with routine U.S. media spin about the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. So, on the July 29 edition of NPR’s “All Things
Considered” program, host Robert Siegel and correspondent Vicky
O’Hara each recited scripts referring to a “security barrier”
that Israel’s government is building in the West Bank. The next
day, many news outlets – including the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore
Sun, New York Times, Chicago Tribune and The Associated Press –
also used the “security barrier” phrase without quotation
marks, treating it as an objective description rather than the Israeli
government’s preferred characterization.
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July
25, 2003
Green
Party takes the plunge for 2004
For
the 2004 presidential race, the Green dye is cast. “The Green Party
emerged from a national meeting ... increasingly certain that it will
run a presidential candidate in next year’s election, all but settling
a debate within the group over how it should approach the 2004 contest,”
the Washington Post reported on July 21. The Green Party promptly put
out a news release declaring that Greens “affirmed the party’s
intention to run candidates for president and vice president of the
United States in 2004.”
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here to download (36kb)
July
16, 2003
Bush’s
war boosters: No time to voice regrets
The
superstar columnist George Will has an impressive vocabulary. Too bad
it doesn’t include the words “I’m sorry.”Ten months
ago, Will led the media charge when a member of Congress dared to say
that President Bush would try to deceive the public about Iraq. By now,
of course, strong evidence has piled up that Bush tried and succeeded.
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here to download (36kb)
July
9, 2003
Summertime,
and the politics of money is easy
While
President Bush’s re-election campaign accumulates an unprecedented
pile of dollars, the country’s news media are deep in a rut of
reporting about the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
With the next national Election Day scarcely 15 months away, most signs
point to a new triumph for the politics of money.
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here to download (36kb)
July
3, 2003
Visual
images and how we see the world
Media
critics often say that visual images trump words. The claim makes some
sense: Pictures have major impacts on how we see the world. And we’re
apt to pay less attention to photo captions or the voice-overs that
accompany news footage on TV screens.
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here to download (36kb)
June
26, 2003
Tilting
Democrats in the presidential race
The
corporate Democrats who greased Bill Clinton’s path to the White
House are now a bit worried. Their influence on the party’s presidential
nomination process has slipped. But the Democratic Leadership Council
can count on plenty of assistance from mainstream news media.
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June
19, 2003
The
media politics of impeachment
Early
summer has brought a flurry of public discussion about a topic previously
confined to political margins – the possibility of impeaching President
George W. Bush. The idea is still far from the national media echo chamber,
but some rumblings are now audible as people begin to think about the
almost unthinkable.
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June
12, 2003
Britain:
Not quite a parallel media universe
LONDON
— The people of Britain and the United States are living in parallel,
yet substantively different, media universes. Bonds of language and
overlaps of mass culture are obvious. But a visit to London quickly
illuminates the reality that mainstream journalism is much less narrow
here than in America.
One indicator of a robust press: Nearly a dozen ideologically diverse
national daily papers are competing on British newsstands.
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June
8, 2003
Trust,
war and terrorism
In
a democracy, leaders must earn and retain the public’s trust. No
matter how loudly those leaders proclaim their dedication to fighting
terrorism, we must not flinch from examining whether they are trustworthy.
On March 17, 2003, in a major address to the American people, President
George W. Bush declared: “Intelligence gathered by this and other
governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess
and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.” On April
10, in a televised message to the people of Iraq, Prime Minister Tony
Blair said: “We did not want this war. But in refusing to give
up his weapons of mass destruction, Saddam gave us no choice but to
act.”
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June
2, 2003
Spam
- just another brick in the wall . . .
By
now, millions of Americans are sick and tired of the spam that’s
flooding their in-boxes with unwanted e-mail messages – mostly
offering products, services and scams that tell of big bargains, implausible
windfalls, garish porno and dumb scenarios for bodily enhancements.
In 2003, we’re routinely slogging through large amounts of junk
e-mail. These are aggressive advertisements that won’t quit. They’re
doing a lot to pollute the Internet environment.
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here to download (36kb)
May
29, 2003
Many
a jest is spoken as truth
National
Public Radio deserves credit for finally airing a candid summary of
how media spin works at the top of the Executive Branch.
In late May, listeners across the country heard: “Ari Fleischer,
the White House spokesperson, announced that he would be leaving his
post sometime this summer. When asked why, Mr. Fleischer denied he would
be leaving his post. When reminded that he had just said he was leaving
his post, he denied that he had. Then he shouted, ‘Look over there!
It’s Dick Cheney eating lasagna!’ and ducked out of the room.”
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May
22, 2003
Decoding
the media fixation on terrorism
By
now, it’s a media ritual. Whenever the U.S. government raises the
alert level for terrorism – as when officials announced the orange
code for “high risk” on May 20 – local, regional and
national news stories assess the dangers and report on what’s being
done to protect us. We’re kept well-informed about how worried
to be at any particular time. But all that media churning includes remarkably
little that has any practical utility.
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here to download (36kb)
May
16, 2003
Why
the FCC’s rules are important
Media
outlets are the lifeblood of the body politic. Extensive circulation
of ideas, information, analysis and debate must exist – not just
once in a while, but all the time – or the consequences are severe,
even catastrophic. You can gauge our society’s political and social
health by checking somevital media signs: Scrutinize the programming
of stations that fall under the purview of the Federal Communications
Commission. Watch a few dozen TV channels. Listen to all the radio stations
on the AM and FM bands. If the dominant content doesn’t make you
feel sick, then you’re probably not paying close attention.
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May
8, 2003
Introspective
media not in the cards
A
new poll tells us that – by a two-to-one margin – Americans
“use clearly positive words in their descriptions of the president.”
The Pew Research Center, releasing a nationwide survey on May 7, declared
“there is little doubt ... that the war in Iraq has improved the
president’s image” in the United States. Such assessments
stand in sharp contrast to views of George W. Bush overseas. In mid-March,
the Pew center put out survey results showing that “U.S. favorability
ratings have plummeted in the past six months” – not only
in “countries actively opposing war” but also in “countries
that are part of the ‘coalition of the willing.’
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May
1, 2003
A
different approach for the 2004 campaign
Eighteen
months from now, US citizens will vote for president. If the 2004 campaign
is anything like the last one, the election returns will mark the culmination
of a depressing media spectacle. For news watchers, the candidates and
the coverage can be hard to take. Appearances on television are apt
to become tedious, nauseating or worse. Campaign ads often push the
limits of slick pandering. Journalists routinely seem fixated on “horseracing”
the contest instead of reporting about the huge financial interests
that candidates have served.
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24
April 2003
Media nix – Blix, Kucinich, and the Dixie Chicks
Hans
Blix, Dennis Kucinich and the Dixie Chicks are in very different lines
of work – but they’re in the same line of fire from big media
for the sin of strongly challenging the president’s war agenda.
Let’s start with Blix, who can get respectful coverage in American
media – unless he’s criticizing the U.S. government. Belatedly,
in mid-April, he went public with accusations that the Bush administration
faked evidence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. And Blix declared
that the United Nations – not the U.S. government – should
deploy arms inspectors in Iraq now.
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here to download (36kb)
15
April 2003
Mark Twain speaks: “I’m an anti-imperialist”
With
U.S. troops occupying Iraq and the Bush administration making bellicose
noises about Syria, let's consider some rarely mentioned words from
the most revered writer in American history. Mark Twain was painfully
aware of many people's inclinations to go along with prevailing evils.
When slavery was lawful, he recalled, abolitionists were "despised
and ostracized, and insulted" – by "patriots." As
far as Twain was concerned, "Loyalty to petrified opinion never
yet broke a chain or freed a human soul."
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10
April 2003
A lethal way to ‘dispatch’ the news
In
times of war, journalists can serve as vital witnesses for the people
of the world. So it's especially sinister when governments take aim
at reporters and photographers. A few weeks ago, when I was talking
with a CNN cameraman, he recalled an overseas stint to cover events
in the West Bank. Anger was evident in his voice: "The Israelis
were shooting at us." When military forces are assaulting civilians,
commanders often try to prevent media from telling true stories with
pictures and words. Governments that maim and kill civilians are routinely
eager to stop journalists from getting too close to the action. Those
who persist are vulnerable to retribution.
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4
April 2003
The thick fog of war on American television
Minutes
after the dawn spread daylight across the Iraqi desert, “embedded”
CNN correspondent Walter Rodgers was on the air with a live report.
Another employee at the network, former U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark —
on the job in a TV studio back home — asked his colleague a question.
When Rodgers responded, he addressed Clark as “general” and
“sir.” The only thing missing was a salute. That deferential
tone pretty much sums up the overall relationship between American journalists
and the U.S. military on major TV networks. Correspondents in the field
have bonded with troops to the point that their language and enunciated
outlooks are often indistinguishable.
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27
MARCH 2003
Obsessed with tactics and technology
Two
months ago, when I wandered through a large market near the center of
Baghdad, the day seemed like any other and no other. A vibrant pulse
of humanity throbbed in the shops and on the streets. Meanwhile, a fuse
was burning; lit in Washington, it would explode here. Now, with American
troops near Baghdad, the media fixations are largely tactical. “A
week of airstrikes, including the most concentrated precision hits in
U.S. military history, has left tons of rubble and deep craters at hundreds
of government buildings and military facilities around Iraq but has
yielded little sign of a weakening in the regime’s will to resist,”
the Washington Post reported on March 26.
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20
MARCH 2003
Casuaties of war: First truth, then conscience
The national media echo chamber is
not receptive to conscience. On television, the voices are usually loud
and facile. People often seem to be shouting. In contrast, the human
conscience is close to a whisper. Easily unheard. Now, the biggest media
outlets are in a frenzy. The networks are at war. Every cable news channel
has enlisted. At the bottom of FM radio dials, NPR has been morphing
into National Pentagon Radio.
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14
MARCH 2003
Conventional media wisdom: obedience
As the possibility of a U.S. invasion
turns into the reality of massive carnage, the war on Iraq cannot avoid
confronting Americans with a tacit expectation that rarely gets media
scrutiny. In a word: obedience. When a country — particularly “a
democracy” — goes to war, the passive consent of the governed
lubricates the machinery of slaughter.
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6
MARCH 2003
American media dodges U.N. surveillance story
Three days after a British newspaper revealed a memo about
U.S. spying on U.N. Security Council delegations, I asked Daniel Ellsberg
to assess the importance of the story. “This leak,” he replied,
“is more timely and potentially more important than the Pentagon
Papers.”
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here to download (36kb)
27
FEBRUARY 2003
Follow-up needed after Iraqi weapons story
You gotta hand it to America’s mass media: When war
hangs in the balance, they sure know how to bury a story. After devoting
thousands of network hours and oceans of ink to stories about “weapons
of mass destruction” in Iraq, major U.S. news outlets did little
but yawn in the days after the latest Newsweek published an exclusive
report on the subject — a piece headlined “The Defector’s
Secrets.”
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21
FEBRUARY 2003
'Globalization' and its malcontents
News outlets have reported that key international pacts like
NAFTA and the World Trade Organization gained U.S. approval during the
1990s because most politicians in Washington favor “globalization.”
According to conventional media wisdom, those globalizers want to promote
unfettered communication and joint endeavors across national boundaries.
Well, not quite. These days, at the White House and on Capitol Hill,
the same boosters of “globalization” are upset about certain
types of global action — such as the current grassroots movement
against a war on Iraq.
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14
FEBRUARY 2003
The ace up Bush's sleeve – the terrorism card
These days, it’s a crucial ace up Uncle Sam’s sleeve.
“Terrorism” is George W. Bush’s magic card. For 17 months
now, the word has worked like a political charm for the Bush administration.
Ever since the terrible crime against humanity known as 9/11, the White
House has exploited the specter of terrorism to move the GOP’s
doctrinaire agenda. Boosting the military budget, cutting social programs
and shredding civil liberties are well underway.
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08
FEBRUARY 2003
Colin Powell is flawless - inside a media bubble
There’s no doubt about it: Colin Powell is a great performer,
as he showed yet again at the U.N. Security Council the other day. On
television, he exudes confidence and authoritative judgment. But Powell
owes much of his touted credibility to the fact that he’s functioning
inside a media bubble that protects him from direct challenge. Powell
doesn’t face basic questions.
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01
FEBRUARY 2003
Waiting for the missiles in Baghdad
Picture yourself as an American reporter here in Baghdad,
the Iraqi capital. You’re based in one of the fraying rooms at
the Al Rashid, the large hotel where most Western journalists stay.
Fear is in the air. And a sense of doom has fallen over the city like
a smothering blanket. Day by day, as the probability of war nears certainty,
you realize that you’re getting a small taste of the insecurity
that Iraqi people have been facing for a long time.
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24
JANUARY 2003
Memo to Washington: When war is a rush
OK, let’s review the main points. A basic PR problem
remains. While you’re in a hurry to launch an all-out war on Iraq,
the main obstacle is that a large majority of Americans don’t feel
the rush. Uncle Sam’s usual carrots and sticks have a long way
to go at the U.N. Security Council. The big disappointment of January
is that some key allies haven’t caved yet.
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17
JANUARY 2003
Mixed messages call for healthy skepticism
A special issue
of Time, the nation’s biggest newsmagazine, was filled with health
information in mid-January, offering plenty of encouragement under the
rubric of medical science with an ethereal twist: “How Your Mind
Can Heal Your Body.” But more than altruism is at work here. .
. .
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10 JANUARY 2003
NOT ALL WHITE HOUSE REPORTERS ARE PUSHOVERS
The latest in a
long line of presidential spinners, Ari Fleischer, began a news conference
on Jan. 6 with a nice greeting: "Good afternoon and happy New Year
to everybody." But his bonhomie didn't last more than a minute .
. . .
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03
JANUARY 2003
ANNOUNCING THE P.U.-LITZER PRIZES FOR 2002
For more
than a decade now, the P.U.-litzer Prizes have gone to some of America's
stinkiest media performances each year. The competition was fierce as
ever in 2002. Many journalistic pieces of work deserved recognition.
Only a few could be chosen.
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ABOUT
THE AUTHOR –
“The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media,” the latest collection
of his Media Beat columns won Norman Solomon the George Orwell Award
for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language.
The award, presented by the USA’s National Council of Teachers
of English, went to Solomon’s ninth book. In the introduction to
that book, Jonathan Kozol wrote: “The tradition of Upton Sinclair,
Lincoln Steffens, and I.F. Stone does not get much attention these days
in the mainstream press . . . but that tradition is alive and well in
this collection of courageously irreverent columns on the media by Norman
Solomon . . . He fights the good fight without fear of consequence.
He courts no favors. He writes responsibly and is meticulous on details,
but he does not choke on false civility.”
“Target
Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You” by
Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich, was published in late January by Context
Books. For an excerpt and other information, go to:
http://www.contextbooks.com/newF.html
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