That seems to be the function assigned to our Press and Media by the powers that be, and I am sure those powers are delighted at the alacrity with which the media perform their tasks.This thought came to mind when I saw Mr.Russert question Senator Obama on what he thought of Mr.Belafonte’s remarks about President Bush.In a week when the prevailing questions were about the extent to which Mr.Bush had conducted illegal surveillance of Americans using the resources of the NSA and how closely he was linked to Mr.Abramoff, a “pioneer” in his fundraising efforts,the very act of digressing from those important issues told me the role Mr.Russert had been assigned from his bully pulpit.And, I should add, Mr.Russert performed his tasks with commendable skill.
I was also impressed by the way Mr.Obama distanced himself from Mr.Belafonte’s characterization of Mr.Bush as “terrorist” because of the illegal war he is conducting on Iraqi civilians.That act of distancing oneself also has a noble precedent in American politics.Mr.Clinton, during his sojourn in Oxford, stayed away from the demonstrations against the War in Vietnam because, he said, “he wanted to preserve his political viability within the system”. I am sure Mr.Obama was doing the same.
When you have so many politicians and journalists eager to do what is expected of them by the powerful we are transported, as it were, from the world of coercion envisioned by George Orwell to the Brave New World of Aldous Huxley where the citizens seek the comforts of the totalitarian state and are lost if they are taken away.
In seeking an answer to why we have arrived at such a degraded state in our society, I think the foundations were laid by a man called Walter Lippman, who realized that our ruling class needed gatekeepers who could channel the thoughts of the rabble into “acceptable” idioms.Lippman’s contributions, now legendary, involved classifying any thoughts or ideas unacceptable to the ruling class as beyond the pale and not worthy of discussion in polite circles. Thus he originated a caste system in ideas and the mandarins who serviced the ruling class were amply rewarded by recognition, power and fame.Thus were born people like James Reston, C.L.Sulzberger, the Alsop Brothers and their clones, big and small, performing sundry services, either to discredit a dangerous idea or to cast the rulers in a noble light.
In going about doing these tasks, it is a given that all our intentions towards other peoples of the world are cast as noble even though we may bomb the smithereens out of those people.Thus, it was possible for Reston to claim that the bombing of North Vietnam was to force them to come to the negotiating table to discuss their surrender to the U.S. The word “Aggression” never emerged from his pen when describing that illegal war.Once Reston gave his imprimatur to the nobility of our intentions it was a signal to the other assorted courtiers to be off to the races in demonizing a country that never committed any aggression against the U.S.
In order for these mandarins to perform at the court of the Imperial Presidency, the first requirement for the wannabes to learn was to ignore the obvious ( as Alex Cockburn has said).This may include saying that Mr.Bush is unfit to govern because of any qualifications, his known alcoholism and drug abuse,his avoidance of service in a war he supported and his contempt for self made men who may not meet his requirements of wealth and power.It may also include saying that he lied to get us into a War.Those statements, by instinct, are verboten to the Reston Wannabes like Woodward,Krauthammer, Will etc.So they bob and weave their way through the minefield of truth afraid of setting off alarm bells in the minds of citizen readers who may get ideas that they now have an imbecile President who couldn’t make the grade to a dogcatcher of Crawford, Texas.
What started out as an exercise in Walter Lippman’s days has now metastasized as a full blown disease among the media in our country, who ignore the shortcomings of the rulers and set standards for citizens to conform to. By ruling out certain subjects, the media even define the perimeters of thought.It is not possible, for instance, to ask the question in our TV land whether Mr.Cheney gave the direct orders to discredit Ms.Plame after her husband’s article or to say whether Mr.Rumsfeld authorized the torture of prisoners. Those are taboo subjects that Sally Quinn’s sensitive ears cannot stand to pick up.
When the NYT says a
“All the News Fit to Print” they mean ,as determined by
Rove and Bill Keller.That is certainly obvious to me, but I am sure it is not to those exalted men.