Passionate Greetings
One month ago on February 26th I had the blessing and honor of hearing Robert McChesney speak at the University of Portland. This was my first time to see this great journalist, author, professor, and American hero in person. I took three pages of notes. It was an incredible experience, and I have been wanting to make the time to do a post on this incredible man and his wisdom and work ever since.
Robert McChesney argues that the media, far from providing a bedrock for freedom and democracy, have become a significant antidemocratic force in the United States and, to varying degrees, worldwide... Rich Media, Poor Democracy (McChesney's newest book) addresses the corporate media explosion and the corresponding implosion of public life that characterizes our times. Challenging the assumption that a society drenched in commercial information "choices" is ipso facto a democratic one, McChesney argues that the major beneficiaries of the so-called Information Age are wealthy investors, advertisers, and a handful of enormous media, computer, and telecommunications corporations. This concentrated corporate control, McChesney maintains, is disastrous for any notion of participatory democracy. - http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/22qxm7kq9780252024481.html
The one thing that I want to emphasize from Robert McChesney's lecture is that "the crisis in journalism is every bit as important as the economic crisis and the crisis we face with global warming."
More from my notes:
- The entirety of journalism is at risk.
- TV news is a joke, mostly punditry, very little journalism
- Large parts of the country have no working journalists at all
- There were 1/2 the journalists in 1995 as there were in 1987
- Corporate take over slashed journalism resources
- 1990 = when sharp decline in journalism began
- News sources end up needing to rely on those in power for their information
- Corrupt politicians are the ones who gain
- Genuine democracy is absolutely dependent upon journalism
- The job of journalism is to get at problems before they explode
- This is a very rare time that we are living in today, one that comes along at best once in a century
- The way forward - our very future - is absolutely dependent upon an informed citizenry
- The job of journalism is to afflict the comfortable (those with power through investigation, exposing, highlighting truth/facts) and comfort the afflicted
- Effective journalism must have equal skepticism of all in power
- Instead we have the corporatization of reporting and all the resulting glitz and glamour of CNN and the likes, but a real lacking in true journalism
- Thus the Iraq War happened with no informed public consent
- The economy is plunged into a depression with no reporting over the preceding years and decades at to what has led us to this point
- We are uninformed about the truth of poor people and poverty; often instead those who are most victimized are scapegoated in this system which favors the wealthy
- We are uninformed about corporate welfare
- Without a viable press, we cannot have self-government; free press is a condition of a free society
- Media needs to have a range of viewpoints; no censorship; limit commercial control
- This will require public money and government involvement to make it work
- Government is American, beginning with the Founders, with the intention of government being of, by, and for the people - not the corporations
- Education, military, infrastructure, etc., etc. all happen through government support
Robert McChesney states that "radio today is a cess pool of puss." There has been a shift from working class media to an elite media funded by corporate powers whose interests are far from those of the average American or of our nation or planet. The consequence is that even when crimes are exposed of those in high places, there are no consequences. Robert McChesney clearly demonstrated that the plethora of crimes and crises which our nation finds itself immersed in today is a result of no healthy journalism. Yes, there is Amy Goodman, Bill Moyers, Howard Zinn, and others who - if you search - you can hear in-depth reporting. But this is the exception and no where close to the rule in America.
Robert McChesney states that we immediately need:
- A journalism stimulus package, to include $60 billion, spending $20 billion per year over a 3 year period
- Through this process, among other things, young people will be encouraged and supported in being involved and in being educated in journalism; there will be tax breaks for subscribing to newspapers; and public and community media will be ramped up in our country
Right now:
- Canada spends 16 times more than the U.S. on public media
- Germany spends 20 times more than the U.S. on public media
- Japan spends 43 times more than the U.S. on public media
- Britian spends 60 times more than the U.S. on public media
- Scandanavia spends 75 times more than the U.S. on public media
We need a sustainable plan! A plan in which public money is used to radically change the system. This crisis in journalism is every bit as important as climate change and pandemics. Robert McChesney ended by stressing that extraordinary times provide us with extraordinary opportunities. Let us each do our part, no matter how small, to seize the moment at hand.
Blessed be... Molly
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For those who do not know of him, Robert W. McChesney is an American professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication. His work concentrates on the history and political economy of communication, emphasizing the role media play in democratic and capitalist societies. He is the President and co-founder of Free Press, a national media reform organization. McChesney also hosts the “Media Matters”. McChesney has written or edited sixteen books. He has also written some 150 journal articles and book chapters and another 200 newspaper pieces, magazine articles and book reviews. His work has been translated into fourteen languages. Since launching his academic career in the late 1980s, McChesney has made some 500 conference presentations and visiting guest lectures as well as more than 600 radio and television appearances. He has been the subject of more than 70 published profiles and interviews. In 2001 Adbusters Magazine named him one of the “Nine Pioneers of Mental Environmentalism.”
For an interview that Amy Goodman did with Robert McChesney on 3/27/09, please go here:
Here is a summary of his work on Third World Traveler:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/McChesney/Robert_McChesney_page.html. (For more information on a host of historical to present day amazing people, please go to Third World Traveler's main page: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/.)
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As the mainstream media has become increasingly dependent on advertising revenues for support, it has become an anti-democratic force in society. ~ Robert McChesney
The enormous gap between what US leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments of the dominant political mythology. ~ Michael Parenti
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