Good Morning He-Ate-Ham!
I don't give credit. I don't take cheques. I do notice changes, and one I have noticed recently is the increase in the sophistication of the propaganda presented as news. I use the word "sophistication" with care, because it has nuances that might not stand up to scrutiny, but in this case I feel justified, and this all came to light as I discussed the popular novel "The Da Vinci Code" with my partner. The fact that I have failed to read this best-seller leads me to feel I am well-qualified to pontificate on the subject - in truth, I managed just half a page before I threw it down in disgust, reckoning that to read it would be akin to chewing bark - I'd get less out than I put in. My partner's point was that "it was still a good read". Returning to the propaganda, I can't help feeling that, somehow, the perpetrators of this thing masquerading as news have worked out the formula that enables them to turn on the "it's on the news it must be true" button, just as Dan Brown gets away with passing off fiction as fact.
Take the coverage of the Iraqi election. Was the election a good thing or a bad thing? I can't be sure, but I get the feeling that a 60% turnout in the face of death threats and ongoing violence is an indication of how much the Iraqis want to determine their own leadership. I know people who won't go to a polling station if it's raining...
So there I was, giving my partner the benefit of my unequalled clarity of thought on Dan Brown, the attempt to bring democracy to Iraq, and the waste-of-celluloid that is Fahrenheit 9/11, and she clearly did not share my views. I'm all for a bit of dissent, it sharpens the mind, but after a while I found myself manouevring around the subject like a 4X4 driver trying to find a way though a bog. I decided to give up the moral high ground and go to bed - when your voice has risen an octave or 2, time for a time-out.
But I shall revisit this question: Am I the only one (in our house, anyway) who feels that if you lace the truth with a dose of fiction, to bolster your arguments, the true parts are devalued by association? It was the same with John Pilger - he passionately believed in the things he wrote about, and he uncovered some apalling cases of inhumanity perpetrated by politically-targeted Western aid, but he believed so passionately he was blind to some of the untruths he included in his journalism. As a result, he has lost all but the most die-hard anti-corporate, anti-Western supporters. His value has totally eroded.
I don't have value - not as a journalist, anyway. The only way I can go is up (at the moment). What I can do is question the information we are presented as "fact" by those with a goal in mind. Roll on the EU referendum! Bring me your news, bring me your views, I don't want your dirty linen, we'll get to that political spinnin'.
Take the coverage of the Iraqi election. Was the election a good thing or a bad thing? I can't be sure, but I get the feeling that a 60% turnout in the face of death threats and ongoing violence is an indication of how much the Iraqis want to determine their own leadership. I know people who won't go to a polling station if it's raining...
So there I was, giving my partner the benefit of my unequalled clarity of thought on Dan Brown, the attempt to bring democracy to Iraq, and the waste-of-celluloid that is Fahrenheit 9/11, and she clearly did not share my views. I'm all for a bit of dissent, it sharpens the mind, but after a while I found myself manouevring around the subject like a 4X4 driver trying to find a way though a bog. I decided to give up the moral high ground and go to bed - when your voice has risen an octave or 2, time for a time-out.
But I shall revisit this question: Am I the only one (in our house, anyway) who feels that if you lace the truth with a dose of fiction, to bolster your arguments, the true parts are devalued by association? It was the same with John Pilger - he passionately believed in the things he wrote about, and he uncovered some apalling cases of inhumanity perpetrated by politically-targeted Western aid, but he believed so passionately he was blind to some of the untruths he included in his journalism. As a result, he has lost all but the most die-hard anti-corporate, anti-Western supporters. His value has totally eroded.
I don't have value - not as a journalist, anyway. The only way I can go is up (at the moment). What I can do is question the information we are presented as "fact" by those with a goal in mind. Roll on the EU referendum! Bring me your news, bring me your views, I don't want your dirty linen, we'll get to that political spinnin'.
posted by Jambutty at 11:57 am
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