NEWS DISSECTOR December 24, 2007
They Say This Is Christmas… A Meditation/Appeal from Yr News Dissector
"If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed." Mark Twain
Christmas Eve 2007: Do WE GO BACKWARDS OR FORWARD?
Will You Help MediaChannel.org Survive?
Some personal reflections and an appeal from
Danny Schechter, Your News Dissector
Here we are nearing year's end, the Christmas trees forever bright, O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, and the miseltoe is up and the networks are blocking out their predictable year-enders and little is right with the world.
In Iraq and Afghanistan our wars war on. In Darfur, and the Congo and Burma and in many conflicts in many lands, the bloodshed has not stopped. In our part of America, despite the inflation and in the face of economic disaster, we still shop until we drop, that is, until early January when the credit card bills come due and we return half the stuff we can't afford.
Already, the South African author J. M. Coetzee is to publish a new book in the next called "Diary of a Bad Year." He knew how bad it was six months ago.
In Russia, the writer Segei Minaev has written an appropriately named novel called Media Sapiens in which he sees today's media as a continuation by other means of the core ideas expressed by Goebbels.
From the point of view of mass propaganda and advertising, he writes."I think there's been nothing new since the time of Goebbels…The modern world is absolutely fascist. Men must look like this and this. Women must look like this, this and this. All who are not within these bounds must strive for them, or be losers."
And still we sing songs of hope and remember especially, at this time of the year, John and Yoko's oft-played anthem which was also a plea that has long gone unanswered
And so this is Christmas (war is over…)
for weak and for strong (…if you want it)
the rich and the poor ones
the road is so long
Yes it is, that road is far too long, and Merle Travis was also prophetic in singing: "Another day older and deeper in debt." And so it was, and increasingly, so it is. This road will not end in November 2008 no matter how much we may want it to.
And through it all and maybe because of it all, a band of believers, and hopers, many of us angry, determined men and women form a growing tribe of the conscious and the active, pouncing on every microbit of evidence that the old order is collapsing and hoping, perhaps against hope, that the Democrats or a Democrat can save us, as if we can only move forward if our team of the "right" politicians are in command.
Too few of us reflect on the deeper reality that the locus of power has shifted from the public to the private and is driven not by politics but power, not by morality but money.
We know the planet is in peril and we know that if it is to change it, we have to try to stay informed and engage where we can and when we must
John, who I was privileged to have met and whose memory I treasure, didn't have it completely right:
and so happy Christmas
for black and for white
for the yellow and red ones
let's stop all the fight
a very Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year
lets hope it's a good one
without any fear
We can't "stop all the fight." To the contrary, we have to step up the fight for our beliefs and values. What can we do in the face of so much concentration of power and abuse of power, so many frauds in high places and fraudulent practices in business and more? If you read my dissections, you know I am always plugging movements for change even as I know their limits and despair for their setbacks. I don't know what else to do.
For my part, I have chosen what to many may seem a lost cause, fighting for truth as I understand it, up against the devolution of our media system, and the slow-motion collapse of our economy. I see myself ringing alarm bells in the night, using what limited communication skills I have to push, often against the tide, and the conventional wisdom on my own "side," concerns that still only move a relatively small number of progressives to act.
Writing on Mediachannel.org last March I called on my "colleagues" in the worlds of alternative/independent media, progressive movements and the blogs to broaden our focus to spotlight economic issues. Perhaps now, nine months later, and with billions, make that trillions, of dollars vanishing down various rat holes, thanks to the financial crisis, and with the economy said to be the central concern of voters, there will be a shift. Economic pain will crack through the passivity.
Alone among media issue websites MediaChannel.org called for better coverage of the greed and crimes of Wall Street. Perhaps because of the work I did in making the film IN DEBT WE TRUST, I was more alarmed than most.
I wrote: "Too many bloggers focus on the smoke and mirrors of politics and personalities as if it is a recreational sport or parlor game, taking polls too seriously and trends not seriously enough. There's still more of a obsession on the scandal of the day then the shady interests and dealmaking in the wings—the people who are financing the politicians and orchestrating their maneuvers.
The political crisis engages the bashing brigade of message point polemicists on the right and left who both tend to ignore economic interests. Those are the forces that are devastating the lives of so many Americans who have lost their jobs, can't pay their bills and are victimized by institutionalized rip-offs and the growing inequality in our nation which does not seem to have become a political issue yet."
That was in March. The response was tepid. In the summer, the markets melted down and the slimy details of the subprime/subcrime ponzi game came to light. Wall Street demanded interest rate cuts and got them. Things got worse. The Fed and The Treasury Department announced bold initiatives. They bailed out the banks, not people in need. None of these bandaids appears to be working.
Now with more than two million families facing foreclosures, this financial tsunami is slowly becoming an issue worlwide. So far the government remedies and industry response has been pathetic. Most political candidates are still downplaying the issues. We need to follow this crisis in detail and press for the prosecution of wrong doers and debt relief for the victimized.
For us to be able to to do this, to stay on the case, to keep focusing on the complicity and omissions in media, we need your help. We can't do it alone.
I for one am burning up in anger and burning out in energy. I will recover because I know we are running a marathon and not a sprint. We want to keep going. Recently, our own company was considering taking on debt in the form of big loan but we knew that in the event of more economic downturns, we would be too vulnerable. We passed.
We are still vulnerable, like so many other indy media organizations, surviving through our own sacrifices and the support of wellwishers and readers. We know we are not the best markerters and remain mostly journalists not businessmen. After 20 years, we at Globalvision are holding on with an agenda loaded with great projects but with limited scarcity and finance. I am sure we made mistakes, perhaps going too far out on the edge. We might have avoided issues like apartheid, human rights, financial decline and been more upbeat. We are told all the time that we should be telling chracter-bases stories, not trying to offer deeper analysis.
On the other hand we are doing work we believe in. Investors? Angels? Clients? Welcome.
And, as for this not for profit MediaChannel, what next? We are pleased that effective January 1, Media Tenor has jumped in. We are hoping not to jump in or off.
So, what say you, loyal readers and thinkers, theorists and activists, journalists and editors, media makers and troublemakers? You know things are getting worse. Murdoch continues to play financial PACman with media properties. Important stories are downplayed. The FCC is setting back the clock. We need independent assessments more than ever. We need reporting from the rest of the world. We need to hear voices other than our own. We need to keep our MediaChannel channeling.
We are not too proud to beg, but we would rather not. We'd prefer to appeal to your better nature and more generous disposition. We are pumping out a really unique site every day—we have done it for 7 years—but nothing lasts forever. Help if you can.
If you don't have money, do you have other skills to contribute?
Will you take a stand with us for better media and more democracy in this season of giving? Will you contribute to MediaChannel right now by pledging via Paypal or sending a tax-deductible check made out to the IRS certified GLOBAL CENTER, 575 8th Avenue, Suite 2200, New York, New York, 10018?
Will you? We need to know you are out there and with us. Solidarity Forever!
Merry Xmas and a Happy News Year from all of us at Globalvision.
And especially, from me, with all my flaws and hopes, I am still your news dissector.
Danny Schechter
The Days Before Christmas 2007
For more on our work, visit Globalvision.org and StoptheSqueeze.org.
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