[Air-l] howard dean, social movements and clay shirky

Thu Jan 29 16:16:05 PST 2004

[Tell Clay Shirky and his ilk to blog this.--Art]

http://www.blackcommentator.com/75/75_cover_dean_media.html

The Black Commentator

January 29, 2004 [Issue 75]

Editorial

The Awesome Destructive Power of the Corporate Media

Howard Dean has joined the list of victims of U.S. corporate
media consolidation. Dean shares this distinction with
Dennis Kucinich and the people of the formerly sovereign
state of Iraq, among many others. Dean was stripped of half
his popular support in the space of two weeks in January
while John Kerry -- tied in the polls with Carol
Moseley-Braun at seven percent just two months earlier --
rose like a genie from a bottle to become the overnight
presidential frontrunner. Both candidates were shocked and
disoriented by the dizzying turns of fortune, and for good
reason. Neither Dean nor Kerry had done anything on their
own that could have so dramatically altered the race.
Corporate America decided that Dean must be savaged, and its
media sector made it happen.

This commentary, however, is not about the merits of Howard
Dean. If a mildly progressive, Internet-driven, young white
middle class-centered, movement-like campaign such as Dean's
-- flush with money derived from unconventional sources,
backed by significant sections of labor, reinforced by big
name endorsements and surging with upward momentum -- can be
derailed in a matter of weeks at the whim of corporate
media, then all of us are in deep trouble. The Dean
beat-down should signal an intense reassessment of media's
role in the American power structure. The African American
historical experience has much to offer in that regard,
since the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements were born
in a wrestling match with an essentially hostile corporate
(white) media. However, there can be no meaningful
discussion of the options available to progressive forces in
the United States unless it is first recognized that the
corporate media in the current era is the enemy, and must be
treated that way.

Rich Man's Mic

It is no longer possible to view commercial news media as
mere servants of the ruling rich -- they are full members of
the presiding corporate pantheon. General media
consolidation has created an integrated mass communications
system that is both objectively and self-consciously at one
with the Citibanks and ExxonMobils of the world. Media
companies act in effective unison on matters of importance
to the larger corporate class. For all politically useful
purposes, the monopolization of US media is now complete, in
that the corporate owners and managers of the dominant
organs are interchangeable and indistinguishable, sharing a
common mission and worldview. (That's the underlying reason
why their "news" product is nearly identical.) Monopolies do
not require a solitary actor -- an ensemble acting in
concert achieves the same results.

In the past year we have seen consciousness-shaking evidence
of the corporate media's implacable hostility to any
manifestation of resistance to the current order. Media
rushed to embed themselves in the US war machine's Iraq
invasion, and collaborated to actively suppress public
awareness of a full-blown movement against the war. Hundreds
of thousands of protestors were made to disappear in plain
sight. Corporate media conspired -- which is what
businessmen in boardrooms do as a matter of daily routine --
not only to shield the public from dissenting opinions
(their usual assignment), but to drastically diminish,
distort and even erase huge gatherings that were profoundly
newsworthy by any rational standard. This is not mere bias,
but the end result of the corporate decision making process.
There is no line separating "news" producers from larger
corporate structures, nor can media companies be neatly
segregated from the oligarchic herd. Corporate media's ties
to the Pirates in Washington are organic and nearly
seamless. Their collusion seems almost telepathic, because
they share the same class and worldview -- the most far
reaching consequence of media consolidation.

Death By Ridicule

The corporate media is a window on the dialogue among the
rich. They are saying loudly and uniformly that even mild
resistance to their rule will be treated as illegitimate and
subjected to censorship and ridicule by their media organs.
The scope of tolerable dissent has been narrowed, as
reflected in the behavior of corporate media. The Dean
beat-down is just the latest twist in the tightening of the
screws.

The thoroughly Republican nature of corporate opinion
molding mechanisms is evident in their treatment of Bill
Clinton and Al Gore. The media giants subjected Clinton to
the full fury of the Hard Right's campaign to destabilize
his presidency, ultimately resulting in impeachment
hearings. Al Gore, a sitting vice-president seeking the top
job in 2000, was reduced to a caricature by the corporate
press corps and punditry -- the torture of a thousand daily
cuts. Gore's cardboard image was the cumulative product of
relentless corporate press commentary, disguised as
reportage. Jay Leno and the other late night jokers feed off
carrion that has already been slaughtered by corporate
"news" media.

Clinton's Republican predecessors were not subjected to
anything approaching such scrutiny and abuse. It is
self-evident that George Bush, who should have been buried
under a glacier of scandal and criminality within months of
entering the White House, enjoys the full-time protection of
the corporate press. Their institutional intention is to
elect him again. Media apologists offer fictions about press
vs. power, when in reality corporate media = corporate
power, just as Bush = corporate power. The Democrats are not
part of this equation.

Thus, the rich men's media descended on the Democratic Party
primary process in order to mangle and denigrate it, while
propping up the corporate champion in the White House. The
New York Times, through its chief political reporter, Adam
Nagourney, set the parameters of coverage by eliminating any
mention of the three "bottom tier" candidates -- starting
with his "analysis" of the May televised debate in South
Carolina, a state in which Al Sharpton is a key player!
Nagourney systematically erased Sharpton, Kucinich and Carol
Moseley-Braun from his weekly coverage of the contest -- a
professionally suicidal routine were it not consistent with
the objectives of corporate management. The Times proudly
sets the standard for national reporting, but its leadership
was not necessary to ensure that the bottom tier would
remain at the bottom. The organs of corporate speech all
march to the same tune because there is not a dime's worth
of difference between their owners.

Get Rich Or Drop Out

The corporate media's weapons are censorship and ridicule.
Dennis Kucinich absorbed the full measure of both. However,
TV "news" producers, mindful of viewer demographics, tried
to avoid direct aggression against the characters of
Moseley-Braun and Sharpton. ABC finally showed its true
corporate colors at the New Hampshire debate in the person
of Nightline's Ted Koppel. Imperiously addressing the bottom
trio, Koppel said:

"You've [to Kucinich] got about $750,000 in the bank right
now, and that's close to nothing when you're coming up
against this kind of opposition. But let me finish the
question. The question is, will there come a point when
polls, money and then ultimately the actual votes that will
take place here in places like New Hampshire, the caucuses
in Iowa, will there come a point when we can expect one or
more of the three of you to drop out? Or are you in this as
sort of a vanity candidacy?

Kucinich, Sharpton and Moseley-Braun acquitted themselves
well in the exchange. The real story here is that Koppel
felt empowered to all but demand that the three most
progressive candidates (and both Blacks) vacate the
Democratic presidential arena. Koppel had fumed to the New
York Times about the uppity intruders, the month before. The
day after the debate, ABC withdrew its reporters from all
three campaigns. (None of the other networks had even
bothered to give full-time coverage to the bottom tier.)

Koppel's arrogance, so unbecoming to a journalist, is rooted
in his actual status at ABC/Disney: he is a corporate
executive who pretends to be a newsman on television. His
professional history notwithstanding, Koppel and each of the
high profile TV "news" personalities are millionaire
executives whoact as spokesmen for the corporate divisions
of their parent companies. They interact with executives of
other divisions, principally marketing -- the domain of
sales and "impressions." Koppel is incapable of thinking in
terms other than money and polls, an important marketing
tool. He is proprietary about the political process because,
as an esteemed executive in the ruling corporate class, he
thinks he owns it.

Self-Fulfilling Prophesy

Howard Dean's brilliant use of the Internet allowed him to
capitalize on anti-war sentiment while assembling a funding
base independent of the usual corporate suspects. Dean's
December surge took the corporate media by surprise,
alarming the bosses and their friends in the White House.
Like a Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the corporate media rose
with one voice to question Dean's "electability." It is
important to note that in mid-December, according to
Newsweek's poll, Dean, Kerry and Clark were doing equally in
a match-up with George Bush, at 40, 41, and 41 percent,
respectively. There was no statistical basis to single out
Dean as unelectable. Dean had just gotten the endorsement of
Al Gore and two of the nation's most important unions,
AFSCME and SEIU. No matter. The corporate media has the
power of self-fulfilling prophesy, and they know it.
Negative impressions rained down on Dean like a monsoon, and
didn't let up even after the damage was done. Dean was
tagged by the media as a loser to Bush well before he let
out "The Scream" -- an innocuous, non-event, on the night of
his Iowa defeat.

Dean understands what was done to him, although there's
nothing much he can do about it. In an interview with CNN's
repugnant Wolf Blitzer, the candidate said: "You report the
news and you create the news You chose to play it ["The
Scream"] 673 times."

It is clear from the numbers that Democratic voters,
determined to be rid of George Bush, were afraid to support
the "unelectable" Dean. Lots of them ran to Kerry, who had
polled at only 7 percent nationally, in November. Kerry had
done and said nothing to affect this sea change. The irony
here is that it is Bush who is so scary to Democratic voters
that they backed away from Dean, whom the corporate media
had pegged as a "scary" guy.

Chris Bowers offered a compelling analysis of the corporate
media coup in the January 28 Daily Kos:

In order to reduce the increasing control of the Political
Opinion Complex over our political process, we need to begin
developing and strengthening institutions strong enough to
counter its current influence. Specifically, we need to
further develop networks where political information can be
mass distributed outside of the POC's control. Not long ago,
there were several such outside institutions. Unions and
churches were a far more pervasive part of people's lives.
Newspapers and periodicals were significantly more numerous
and varied in their political outlook. Public television and
radio had far larger audiences. Political parties and
societies were either machines or at least overflowing with
active members. All of these now weakened institutions once
served as means to perform end-runs outside the control of
the corporate media and the Political Opinion Complex.
Engagement with the political process through means other
than television was far greater. However, those institutions
no longer serve as significant counter-weights to the
strength of the Political Opinion Complex.

Black Corporate Radio

African Americans faced a much more hostile establishment
(white) press in the days of Jim Crow, local newspapers that
often incited mob violence against Blacks and, on occasion,
announced lynchings in advance. In the Fifties Blacks
employed informal and church networks and the Black press
(where it existed) to create mass movements -- facts on the
ground that could not be ignored. The Montgomery Bus Boycott
and, later, mass marches and jail-ins in Birmingham drew the
attention of the northern-based corporate media. More
interested in recording the show than supporting the
protestors, the media nevertheless served to fire up the
spirit of Black America and hasten the demise of Jim Crow.

As the Sixties unfolded, mass incendiary activity presented
the media and nation with additional facts -- burning cities
are not easily ignored. The corporate press grudgingly
integrated their staffs. Although Black newspapers went into
steep decline, Black radio sprouted news departments that
encouraged local organizers to tackle the tasks of a
post-Civil Rights world.

Thirty years later, media consolidation has had the same
strangulating effects on Black radio as in the general
media. Radio One, the largest Black-owned chain, recently
entered into a marketing agreement with a subsidiary of
Clear Channel, the 1200-station beast. Both chains abhor the
very concept of local news.

There is no question that Blacks and progressives must
establish alternative media outlets, and not just on the
Internet. However, there is no substitute for confronting
the corporate media head-on, through direct mass action and
other, creative tactics. The rich men's voices must be
de-legitimized in the eyes of the people, who already
suspect that they are being systematically lied to and
manipulated. African Americans have an advantage in this
regard, since we are used to being lied to and about.

No society in human history has confronted an enemy as
omnipresent as the US corporate media. Yet there is no
choice but to challenge their hegemony.

The world can be changed, but only by changing the way
others see their world.