Revelations on Role of the Media

Today, it was very interesting to see a piece on the CNN Network which was seeking to assess the role of the US media in underestimating/promoting/fuelling the Donald Trump attempt to become the next President of the United States.

Criticising another rising media house, the CNN host suggested that not only that media house, but also, the other so-called trend spotters in the world of big media "got it wrong" when they dismissed Trump's and Bernie Sanders' nomination bids as being 'not serious'.

What the "expert panel" suggested is that big monopoly media in the US had 'mis-read' the mood of the American people who are growing in their dissatisfaction with the state of governance, the economy and the effect of American economic and trade policy on ordinary citizens.

They blamed this on failure of journalists to 'go in the field' and talk with ordinary citizens.

These journalists, they said, were so fixated with 'ratings and clicks' for their networks' market share that they had lost the art of journalism and 'real news'.

They also admitted that, despite the deliberate policy of the media moguls to 'ignore' Trump and Sanders, they had both 'tapped into the disenchantment' by 'going around, over or above the media blackout'.

What they were really admitting is that:

• the big monopoly media houses take on the role of SETTING THE AGENDA  for the American people by deciding (on the basis of boosting their own interests - ratings and bottom line, partisan support for one or other of the so-called major parties) what is or isn't important for the people.
• the big monopoly media houses are NOT interested in real news reporting, but in what the panel called the 'next big conflict', reducing the REAL DEVELOPMENTS affecting the ordinary citizen and the society to SECOND PLACE  between the next episode of sensational conflict on which they can feed to promote their media houses and agenda.
• Media journalists and so-called expert analysts are really NOT interested in NEWS, but in building careers as 'media personalities' who engage in 24/7 speculation on issues that arise anywhere in the world, without really seeking out FACTS and reporting TRUTH.

It was interesting that this development was so interesting to me because of where the discussion was taking place.

CNN is the first of the 24-hour 'news' channels created to turn NEWS into REALITY TV in the era when the US was engaged in promoting what it called the 'NEW REALITY'.

This 'new reality' was the re-defining of the world according to the US doctrine of a "new world order" in the context of the end of the bi-polar division of the world in what was known as the 'Cold War'.

The NEW REALITY was a world dominated by ONE SUPERPOWER which defined itself not only as the 'Leader of the Free World', but the Dominant Power over the ENTIRE WORLD.

The creation of 24/7 media channels, like CNN, Fox, etc. served this goal of US monopoly on power on the entire globe. Their function was to present reality as defined by US interest and by the interests of the military-industrial complex, big finance monopolies and other big business interests increasingly owned and controlled by a shrinking number of huge business monopolies in the US.

NEWS thus became INFOTAINEMENT, turning every development in the world into an opportunity for monopolising the attention of the viewers with OPINION, SPECULATION, so-called EXPERT COMMENT and new and rising mega-stars called ANCHORS and INTERVIEWERS.

INOFTAINMENT  turned NEWS into ENTERTAINMENT with 'new reality' personalities like the Connie Chungs, Blitzers and Ananpours of the CNN and other network infotainment industry. INFOTAINMENT  became the new big source of profits and the ability to 'manufacture consent' by SHAPING OPINION on every development in the world in the interest of the single global superpower.

The war on Iraq was presented as 'a video war game' in the NEW REALITY of the CNN and other networks. The FACT that this war was launched on the basis of a LIE about Weapons of Mass Destruction that was  created by the US and fed to the UN and the world by administration spokesmen like General Colin Powell didn't matter.

This REALITY TV 'news' evolved into the phenomenon of 'embedded reporters' being included in the very military missions of the US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to give 'first hand' accounts of the "successes" of American military might lablelled as "Shock and Awe", "the Swarm", Operation This and That as the US violated the sovereignty of countries and unleashed deadly mass bombing and missile campaigns from safe distances to impose American-style democracy on every corner of the globe.

The FACT that this latest US military adventure, just like Viet Nam, Korea, Latin America before, has torn societies apart and led to the rise of terrorism in the Middle East and North Africa is not 'NEWS' because it does not fit into the definition of the NEW REALITY.

What is important for the boosting of ratings and grabbing of market share and shaping opinion is the 'NEXT CONFLICT' as the CNN panel so eloquently put it today.

We may say well that's the US. But, in T&T, the media has again mimicked this dysfunctional role of the US media.

Talk radio was the next big thing in local electronic media. 24/7, largely uniformed talk show hosts and commentators (who insist they are not journalists) on the basis of a MINIMUM amount of FACTS engage in non-stop SPECULATION, EXPRESSING OPINION and PARTISAN INTEREST "with the aim of shaping events and opinion as WE see fit" according to one radio station's promo.

So, they tell us straight up - Their role is not to bring us INFORMATION, but to SHAPE EVENTS AND OPINION. But for what PURPOSE? And in Who's INTEREST?

And to complete the picture, we have the spectacle of 2 tv stations giving us competing "Reality Crime Shows" at the exact same time and creating 'media personalities' who end up in 'conflict' at the scene of a police investigation. The INVESTIGATION takes second place to the CONFLICT between the star boys of the 'reality tv' as "hosts".

This is what has become of NEWS.

REALITY however, cannot be NEGATED. The world is objective. Real people face Real issues affecting their Real lives and they form their own opinions about those issues and respond to them in their own Interests.

The attempt by the dominant forces in the society to use their MONOPOLY of the media to SHAPE REALITY IN THEIR INTEREST will NOT succeed, even if temporarily it may appear that they hold the sway.

The AGENDA for the FUTURE OF SOCIETY  will be set by the MAJORITY, NOT THE MINORITY.