August 16, 2003, "Fair and balanced" journalism in Ukraine
This week's visit to Pravda gives us this "local" story of recent attacks on journalists in Ukraine, which appear to be related to certain journalists' insistence on doing investigative reports of local oligarchs, or perhaps, ordinary well-connected criminals. The interesting issue, of course, concerns police treatment of these matters; local law enforcement (in Donetz and other Ukrainian cities) regards this as "ordinary hooliganism", even as physical attacks on journalists there have been stepped up.
In many ways, I regard this story as peculiarly hopeful. Journalists in Ukraine (and Russia, and some but not all of the former Soviet Republics-- notably NOT in the "Stans" that have recently "cooperated" in the "War on Terror TM") are quite literally "fighting the power" and the power, it would seem, is fighting back. I'm reminded of a recent story I heard that President Putin of Russia was so upset by a leading Russian polling agency's reporting that Russians favored negotiations in Chechnya by a two to one margin that he was planning on taking over the polling agency! But journalists there are willing to fight on.
American journalists used to be willing to press for stories- to recognize that the First Amendment is (was) sacred in protecting the Fourth Estate. Now, it seems, we have talking heads and cheerleaders. Presidential press conferences (to the extent there even are any) come off more as informercials for whatever the government is selling than as, well, press conferences. Stories of unbelievable government malfeasance (such as Valerie Plame being outed as a CIA agent, for the pettiest of political reasons) either aren't covered at all, or are dropped like hot potatoes. Helen Thomas is more or less officially shunned by the White House for daring to criticize the President, and the rest of the press corps just smiles and goes on-- for fear they might be shunned. Meanwhile, their colleagues in Ukraine are getting the crap beaten out of them for trying to do their job.
Yes, there are numerous problems when giant media companies become so big that they cannot afford to piss off the government. General Electric does not merely own NBC, it is also a huge government contractor (and is so big in so many areas, it will surely be effected by government actions on just about everything). Fox News is actually the least of it: anyone tuning in expects its "fair and balanced wink wink" coverage. Disney's ABC and Viacom's CBS, however, again are so big, that they presumably need the government's goodwill-- be it for the next expansion of stations, staving off "free" campaign time, or whatever. The newspapers are little better. Maybe I'm overstating this.
Maybe 9-11 really DID change everything. Maybe the American psyche is as pathetically fragile as the American power grid: an event as shocking as a direct attack on our capital and media capital caused the nation (including its journalists) to simply cower, and cry out for a strong leader who will "save us" from the bogeyman. And we're not only pathetic, but like all bullies who are really just scared children, we must lash out at others.
Its the sort of behavior we used to attribute to the French (back when this country and the people in it had some balls, instead of, frankly, the other way 'round). So, let the lessons we're watching from the brave souls in the Ukraine be learned: people who've had a free press but a dozen years are willing to get the crap beaten out of them to try to do a job that has to be done in any society that can call itself free. Maybe we're getting as soft as we used to accuse Europe of being for having "earned" their freedom just too long ago. We gotta lot to learn from these guys in the Ukraine... I hope we learn it before its too late.
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