The Political Inquirer

Journalism is biased, and always has been. The concept of the “fourth estate” as representative of the common people dates back to the French Revolution, and is the first acknowledgement that news reporting has a distinct viewpoint. Over the course of time, corporations began to invest in newspapers (as advertisers), which induced publishers to be hostile to political and social reporting that would offend their advertisers and negatively impact their revenue stream.

But even before corporate money became involved, small companies that advertised in newspapers could rely on the publishers to treat them well should they find themselves involved in public scandal. Indeed, supporting the local or even big city papers was an indemnity against libel. At the end of the nineteenth century, competitors Hearst and Pulitzer found their products labeled “Yellow Journalism”, ostensibly after the popular cartoon character The Yellow Kid, but with the meaning of being tainted (”colored”).

The ‘fairness doctrine’ and government mandated news programming changed our perception of journalism, creating the fiction of journalistic standards out of what was previously simple braggadocio, as in, “I’m fair, the other guy is a liar and a cheat.” Originally imposed by the Federal Communications Commission in 1949, the Fairness Doctrine effectively ceased to exist in 1987 when Congress was defeated by President Reagan’s veto in their attempt to write it into law.

In spite of the doctrine’s legal status, the concept has been ingrained into American consciousness. It was in the self-interest of the broadcast networks to promote their news programming as “fair and balanced” (now a trademark of what is arguably the most transparently biased news operation in the country). In reality, broadcasting over the public airwaves has always been “big business” and, as such, broadcasters have been carrying water for one political party or the other ever since radio receivers became a popular home entertainment.

In print, publishers have always given an editorial slant to their reportage — the stories and types of stories that are chosen to be printed, the “voice” used (the New York Daily News famously instructs it’s reporters: “tell it to Sweeney”), and even the adjectives used to describe public figures. To expect broadcasters to be any less involved in the content of their product is foolishness. The very word “broadcast” reminds of the term for the original large format newspapers, called broadsheets, and the pejorative used to describe an aggressive editorial, a broadside, which in naval parlance meant to fire all your guns in one volley to cripple your opponent.

In “The Usual Suspects”, Verbal Kint, nee Keyser Soze (in Kevin Spacey’s Oscar-winning, breakout role) says, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.” The Devil of today’s discussion is the propaganda department of the United States of America. Nazi Germany’s Department of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda ruined the word, making it a smear by linking it forever to Joseph Goebbels. But the fact is that propaganda is a neutral term, meaning only to spread ideas. Nevertheless, because we here in the good ol’ US of A would never do anything the Nazi’s did, we have no Propaganda Department. Instead, we have the Office of Strategic Communications and Planning.

But aside from the obvious and expected influence of government over it’s own information providers, and even the “sneaky” Pentagon stooges that appeared on TV as Military Experts and portrayed as being impartial and/or unaffiliated with current policy makers, has the nanny-state conditioned the citizens of our country to be so naive that they actually believe journalism — be it from quasi-state organs like FOX or counter-culture outlets like Mother Jones –is a form of communication untouched by human politics? When Citizen Kane was produced it was understood that men stood behind newspapers. Men with their own agendas who were doing their utmost to fashion public opinion.

With government agencies holding the leases on “public” airwaves, even broadcasters that would like to air contrary viewpoints are coerced to toe the line on war, the threat of war, and any other government enterprise. Yes, for credibility’s sake, Anderson Cooper was allowed to rant about government incompetence in the wake of Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans, but even that is suspect. After all, isn’t it the current administration’s mantra that, aside from national defense, government is incompetent? Maybe Anderson was right on message.