Twenty years ago I would have nodded my head or agreed with PEN's rote call for the two parties to "respect the press". PEN was one of those groups I automatically considered credible and respectable. Not that I paid that much attention to them, other than to monitor the suppression and murders of writers and journalists in the predictable places.
But the notice I got about their recent call, U.S. ELECTION FRONTRUNNERS MUST RESPECT AND PROTECT THE ROLE OF THE PRESS, is making me yawn. The American media has so discredited itself, from the alleged far left to the far right that I really can't get too worked up if Donald Trump calls them names and bad mouths them. He knows that the media that matters will fall in line and give him their tacit support, they'll present it as "balance" and "fairness" but, when they're balancing a raving, neo-fascist like him by trumping up yet another in of its "scandals" in its Thirty-Year-War against Hillary Clinton I couldn't possibly care less about them or their role in this election. PEN's own brand of "balance consists of this:
It is also important for candidates to make themselves accessible to reporters. Although Clinton has given individual interviews to print and broadcast journalists, she has not held a general access news conference since December 2015 in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Her campaign has since been criticized for rarely answering questions from her traveling press corps.
Why the hell should she? The American media has been engaged in trying to destroy her. Why should she trust them? She is probably the most vilified, most attacked most LIED ABOUT of any person who has ever mounted a serious presidential campaign and it wasn't just the low end of the media which did it, as mentioned here recently, the most august of print media has been as involved in that as FOX and CNN. Literally, no lie made up about her has been too extreme for the media to not echo it. If she avoids taking or answering questions from the people who work for those who have published those lies, I'm not going to hold her at fault for that.
You should read the press release and note how they "balance" the list of attacks from Donald Trump and his surrogates - going on for paragraphs and, also, noting the death threats from Sanders supporters when they didn't like the fact that he was behind in the nomination process. Even as critical as I have been of Sanders, it wasn't he who attacked the media. The same can't be said of Donald Trump.
PEN says:
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.
I don't see in its mission statement that it defends democracy and self-government by accurately informed people. It only cares that writers get to write what they want, not that they are there to defend the truth as opposed to lies. Which is where the problem starts. No one has ever been kept from lying on behalf of the powerful and wealthy, writers who do that are well paid and entirely free to do that, it's when they write on behalf of those without money and, under the "money equals speech" doctrine, without power, that writers are in danger. That's not a distinction that PEN makes and holds as being of the most importance. I don't give two cents for PEN unless it operates on that distinction and with the prime reason for its existence to promote, protect and defend the peoples' right to the truth so they can cast an informed vote, I will oppose anything that elevates the ability of liars to lie for pay or profit or ideology because that destroys freedom. And, in the United States, in the past fifty years, especially when the topic has been Hillary Clinton, the media has been in the forefront of destroying the truth. I couldn't care less about the rights and privileges such a media claims for itself.
I have come, especially in the past twenty years, to rather despise the publishing industry and the media. If I've developed a cynical attitude toward them, that wasn't something I chose, it was forced on me by them, by their behavior, by their pretensions which they have discredited rather constantly. I really wish The Horse of Media Whores Online had stuck it out. It would be a lot better world if she had.
Charlie Pierce put it into the words I would like to have used: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a46695/donald-trump-candidacy-american-democracy/
ReplyDelete"And damn all members of the media who treat this dangerous fluke of a campaign as being in any way business as usual. Any support for He, Trump is, at this point, an act of moral cowardice. Anyone who supports him, or runs with him, or enables his victory, or even speaks well of him, is a traitor to the American idea."
Trump is running absolutely wild with his racist comments, now trying to foment fear and anger over a call for a "moment of silence" which never occurred anywhere, while claiming "11 cities" (he's got a list! But it's secret!) are on the verge of "exploding." BE AFRAID! BE VERY AFRAID! SCARY BLACK PEOPLE!! SCARY BROWN PLANET!!!!
He's not even being subtle about it anymore, but none dare call it racism, even though George Wallace never went as far.
Having dutifully reported that, the press goes back to worrying about an interview a Supreme Court Justice gave and why Hillary won't hold more press conferences. Because "fair and balanced," right?
I can't stand it. I just can't stand it.