20228: radtimes: Haiti - No News Is Bad News (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media
http://www.medialens.org
March 10, 2004

MEDIA ALERT: HAITI - NO NEWS IS BAD NEWS

"You cannot hope to bribe or twist,
thank God! the British journalist.

But, seeing what the man will do
unbribed, there's no occasion to."
(Humbert Wolfe, 1930)

Haiti ­ Ignorance Is Strength

The beauty of news for a society like ours is that it doesn't have to make
sense. If we were introducing students to modern physics, we would feel
obliged to explain Newton's Laws and Einstein's famous theorem, E=mc2; we
would naturally point to issues raised by quantum mechanics. There would
obviously be no prospect of students understanding, much less tackling, the
latest problems in modern physics without first achieving this basic
understanding.

But when our media broadcast news on, say, the crisis in Haiti they fail,
as it were, even to mention that Newton ever existed, or that Newtonian
mechanics provide a pretty good description of the everyday world. Their
attempts at explanation are limited to reporting, in effect: 'Some
physicists are flying to a meeting in Switzerland', while 'others will be
writing papers about what was discussed there'.

The bulk of reporting on Haiti has consisted of describing the movements of
people: 'The rebels are advancing'. 'President Aristide has left the
country'. 'US marines have arrived'. From this it has been literally
impossible to establish what is happening. No idea has been given of how
popular Aristide actually is or was; what accounts for his popularity or
lack of it.

No indication has been given of which external forces might be influencing
the tiny, impoverished country and what their motivation might be. We have
so far seen, for example, no mention on TV broadcasts of the substantial US
corporate interests in Haiti. A Media Lens reader ­ an intelligent senior
manager with a large UK-based charity - wrote to us:

"You're right when you say you defy anyone to understand what's going on
from newspapers and the TV - it is literally incomprehensible. I asked
around at work this morning (and I work with some very conscientious
Granuiad [Guardian] and Indy readers) and no-one had much idea about
Aristide, his policies, who the rebels were, what they wanted and so
on...  Newspapers get heavier by the day and split themselves amoeba-like
into more and more sections. So much print filling up so much space. And
yet really, absolutely nothing is reported in a meaningful way. It's truly
extraordinary." (Email to Media Lens, March 1, 2004)

In writing to the New York Times, USA Today, and the Seattle Times, an
email forwarded by an American reader came even closer to expressing our
own view.

"To the Editor;

Haiti: VIOLENCE! Blah blah blah, COUP! Blah blah blah, REBELS! Blah blah
blah...

Please, some truth about Haiti! I am sick of hearing about presidents and
militia leaders and officials (oh my!) with no meaningful context. I feel I
speak for many readers when I say: 'Huh?'" (Forwarded to Media Lens, March
5, 2004)

In 2002, the Glasgow University Media Group reported research conducted
into the effects of television reporting on public understanding of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Researchers asked a cross-section of people a
series of questions about the conflict and what they had understood from TV
news. Most (82%) listed TV news as their source and these replies showed
that many people had little understanding of the reasons for the conflict
or its origins:

"Explanations were rarely given on the news and when they were, journalists
often spoke obliquely, almost in a form of short-hand." ('Bad news from
Israel: media coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict'
http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/sociology/Israel.pdf)

Remarkably, the research found that of 3,536 lines of BBC1 and ITN text
broadcast between September 28 and October 16, 2000, just 17 explained the
history of the conflict. As a result, many people interviewed simply did
not understand that the Palestinians were subject to a military occupation
and did not know who was 'occupying' the occupied territories. Greg Philo
summarised the findings:

"If you don't understand the Middle East crisis it might be because you are
watching it on TV news. This scores high on images of fighting, violence
and drama but is low on explanation."

In the same way, most viewers will surely have been baffled by mainstream
news reporting on Haiti. In a very real sense there has been little genuine
news on Haiti ­ just high-tech junk.


Editorialising The News

In November 2002, Ed Pilkington, foreign editor of the Guardian, wrote this
brusque response to a Media Lens query:

"We are not in the business of editorialising our news reports." (Email to
Media Lens, November 15, 2002)

Our own view is that while some dissent is allowed in the comment sections
of papers, news sections rarely challenge, but instead consistently boost,
establishment propaganda.

If it is true that news reports are subject to more stringent filtering,
then it might be interesting to see what happens when a comparatively
radical contributor to the comment section also writes as a news reporter.

On February 23, Gary Younge wrote this in a Guardian comment piece:

"Haiti is a timely reminder of how western democracies have wilfully
amassed their wealth on the backs of impoverished dictatorships.

"So Haiti lurched from coup to coup, most notably under the dictatorship of
'Papa Doc' Duvalier and then his son, 'Baby Doc', supported by the US and
France. In 1990, Aristide appeared as the best hope to break the cycle...
But, in return for political freedom, Aristide was compelled to accept
economic enslavement, bound by terms imposed by the IMF and the World Bank.
Post-colonial military aggression gave way to the brutal forces of
globalisation. Before Aristide had even considered fixing the elections,
the west had already rigged the markets." ('Throttled by history - Haiti's
political class has failed it, but the first black republic has also been
squeezed dry by a vengeful west', Gary Younge, The Guardian, February 23, 2004)

Ten days later, Younge co-authored a report with Sibylla Brodzinsky for the
Guardian's 'International News' section. The report quotes Jocelyn McCalla,
executive director of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights. McCalla
argues that investment in a neutral police force and judicial system is
crucial to Haiti's stability:

"'[The legal system] must be shielded from political interference, led by
trained and competent individuals, free to initiate or pursue
investigations into corruption and human rights abuses, and prosecute these
matters to satisfactory conclusions no matter who is involved. Without such
an investment, Haiti won't have much of a democracy.'"

Brodzinsky and Younge comment:

"But with the US so overextended in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is unclear how
much of a commitment it and the rest of the world will make to this small,
impoverished country." ('US troops bring first signs of peace to Haiti',
Sibylla Brodzinsky and Gary Younge in Port-au-Prince, The Guardian, March
4, 2004)

Being so overextended, then, the US might not be able to make the kind of
commitment required to ensure that the Haitian legal system is "shielded
from political interference", and so on, such that Haiti may end up with
not "much of a democracy". Brodzinsky and Younge are clearly suggesting
that, given sufficient resources, the US +would+ be committed to building
democracy in Haiti.

First, this, according to Pilkington, does not constitute "editorialising
our news reports".

Second, in the space of ten days, Younge moved from suggesting (in the
comment section), that the US had good, profit-based reasons for supporting
dictatorships and opposing democracy in Haiti, to suggesting (in the news
section) that other commitments might hamper the US ability to build
democracy there.


Postscript - Absolute Glamour

The latest Guardian Weekend supplement consists of 128 pages. Of these, 90
are taken up in advertising, some of it aimed at society's wealthiest
people. The "chiffon halterneck dress with metal sequin overlay" advertised
on page 74, for example, will cost you £5,890.

The country's leading liberal newspaper calls this "absolute glamour".
('Come dancing,' Guardian magazine, March 6, 2004)

On the same day the chiffon halterneck dress appeared in the Guardian, the
New York Times reported the work of Dr. Philippe Desmangles, one of Haiti's
best-paid doctors, who earns about $45 a week.

Tim Weiner reports that when he interviewed him Dr. Desmangles was the only
surgeon working in the only well-functioning hospital in the Haitian
capital, Port-au-Prince: the Polyclinique Centrale.

But even this hospital had been ransacked during the rebel uprising. Almost
exactly echoing Iraqi doctors speaking just under a year ago, Desmangles
said of the American invasion force:

"They've secured an empty palace. We needed security here. But that did not
interest them. They tell the rebels they cannot be involved in the politics
of our country. Some of us feel the same way about them." ('US Special
Forces in Haiti Seeking Out Rebel Leaders,' Tim Weiner, New York Times,
March 6, 2004)

Food, medicine and other international aid has slowly begun to flow again,
Weiner reports, but many international aid agencies' stores were looted
during the rebel advance on the capital. Dr. Desmangles said the donations
he has received in the last year were "mostly worthless recycled materials":

"We have bullet wounds, dying people, every disease. If other nations want
to help, they will send doctors, not junk."


SUGGESTED ACTION

The goal of Media Lens is to promote rationality, compassion and respect
for others. In writing letters to journalists, we strongly urge readers to
maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone.

Write to Gary Younge:
Email: g.younge@guardian.co.uk

Write to the editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger:
Email: alan.rusbridger@guardian.co.uk

Write to the BBC's director of news, Richard Sambrook:
Email: richard.sambrook@bbc.co.uk

Write to ITN's head of newsgathering, Jonathan Munro:
Email: jonathan.munro@itn.co.uk

Please also send all emails to us at Media Lens:
Email: editor@medialens.org

Visit the Media Lens website: http://www.medialens.org

Please consider donating to Media Lens: http://www.medialens.org/donate.html

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