20867: Esser: Re: 20831: (Chamberlain) re: 20792: Du Tuyau: Re Press, media (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Speaking of "fantastical fantasies"... It is not necessary to leave
the island of Haiti to see that by bringing up Gordon "Butch" Stewart
and his Jamaica Observer it is not possible to make a case that in
journalism it is not necessary to follow what some have called the
"party line". That Mr. Stewart allows his editors to publish articles
that seem not in line with the business interests of his social
strata speaks positively for him, but has little meaning when one
looks at the broader picture.

In analyzing news emanating from Haiti, it is easy to see that the
majority of newspapers worldwide rely heavily on the wire services,
chiefly the Associated Press. The Associated Press in turn is very
reluctant to question anything seriously that is reported by the
french speaking Haitian media which is almost exclusively in the
hands of the mulatto/economical elite that has interests
diametrically opposed to those of the Haitian masses that by and
large have no understanding of french. In an age when most newspapers
do not have extensive foreign bureaus the world's outlook on events
in Haiti is mainly controlled by a hand full of foreign
correspondents many of which have a rather limited understanding of
Haiti and it's politics. This explains why the voices of Haitians are
often mysteriously absent from the reports du jour repeated by the
thousands in newspapers all over the globe. Haitian organizations for
example could hold press conferences until they are blue in the face,
before the foreign press corps would deem it newsworthy. If one reads
reports written by Haitians and foreigners with an in depth
understanding of things Haitian, some of which due to language cannot
be posted on this list, a different picture of Haiti emerges. Why are
many reports coming from Port-au-Prince so poor in quality? Many
reasons: Many of the journalists rely on unverified sources that work
in the interests of people with a, thinly veiled, disdain of the
Haitian poor, personal bias and last not least self interest to keep
the job. If an AP correspondent would start to focus on rights abuses
by what many have dubbed the "Boca Raton" government and it's shady
allies, it would run afoul of the official world view as set forth by
the Rockefeller Center headquarters. Media be it in Haiti or
elsewhere is increasingly concentrated in fewer hands that are more
and more intertwined with other industries. The AP is tied into this
system as is any other wire service.

The notion that it does not matter by whom the outlets are owned is
preposterous; there are scores of in depth analyses that show how
much this matters. I have personally been in Disney sweatshops in
Port-au-Prince and contributed to reporting on the matter. Do you
believe a Disney owned outfit such as ABC news would touch such a
story? No, of course not. This is only one example of many that show
that the reporting on Haiti is severely influenced by media ownership
abroad and on the island itself. Red baiting and attacks on media
that dare to challenge the mainstream reporting aside - we live in an
era of emerging alternatives to the conventional style of journalism
as evidenced in the declining sales of mass market newspapers and the
increase in readership of internet based news this list included. In
the case of Haiti: who would have brought us images and reports from
recent pro Aristide demonstrations in Haiti such as by the Haiti
Information Project? As to events in the regions some call the
diaspora: I have personally covered recent events protesting the
status quo in Haiti that were: a. well attended, b. at which elected
U.S. representatives made statements condemning the de facto
government and it's U.S. backers and c. at which the major media
outlets had either no reporters or in traditional fashion their
photographers left long before statements were made and the crowd
would swell to a sizable number. In the press we can then read
statements about divisions among Haitians and other anecdotal
observations, when there were actual news that would have been fit to
print.

For more info on press distortions of events in Haiti I recommend the
reading of the following articles:

'Press fail to identify key players in Gonaives opposition violence'
by Michelle Karshan: http://www.haitiaction.net/News/ht2_7_4.html

and

'The Amulance Chasers or How Many Journalists and AP Photographers
Can Dance on the Head of a Pin?' by Kevin Pina:
http://www.blackcommentator.com/63/63_haiti_2_pf.html

'Propaganda War intensifies against Haiti as Opposition Grabs for
Power' also by Kevin Pina:
http://blackcommentator.com/62/62_haiti_1.html


The fairly recent Action Alert by HaitiAction.net sheds sheds also
some light on the issues of disinformation in the press:
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/ht2_7_4.html . .
.