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AndrewCaseSecondPaper 4 - 15 Apr 2009 - Main.AndrewCase
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< | (I think I wasn't logged in when I first created the file, so the title is still "TWikiGuest" -- I don't know how to change this, Andrew.) | | | Propaganda, Innocence, and the Law
Glorification of splendid underdogs is nothing other than glorification of the splendid system that makes them so. | | |
A) A simple example | |
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< | In the period before the 1991 Gulf War, networks were alive with stories of the abuse of the Kurdish minority in northern Iraq. Sadam Hussein was murdering the Kurds, who were in near open rebellion against him. When the war was over and an “autonomous region” was established in Kurdish Iraq, media coverage of the Kurds (now being slaughtered wholesale by the Turks), faded to the back pages of the international sections, when it was presented at all. Most reporting on the Kurdish-Turkish conflict reported that the KLA, freedom fighters against Saddam, were terrorists in Turkey, prompting Steve Tesich to write that “Whether or not your death is newsworthy depends upon who is killing you.” (Arts and Leisure, Tesich). | >
> | In the period before the 1991 Gulf War, networks were alive with stories of the abuse of the Kurdish minority in northern Iraq. Sadam Hussein was murdering the Kurds, one of many atrocities that television news was pleased to cover. When the war was over and an “autonomous region” was established in Kurdish Iraq, media coverage of the Kurds (still slaughtered wholesale, only now in Turkey instead of Iraq), faded to the back pages of the international sections, when it was presented at all. Most reporting on the Kurdish-Turkish conflict reported that the KLA, freedom fighters against Saddam, were terrorists in Turkey, prompting Steve Tesich to write that “Whether or not your death is newsworthy depends upon who is killing you.” (Arts and Leisure, Tesich). | | | B) Rationale
Of course, it would be unreasonable to believe that the promotional departments of General Electric, Viacom, or Disney would act in ways that are destructive to the corporate interests, and it is therefore not surprising to see, for example, that torture conducted by countries that provide these companies inexpensive labor (India, China) receives far less coverage than abuses in nations that do not (Pakistan, Iraq). When South Korea, after a decade of corruption scandals, creates an innovative anti-corruption program, there is not a blip on the news in the West – just as there was not a blip on the corruption scandals that created it; the market for Disney films in Soeul will not be bolstered by an ABC investigative report. The most astute reports on genocides from regions bereft of economic engines usually describe principally the lack of coverage itself, bearing titles such as “Borneo Backwater's Clashes Draw Little Notice.” As Adorno noted, the very attempt to critique the problem is itself used to support the condition complained of. |
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