Monday, July 3, 2017

Freedom of the Press Under Attack

I have noticed a pattern in three articles I have read in the past two days.  The first concerns Qatar:
Saudi Arabia has given Qatar 48 hours to meet a list of 13 demands.
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/7/3/15914610/qatar-saudi-arabia-48-deadline-demands 
From the article:  "....there’s a whole lot of stuff in there that has nothing to do with terrorism — and everything to do with stomping out Qatar’s regional aspirations and forcing it to fall in line with Saudi Arabia’s preferred policies."  Of particular interest are demands 3 and 4:

" Shut down Al Jazeera and its affiliate stations. 
 Shut down news outlets that Qatar funds, directly and indirectly, including Arabi21, Rassd, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, and Middle East Eye."
And by now everyone has heard of Donald Trump's fake wrestling video targeting CNN:
http://radiotvtalk.blog.ajc.com/2017/07/02/donald-trump-ups-ante-against-cnn-with-wrestling-video-which-cnn-dubs-juvenile/
Of course Trump spins it as a joke.

The third article is one I unfortunately can't link to, from Pacific Standard Magazine, July 2017. You can access previous issues, but not the current one. The title is Editor in Exile, concerning Zaheena Rasheed, Editor in Chief of the Maldives Independent.  
From the article:  "While the Maldives slipped away from democracy throughout the latter half of 2016, journalists around the country had faced escalating legal and physical threats."  Rasheed ended up fleeing her home in the Maldives for Sri Lanka, because of death and kidnapping threats.  She said, "I was just incredibly paranoid.  That's what dictatorships thrive on, uncertainty.  Fear keeps people in line.  Fear is so much more important (than actual violence), because it keeps you wondering."
Rasheed's visa in Sri Lanka is running out, and at the time the magazine went to press, she had accepted a job with Al Jazeera in Qatar.  Hopefully with current developments, she didn't end up going there. She had the following words of warning:  "People were "very quick to dismiss what we write as alarmist, but- in many ways we weren't alarmist enough.  This is something American journalists will have to keep in mind."
The common theme linking these three articles are attacks on the freedom of the press, both here and abroad.  On the eve of the holiday celebrating our liberty, we would do well to consider the erosion of one of our most important freedoms.

24 comments:

  1. Trump wants to replace factual news from the free press with his administration's propaganda. Watching the White House Press Briefings just infuriate me as I listen to the lies from the podium and the constant put-downs of the reporters thee. No wonder Trump is so enamored of the leaders of Russia and China - the press in those countries serves the regime.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's disturbing that White House press briefings have been reduced to once a week, and they aren't really substantive. And it's even more disturbing that Trump's supporters continue to make excuses for his treatment of the press, because the press is "persecuting" him.

      Delete
  2. It has been awhile since I reviewed the SPJ code of ethics, and it looks like a few things have been added (ex., the bit about diversity).

    I wanted to review the cautions about anonymous sources and clearly marked analysis and opinion.

    http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

    How well do you think the media follows the code? Are there areas where the press/media leaves itself open to criticism by the Trump administration?

    The News Hour reported a poll tonight noting that Trump's trustworthiness was 7 points higher than the media's (37 percent to 30 percent respectively). What would your rating be?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good point about anonymous sources. The media doesn't always follow the code or vet the trustworthiness of sources. Case in point is the visit to Russia by Trump staff prior to the election, and lurid reports of pervy stuff going on. With no proof it was just election year mudslinging.

      Delete
  3. I think it's important to define what we mean by "the media". There's lots of untrustworthy stuff out there, but the established press is good, I think ... the NYT, LA Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, PBS Newshour, CNN, CBS/NBC/ANC, BBC, Reuters, etc.

    The free press has done great things ... Watergate, the sex abuse problem with Cardinal Law, reporting on wars from the war zones. I have no complaints.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree about the established press being more reliable. It is telling (in a bad way) that Trump's favorite news outlet, if you can call it that, was Breitbart. And that he chose the former CEO as one of his top aids.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. Yes, I agree that asking people what they think of "the media" is a meaningless question. Monmouth University did a poll breaking thins down by outlet and political affiliation. https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/MonmouthPoll_US_032917/

      Delete
  4. I think that one problem is that the general public has trouble distinguishing between the editorial desk and the news desk. Back in the day, when I was in the commodities business, we used take the Wall Street Journal. It was excellent for news and its short summary on the first page usually had everything that was relevant. The editorials, on the other hand, were utterly awful.

    I think that Fox blurred the line here, although I actually blame CNN for (I believe) starting the 24 hour news cycle. I don't think that there is a way to fill 24 hours, especially in a country like ours that is fairly incurious about the rest of the world. It was only a matter of time before the editorial desk became a primary source of entertainment, which a lot of what we are seeing now is designed to be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you are right about the 24 hour news cycle. It was inevitable that in order to fill the time, stuff that was opinion or entertainment rather than news started crossing over.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  5. It's impossible to measure incompetence, but in my 50-plus years of ink-stained wretchedness I concluded that more public money is lost to sheer stupidity than to corruption or abuse by public officials. Now that I watch the media from the peanut gallery, I see a lot of roaring stupidity but very little intentional tilting among the real media.

    Take last night's lede story on ABC: A taxicab, for unknown reasons, jumped a curb at Logan Airport in Boston and injured 10 cab drivers, one seriously. That is what we used to call an accident. An accident with no one dead doesn't usually deserve a story. But vehicle hits crowd + airport = terrorism? No, not this time, and ABC knew it, But it is knee-jerk "Breaking News" that becomes the first story of the newscast, even though most of the audience has no reason to know or care about an incident in far-off Boston.

    As for unnamed sources, we know who Deep Throat was, we know why he needed anonymity and we know how the Washington Post decided he was credible before using him. He was a law enforcement officer, and the Constitution was being attacked unlawfully at the highest possible level. What could he do? You know a guy like him is going to do something.


    We don't know who opened the taps for the recent spate of leaks, but whoever they are, the highest possible level of government is putting our political system in danger from a malignant narcissist. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

    The form chart says you should look for the leaks first in the White House staff. As is often noted, the ship of state leaks from the top, and it is beyond ridiculous that presidents, who are he biggest orchestrators and benefactors of leaks, complain about them.If would be better for our republican form of government if our leaders could be normally transparent and obscure only in matters of high foreign risk. But that ain't gonna happen.

    They are often puerile, but the media are the best chance we have of reversing our run toward oligarchy. You had better believe that, so pray for them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tom, you are right that "...the media are the the best chance we have of reversing our run toward oligarchy." Let us hope that they are up to the task.

      Delete
  6. Yesterday on tv .... Senator Ben Sasse (R) was on Jake Tapper's show (CNN) and actually defended the free press ... video clip

    And John Oliver had a piece on how local tv news is being skewed to the conservative view when being bought up by the Sinclair Broadcast Group .... link

    ReplyDelete
  7. If we lived in normal political times, we would have some more normal "media" than we have now. I don't consider TV news normal at any time. Even what we might think of as "the best," the Newhour does very little breaking news or chasing of stories; their daily coverage pretty much tracks what the NYTimes thinks is big news for the day. Rachel Maddow, a liberal favorite I know from my friends, is ridiculously overwrought, ditto Erin Burnett on CNN. Anderson Cooper can be tolerated at times because of his affectless demeanor and questions. He looks to be genuinely interested in the answer. Is he? Don't know.

    Print is what is in danger of losing its way. Having been a reader of the NYTimes for five decades, I would say I have never seen it in such sorry shape. The move to digital, which I look at, is undermining the coverage in the print edition, which I read from page 1 to page n, section 1. Leave aside its high self-regard, which has always been a sad note, its coverage of Trump (he, himself alone), has become obsessive. It's the cabinet guys who will destroy the nations (so I give credit that today (July 4), they did a rundown on Pruitt at the EPA, what he's doing and what the courts are saying. But they can't get over how awful he is (which we know), so every awful story is another piece of info we don't need.

    Sorry, I go on...

    Just wondering if the Washington Post isn't doing a bit better... I only see it on-line...it has more Congress contact and I have the impression more Congress news, such as it it.

    I'm sure I've left something out!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But they can't get over how awful "he" is, that is Trump, not Pruitt, who, of course is reprehensible.

      Delete
    2. I find it hard to read the NYT for the reasons you mention, and I only read the book section now. The Post is somewhat better.

      It also ran this, which I found hilarious, living, as I do, in an area where the sound of fire crackers is often followed by the ambulance siren.

      I remember my Uncle Dick doing runs into Canada to smuggle illegal fireworks, getting hammered in the 4th, and telling us to "stand back" while he threw fire crackers into some flammable substance that created a conflagration. My grandmother darkly observed that it's true God watches out for drunks.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/07/03/the-governments-annual-mannequin-murders-ranked/

      Delete
    3. Re: fireworks; I came across this yesterday, a town in Italy which does noiseless fireworks out of kindness to animals. I thought that was sort of sweet, because it does stress them out. Stresses me out too, if the neighborhood blows up as much ordnance tonight as they did last year into the wee hours. I do wonder, though, how you make noiseless fireworks. There have been dry years here where the cops and fire dept. squelched fireworks because of wildfire danger.

      Delete
  8. Anderson Cooper - I like him :) His mom is Gloria Vanderbilt.

    I think Tom is right - we have to distinguish between opinion/editorial and straight news. Rachel Maddow is more the former and Cooper is more the latter.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The basic problem is that the average American is working less, and using their leisure to watch TV. See my post here. More highly educated Americans however, have less leisure while the less educated have more leisure.

    So TV and now the internet are entertaining people who have nothing better to do with their time. Information and analysis is less interesting so the news and even the weather report have become entertainment.

    Anchors have left their desks to be out in the midst of the political and weather storms. Their sole claim is they are there with the breaking news. So now they have become the breaking news itself. The media is not only obsessed with Trump it is obsessed with itself. When they don't have any real news, they have opposing sides battle it out over whatever sounds interesting.

    A lot like bread and circuses I would say. Who shall we watch being fed to the lions today? TV is mainly interested in its ratings and the bottom line. They get higher ratings by featuring Trump whether people love him or hate him.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Maybe a moratorium on coverage of Trump, say for a week. Could it be done? Is it self-censorship on the part of the media. Would that be the week he bombs North Korea...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Problem is, the week we ignore Trump will be the week he acts on one of his tweets. In fact, if he finds out we are ignoring him, he is sure to do something to force us to pay attention. And he is too dangerous for us to let that happen.

      Your point, MOS, about ignoring what his acolytes, minions and enabled are doing in the rest of the executive branch is well taken. Someone ought to pay attention to the Supreme Court, where, recently, two district courts and two district courts of appeal were overruled by justices who had not -- unlike the lower courts -- read the briefs. The overruling was only on the restraining order but three of the ultimate deciders said they were ready to go ahead (without looking at the briefs) and rule in favor of the guy who wears a cheap Chinese necktie like a fig leaf. Hearings? Who needs them? Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch have infused knowledge

      Delete
  11. Why Al Jazeera irritates the Gulf monarchies so much

    https://international.la-croix.com/news/why-al-jazeera-irritates-the-gulf-monarchies-so-much/5468

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the link, Jimmy. I had wondered why it was such a big deal to them to try and shut it down.

      Delete