US media acts as a cover for power, says leading reporter

-28/09/06

“The media in this


US media acts as a cover for power, says leading reporter

-28/09/06

“The media in this country [the United States] has reached an all-time low.” That was the blunt assessment of journalist Amy Goodman, who delivered the United Church of Christís 24th annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture at the National Press Club in Washington DC this month (September 2006) ñ writes J. Bennett Guess.

“Instead of a media that covers for power, we need a media that covers power,” said Goodman, syndicated columnist and host of the Pacifica-network radio and TV programme Democracy Now! “Reporting from the victimís perspective, not being ëspuní, we see it so rarely in this country.”

In a hard-hitting address that repeatedly questioned the motives of conglomerate-owned, profits-centred media companies, Goodman said that, after Hurricane Katrina, the American people got a short-lived glimpse of what an independent, victims-focused media might look like, despite objections from the US Federal Emergency Management Agency that insisted that reporters not show images of drowned bodies floating in a flooded, neglected New Orleans.

“This nation saw people suffering and they were horrified,” she said. “If only we saw these images from Iraq, [of] the reality of war.”

Using the war in Iraq as her oft-repeated example, Goodman said “embedded” journalism relies on what reportersí sources tell them, not on what reporters see, experience and discover for themselves.

In Iraq, unlike the immediate days that followed last yearís Katrina disaster, the stories of American soldiers and Iraqi citizens are not given adequate voice. Therefore, most Americans have little reason to identify with the suffering or incentive to demand change.

“When you hear someone speaking from their own experience, you can not help but identify,” Goodman said. “ëThatís my boy, my mother, my aunt.í”

Moreover, she commented, instead of reporting the truth from Iraq, the US government is paying to plant false stories in Iraqi newspapers about alleged successes there. Goodman and others have claimed that this is in order to bolster the warís image back home. Itís a practice thatís illegal in the United States, she said, but not in Iraq.

“But if you can plant it over there and it blows back here, itís the next best thing,” she remarked.

The UCCís Parker Lecture, which annually examines the technological disparity that exists between wealthy, white communities and those living in poorer, under-served communities, is co-sponsored with the Washington, DC-based Telecommunications Research and Action Centre. It is the only lecture in the USA to examine telecommunications and the digital age from an ethical perspective.

Named for the legendary UCC pastor, the Rev. Everett C. Parker, 93, who led the UCCís historic campaign in the 1950s and 1960s to make the Federal Communications Commission hold its license awardees accountable to the communities they serve, the annual event draws about 200 media advocates, telecommunications industry executives, clergy and lay leaders.

Despite living in a digital, high-tech age, Goodman emphasized, we are increasingly seeing the media used as “the force of state” and not as the publicís vehicle to “force the state.”

“We need an unfettered, unembedded media,” she said. “We have to take it back. ë We need an honest media. We need an independent media.”

Citing the experience of anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a U.S. soldier, Casey Sheehan, killed in Iraq, Goodman said many reporters asked Sheehan why she waited so long to speak out in opposition to the war.

“Cindy had been talking for a long time,” Goodman said, “to a media that would not listen.”

Goodman, who is in the midst of an 80-city promotional tour for her new book “Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders and the People Who Fight Back,” also spoke later on at People Congregational UCC in DC.

Funded entirely through contributions from listeners, viewers, broadcasting stations and foundations, Goodmanís “Democracy Now!” describes itself as maintaining “editorial independence, providing a counterweight to media consolidation.”

Goodmanís reporting on East Timor and Nigeria has won numerous awards, including the George Polk Award, Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting, and the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award. She also has received awards from the Associated Press, United Press International, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Project Censored.

The Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc. (OC, Inc.) was established in 1959. Throughout its history, OC, Inc. has advocated for persons historically excluded from the media, especially women and people of color; petitioned the FCC to issue equality rules; sought to guarantee educational and informational childrenís programming; defended the Equal Time Rule for political candidates; supported efforts to establish low-power FM radio; protected affordable access to emerging technologies; and urged strengthening of basic corporate character requirements for those who transmit images and data.


US media acts as a cover for power, says leading reporter

-28/09/06

“The media in this country [the United States] has reached an all-time low.” That was the blunt assessment of journalist Amy Goodman, who delivered the United Church of Christís 24th annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture at the National Press Club in Washington DC this month (September 2006) ñ writes J. Bennett Guess.

“Instead of a media that covers for power, we need a media that covers power,” said Goodman, syndicated columnist and host of the Pacifica-network radio and TV programme Democracy Now! “Reporting from the victimís perspective, not being ëspuní, we see it so rarely in this country.”

In a hard-hitting address that repeatedly questioned the motives of conglomerate-owned, profits-centred media companies, Goodman said that, after Hurricane Katrina, the American people got a short-lived glimpse of what an independent, victims-focused media might look like, despite objections from the US Federal Emergency Management Agency that insisted that reporters not show images of drowned bodies floating in a flooded, neglected New Orleans.

“This nation saw people suffering and they were horrified,” she said. “If only we saw these images from Iraq, [of] the reality of war.”

Using the war in Iraq as her oft-repeated example, Goodman said “embedded” journalism relies on what reportersí sources tell them, not on what reporters see, experience and discover for themselves.

In Iraq, unlike the immediate days that followed last yearís Katrina disaster, the stories of American soldiers and Iraqi citizens are not given adequate voice. Therefore, most Americans have little reason to identify with the suffering or incentive to demand change.

“When you hear someone speaking from their own experience, you can not help but identify,” Goodman said. “ëThatís my boy, my mother, my aunt.í”

Moreover, she commented, instead of reporting the truth from Iraq, the US government is paying to plant false stories in Iraqi newspapers about alleged successes there. Goodman and others have claimed that this is in order to bolster the warís image back home. Itís a practice thatís illegal in the United States, she said, but not in Iraq.

“But if you can plant it over there and it blows back here, itís the next best thing,” she remarked.

The UCCís Parker Lecture, which annually examines the technological disparity that exists between wealthy, white communities and those living in poorer, under-served communities, is co-sponsored with the Washington, DC-based Telecommunications Research and Action Centre. It is the only lecture in the USA to examine telecommunications and the digital age from an ethical perspective.

Named for the legendary UCC pastor, the Rev. Everett C. Parker, 93, who led the UCCís historic campaign in the 1950s and 1960s to make the Federal Communications Commission hold its license awardees accountable to the communities they serve, the annual event draws about 200 media advocates, telecommunications industry executives, clergy and lay leaders.

Despite living in a digital, high-tech age, Goodman emphasized, we are increasingly seeing the media used as “the force of state” and not as the publicís vehicle to “force the state.”

“We need an unfettered, unembedded media,” she said. “We have to take it back. ë We need an honest media. We need an independent media.”

Citing the experience of anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a U.S. soldier, Casey Sheehan, killed in Iraq, Goodman said many reporters asked Sheehan why she waited so long to speak out in opposition to the war.

“Cindy had been talking for a long time,” Goodman said, “to a media that would not listen.”

Goodman, who is in the midst of an 80-city promotional tour for her new book “Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders and the People Who Fight Back,” also spoke later on at People Congregational UCC in DC.

Funded entirely through contributions from listeners, viewers, broadcasting stations and foundations, Goodmanís “Democracy Now!” describes itself as maintaining “editorial independence, providing a counterweight to media consolidation.”

Goodmanís reporting on East Timor and Nigeria has won numerous awards, including the George Polk Award, Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting, and the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award. She also has received awards from the Associated Press, United Press International, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Project Censored.

The Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc. (OC, Inc.) was established in 1959. Throughout its history, OC, Inc. has advocated for persons historically excluded from the media, especially women and people of color; petitioned the FCC to issue equality rules; sought to guarantee educational and informational childrenís programming; defended the Equal Time Rule for political candidates; supported efforts to establish low-power FM radio; protected affordable access to emerging technologies; and urged strengthening of basic corporate character requirements for those who transmit images and data.