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The Moral Mirror
150/John Pilger
DATELINE: 25/2/06
"When the truth is replaced by silence," said the Soviet dissident Yevgeni Yevtusyhenko, "the silence is a lie." There is a surreal media silence today, writes John Pilger, full of the "noise" of twenty-four news that is often not news at all, but a series of tales spun by those with power, justifying their deceptions and violence. Broadcasters gesture cryptically at the truth, but continue, as if by instinct, to present received wisdoms in clichéd language acceptable to "us", the term frequently used for Western power: its narcissism and censorship by omission, its good and bad terrorists, worthy and unworthy victims. This is journalism through a one-way moral mirror.
Through this one-way moral mirror, "objectivity" and "impartiality" have become code for a profound establishment bias. This is especially true of the BBC, whose news and current affairs on great issues, such as Iraq and the Middle East, have become largely unwatchable for those with prior knowledge or merely enquiring minds: the kind of minds journalists are meant to have.
Take the news of April 9, 2003, the day the Western media celebrated the entry of American tanks into Baghdad. This was the climax not of a war but of an unprovoked, one-sided onslaught on an already stricken nation. "It is obviously, without a doubt, a vindication of [American strategy]," reported the BBC’s Nicholas Witchell. Indeed, "vindication" was used repeatedly by BBC (and ITN) reporters and news readers. Mark Mardell on Newsnight made what became a declaration popular among his colleagues: "It has been a vindication for him." he was referring to Tony Blair, of course. Standing in Downing Street, the BBC’s then political editor Andrew Marr applauded Blair, stating that the prime minister had been proven "conclusively right" on two points: "that [the Americans and British] would be able to take Baghdad without a bloodbath, and that in the end Iraqis would be celebrating." The diametric opposite was true. Thousands of Iraqis had already died in an assault called appropriately Shock and Awe. The toll is now well in excess of 100,000. And the televised celebrations were largely fake. According to the British government’s own polling, a majority of the Iraqi people want the invaders out.
Objectivity, impartiality, the known truth that Blair and Bush had lied about weapons of mass destruction and that the invasion was illegal - these were all cast aside as well-paid journalists rushed with open arms to embrace the greatest scandal of our lifetime. This is not to suggest they are chastened. Shortly before Christmas, the BBC’s embedded man in Iraq, Paul Wood, stood in front of a British tank and stated that British and American forces "came to Iraq in the first place to bring democracy and human rights." no quoting Blair or Bush. Forget all that stuff about WMDs.
Forget the lies. Forget the law. Forget the truth. It’s a BBC fact. There are many structural iniquities in our so-called free media: the erosion of proper regulation, the growth of rapacious empires, like Rupert Murdoch’s, the takeover of much of the internet by powerful interests, such as the Pentagon. We cannot investigate and debate these enough, and the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom has done a remarkable job in tearing down facades in order to alert both media workers and the public. However, while we campaign for a truly democratic ownership of the press and broadcasting, we surely must be aware that the responsibility falls to us journalists not to be consumed by insidious institutional agendas and propaganda that today sees little distinction between "media" and "information control".
It is no longer good enough to say: "nobody told me to say this or to leave out that." There is no conspiracy because a conspiracy is unnecessary. Journalists and broadcasters are no different from academics, bureaucrats and others in internalising the priorities and vocabulary of established power: of "us". But others are not charged with keeping the record straight day by day, as we journalists are. Yes, those who look behind the one-way moral mirror know they are likely to be tagged "committed" (to what? the truth?) or "biased" - when the bias is the other way. They ought not to be deterred; dissent is growing.
In the United States, senior journalists - from editorial writers on the New York Times to former TV stars - now concede, or confess, that had they investigated and challenged the lies that led to the invasion of Iraq, instead of amplifying and echoing them, tens of thousands of people would be alive today. That is a measure of the responsibility we journalists bear. The old clubby defensiveness will no longer do; the public, the majority of whom regard Tony Blair not as a bringer of democracy and human rights to Iraq but a liar, are way ahead of us. I suggest we catch up.
Last modified: Saturday, February 25, 2006
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Journalism Ethics
Fake news in the UK
Source's victory for Ackroyd
City Slickers trial
The Rise and Rise of the Censor
Product Placement
Children's rights v. press freedom - who wins?
Children's rights v. press freedom - who wins?
London Bombings: Missing Questions
Alter-EU launched
Marketing Labour
US threat to protection of sources
Protection of sources: 'A denial of justice'
Astroturfing
When errors hit the information superhighway
BBC puts its house in order (complaints-wise)
The Blame Game
Shock jailing of reporter in CIA-leak case
Faking It
The Guardian and the Lexus
Launch of The RAM Report
Aliens in the Media
Lies, Spies & Whistleblowers
Sunday Mirror pays out over slur
Check Calls
CBS Purge
Journalism & Public Trust
Regulating journalists... Whatever next?
