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Parasites, Scavengers & Ghouls
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by Polly Mann, W A M M
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It didn’t appear to be a big event, but apparently it was enough to satisfy the media for quite a spell. “Tar Balls Found on Alameda Beach” was how the San Francisco paper described the event on the front page in several columns. Tar balls? Little bits of tar varying in size from a dime to a quarter, evidence of an oil spill. A few hours later in Alameda, the entire beach area had been closed off to the public. Several men and women walked up and down, shoveling bits of what must have been tar balls into plastic bags. Helicopters hovered overhead. A large round machine resembling Marine sonar equipment rested on the sand, attended by men in white.
Half of a mile down the beach, park police rode in majestic dignity on beautiful slow-moving steeds. A young straight-haired blonde woman was talking earnestly into a television camera. Undoubtedly, other news reporters were nearby. The San Francisco media had one ready-made item for the front page of the day and several days thereafter. Gasoline at $4.50 a gallon, a water shortage, the declining economy and ongoing U.S. wars would not be covered at all, or, would only be touched upon.
The media makes their living relating information they think will interest the average individual (AI) who on one level scrounges to keep his or her head above water, and, on another level, works at accumulating, shopping, traveling, spending, etc. The media’s job is to keep this AI supporting TV, radio or newspapers. They are scavengers in that they “bottom feed,” believing that provides greater interest for the AI.
So the public hears day after day the story of Barak Obama’s reaction to the sermon of a retired minister rather than his views on a possible U.S. bombing of Iran. When on national TV a newscaster presented questions from the public for Obama, one choice was from a nasal-voiced woman who inquired, “Why doesn’t Mr. Obama wear a flag pin in his lapel like my husband?”
The result of this investigative journalism was that Mr. Obama does now, indeed, wear a flag pin.
As for being ghouls, any horror story—be it a baby violently ill after accidentally eating his father’s Viagra or the recent Midwestern floods—gives the media material to feed off for days. They do prefer, however, a local horror story. An AI doesn’t need to know about a monsoon killing thousands in Bangladesh nearly so much as a hometown police chase.
Not all the media are parasites, scavengers or ghouls, of course. There are fine news people, reporters and editors. But the American public is surfeited with trivia when what is needed for a fully functioning democracy is a knowledge of current events, history and an analysis of their importance. Political campaigns, especially, provide occasions for comparison of the candidates views on important issues affecting the nation.
Unfortunately, these campaigns are treated as horse races by the corporate media—just another item for their feeding frenzies. |
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© 2008 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete June 2008 Index - click here
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