"News from Nowhere": Some Thoughts from Forty Years into the Communications Vortex

  I read this book when I was a sophomore in college, when there were still only three major networks, no internet, and even the VCR was in its infancy. In summary of his review of this 1973 book, by Edward Jay Epstein, David Ernest Haight concluded:

In summary, News from Nowhere portrays television journalism as virtually compelled to present a distorted picture of America, to manufacture out of the raw material of daily events a view of society which is biased toward certain geographic areas, certain types of people and behavior, and certain types of (usually superficial) commentary—all in all, no setting for the Intrepid Reporter.

If the American news media was troubling back then, actually I realize, with a gulp, 44 years ago, it generates a positively apocalyptic feeling within me, now when "news" comes at us from every possible source and is distorted beyond recognition. Add to that the opinion of the informed, uninformed and psychotic on Facebook and we have utter intellectual, psychological and moral destruction. Yes, I really think it's that bad.

Forty something years ago, I was disappointed as a desk assistant at a local New York station, when I went out on a couple of "stories". One was about a potential strike of hospital workers and another was a student "protest" at Bronx Community College. In the first case, when we arrived, there was a manageable group, not even a crowd, of people, purportedly potential patients, outside. There was one mother with a child. The camera focused on them. When the tale of woe was edited together, you'd swear that children were on the edge of complete health deprivation. As to the student protest, when we arrived, pretty much nothing was going on; in fact, pizza had been ordered and there seemedlittle of interest to observe let alone film. But upon the arrival of "a camera" signs were picked up and voices were raised. The editing process, once again, provided the substance of a tale which had none. News was what whoever cut it together wanted it to be. 

Added to the creation of news, and its distortion, there is also the suppression of what doesn't fit the cultural narrative.  It is no longer merely "News from Nowhere"--it is truly what has been called "fake news". It is barreling toward "Imposed News from Nowhere".  Opinions are no longer confined to editorial sections of the news. They are the news. Commentary about disfavored politicians is worked into the story as if the commentary has itself been delivered from "on high".  It is "Who, What, When, Why and How", the how morphed from a nuanced dispassionate explanation to how the reporter and his/her company feels about it and how he or she expects the rest of us "right thinking"  properly to respond to it.  It is going beyond "propaganda" which, for all its hard sell, is geared to influence by making us feel part of something bigger than ourselves. Propaganda properly presented doesn't feel like coercion. It may even make us feel good and dedicated to a cause. That cause may even be a good one. No, the "news" is becoming true "brainwashing" because whether it seems right or not, and without an underpinning in anything philosophically, practically or theologically objective, you find yourself in forced agreement because there are real consequences to dissent and some of them include losing your job, or your reputation, or, when it gets really bad, your sanity and your life.  Right now, there are some outlets to counter it. There is a concerted effort by the "right-thinkers" who always project their totalitarianism on its victims to dismiss, mock and demonize the "unmutual and disharmonious" (Tip of the hat to "The Prisoner" a favorite television series from the 1960s) questioners of what has been denominated the progressive good--although when it comes to the visceral measures of the powers that be--good is a moving target. 

There are some voices I do trust, but they are diminishing rapidly. I find myself more than a little scared because for all of the prophetic fiction and non-fiction, about the dangers of tinkering with the delicate brilliance of the structure of the United States, as one of my favorite commentator's, Dennis Prager, denominates "Liberty, E Pluribus Unum and In God We Trust", that very essence is being deliberately eviscerated by the frenzied fictions of American media. 

The thing that is really frightening is how many people I truly love and respect, and who are much smarter than I am, don't see it. But then, that's what always happens in the demise of civilizations. Most people don't see it until the civilization has died, and they along with it. History warns again and again. And people, who craft themselves as all knowing gods, continue to build their Towers of Babel.