Man Bites Watchdogs
It’s far from alone in its beliefs. As media giants absorb one another to create behemoths–locally the Tribune Company is example A–some of the more progressive ants at the feet of the elephants have organized. CMW publishes a newsletter, holds conferences, and wants to create a program it can take into schools. The younger Chicago Independent Media Center–Chicago Indymedia for short–fights fire with fire. Part of a national network of similar outlets, it maintains a Web site “designed to promote alternative views that counter the corporate media’s distortions.” The site’s open to anyone who wants to post on it.
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But he went through with his lecture. He told his audience he’d come to “unpack” the American public’s strong support for the Israelis, something he called “the end result of perhaps the most powerful example of propaganda and public relations we can find in the world.” The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip goes largely unexamined and the Jewish settlements unacknowledged by the American media, he said, which is why the media can reserve the concept of “retaliation” for the Israelis and condemn Palestinian violence as mindless “hatred and rage.” Stretches of time when no Jews die become times of “calm” in the American media, no matter how many Palestinians die at Israeli hands during them. Aggressive watchdog groups “cow” into silence any reporter “who wants to tell the truth.”
Apparently it wasn’t. “It’s not often,” he said, “I can actually point and say, ‘Here it is, actually working. This is how the propaganda works. You can change the debate. You can change the discourse within a supposedly progressive organization.’
Yet Jhally had. A few minutes later he was done, and when Casten took the microphone she looked every bit as grim as you’d expect a reformer to look who’d just been pilloried for being part of the problem. Wondering out loud whether to allow questions, Casten observed that though Jhally would soon have to leave, Baehr hadn’t spoken yet and she wanted to give him equal time.
Already the muttering had started, and Geovanis was being nudged toward the door.
“We don’t need a Pentagon representative,” said Casten. “We’ve got them all over our minds. We’ve got them everywhere. We’ve got them in the media. The Pentagon wasn’t invited. But in this case, because of the volatility of the situation, Chris–”
