© Roger M Tagg 2010-2011
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A good hatchet job on what daily newspapers (in the UK and, probably, elsewhere) have descended to over the last 30 years or so.
It gets a bit rambling in places, but the author never lets his attack simmer for too long.
I guess that the dailies are becoming more like women's magazines. If we want better coverage of facts and more balanced views, we have to learn to seek it out on different internet sites, and take the more serious weekly magazines like the Spectator or New Statesman. Even if you don't agree with the politics of one or other of these, I certainly think the quality in them is better.
| Chapter | Page | Highlight |
|---|---|---|
| 1 - The bug | 9 | The millennium bug hype - and other messages that got blown up and bent |
| that ate | 13 | The millennium bug hype wasn't the fault of useless journos |
| the world | 14 | It wasn't even the fault of the advertisers |
| 15-16 | Northcliffe, Rothermere, Beaverbrook were propagandists, but it wasn't due to that either | |
| 16-17 | Corporate owners usually just want to make profits | |
| 17-22 | Murdoch also bullied politicians to serve his commercial ends. He also kowtowed to China on censorship and stopped publication of Chris Patten's memoirs. He also switched his support from Major (Tory) to Blair (Labour). Tiny Rowland was a lesser offender, but wanted to serve his Lonrho interests. | |
| 23-28 | The details of the Y2k bug episode | |
| 31 | Facts about Heroin addiction were hyped up | |
| 33 | Lots of stories about Clinton (spread by opponents) were false, but the press didn't care if they sold papers | |
| 34 | The press failed to report pre-2001 threats from Al Qaeda and Bin Laden | |
| 36-37 | The UN listed "the most under-reported stories in the world". "Omission is the most powerful source of distortion" | |
| 39 | The "tough on crime" scam - the press plays along with this | |
| 41-43 | Greenpeace overstepped the truth in the facts about Chernobyl | |
| 44 | All this distortion is nothing new - people have been re-writing history for centuries | |
| 45 | Davies asks "why does a profession lose touch with its primary function?" (Presumably the press should be telling its readers a balanced version of the truth) | |
| 2 - The | 49-52 | The Hucker "insurance against World Cup defeat trauma" scam; journos allowed themselves to be suckered |
| Workers (i.e. the journos) | 52-60 | Cardiff Uni study (2207 pieces from the Times, Guardian, Independent Telegraph and Mail, over 2 weeks). Journos were trying to cover too many stories, rarely leaving their desks; they often re-cycled stories from other sources. 60% of stories were wholly or mainly from Agencies and PR; 20% used significant parts from these; 12% were original material, and 8% were "unsure". In 70% there was no corroboration at all, and only 12% were fully checked. |
| 60 | The rot started when "grocers climbed on top of warehouses" (i.e. non news specialists gaining control) | |
| 61 | Death of the News Chronicle | |
| 62-68 | Commercial logic means cost-cutting and decimation of journalist staff | |
| 69-72 | The drive for fast (e.g. 5 minute) turn round of breaking news to websites - puts a lot of pressure on speed, less on accuracy | |
| 73 | Complaints about lack of accuracy have grown | |
| 3 - The | 74-84 | In the UK, the Press Association (PA) supplies "the wire" |
| Suppliers | 79 | These days, there's virtually no Local Government news, except in Private Eye's 'Rotten Boroughs' section |
| (i.e. press agencies | 84-96 | An increasing proportion of "news" comes from the PR industry, so what gets published is often what big organisations with PR departments or agents want us to read or hear |
| and PR) | 85 | Many journos who lost their jobs on newspapers have moved to PR |
| 89 | The PR fraternity's efforts affect (or skew) selection (or omission) | |
| 92-94 | A day in the life of PA - PR people monitor "the wire" and move in if they don't like the stories | |
| 96 | US media are dominated by 5 companies: Time-Warner, Disney, Murdoch, Bertelsmann and Viacom | |
| 97 | Cost cutting for profit also happened in the US, and PR similarly grew | |
| 99 | The entire US media are unable to cover many overseas countries | |
| 100 | The global network of freelance "stringers" has disintegrated - media firms just won't pay | |
| 101 | Associated Press (AP) in the US, and Reuters in Europe, provide most overseas news. UPI went bust in 1985 and 1991 and the remains were taken over by the Moonies. AFP (Agence France Presse) is a relatively small player | |
| 102 | "Churnalism" (i.e. just churning out stories mechanically) is the style today. Reuters' concern with accuracy isn't the same as a newspaper's concern with truth. Reuters just regards its job as accurate relaying of what certain people said, or of press releases. | |
| 107 | Newspapers' websites are now a significant part of the market | |
| 108 | Ramonet: "A journalism of compliance is in the ascendancy, and critical journalism is on the decline. We have zero guarantee of reliability." | |
| 4 - The Rules of | 111 | The Douglas-Home horizontal school of journalism: don't follow any tips, wait for events such as speeches, reports and ceremonials, along a straight "assembly line" |
| Production | 112 | Objectivity is impossible - there are no "sacred facts". What one tries for is neutrality, which isn't the same thing. The journalist should be "invisible". |
| 113 | Selection takes place according to the needs of the production line (unwritten rules, but usually what it costs, or how quickly can we publish it) | |
| 114a | Three weaknesses of the above: 1) arbitrary selection of subjects (and omission of others; 2) use of unreliable "factual" claims; 3) news carries the imprint of the political and moral consensus of only the most powerful groups in the surrounding society | |
| 114b | Rule 1: cut costs, and run the cheaper stories | |
| 116 | Avoid stories that bring trouble on the press organisations, so run low risk stories | |
| 177 | Play safe - "just add water" to pre-packed pseudo-investigative reporting put out by the PR organisations | |
| 120 | Rule 2: go for safe facts, e.g. those that can be corroborated by official bodies | |
| 122 | Rule 3: avoid the powerful lobbyists and vested interests; ask "does the chap we're accusing have the money to sue us?" | |
| 123 | The Israeli government is probably the dirtiest when it comes to threatening the press | |
| 125 | Rule 4: select safe (not too contentious) ideas; (e.g. not asylum seekers if many readers may be sympathetic) | |
| 129a | The effect of the above is to rip the rudder off journalism, and to leave it to be swept along by the current of prevailing prejudice | |
| 129b | Media outlets are often "trapped" into maintaining the story they have been telling up to now | |
| 131 | Rule 5: if in doubt, present both sides to a story - this is over-used | |
| 133 | Rule 6: select stories that increase readership, e.g. scandal, sport | |
| 138 | Rule 7: the truth is often too boring, or too complicated - a snappy story is better | |
| 141 | Rule 8: give the readers what they want to believe. "The readers are never wrong - repulsive, maybe, but never wrong." | |
| 142 | Rule 9: go along with any moral panic or general outpouring (e.g. death of Pricess Di) | |
| 145 | Rule 10: make sure you run the stories other papers are running | |
| 152 | Don't forget to use the common clichés | |
| 5 - PR | 157 | The private life of public relations - lots of revealing examples |
| 194 | PR produces plentiful distortion and significant falsehood, but the media themselves, operating as a news factory, have become too weakened to check it | |
| 199 | There are many cases of contrived leaks, also of drip-feeding news to fit in with day-to-day peaks and troughs of news | |
| 204 | Daniel Boorstin, author of "The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America" said: "This is the age of contrivance ... we are deceived and obstructed by the very machines we make to enlarge our vision." | |
| 6 - The | 205 | This chapter is mainly about the War on Terror. A lot of the news is driven by government intelligence agencies and government PR |
| Propaganda | 210 | Zarqawi (reported as #2 in Al Qaeda) was in fact leader of a rival group. Most of what Colin Powell asserted was later proved false |
| Puzzle | 217 | Rumsfeld claimed there were lots of James Bond villain style caves - this also proved false |
| 235 | The Pentagon's "strategic communications" manages what we hear and read | |
| 241 | The above certainly isn't working in Iraq. There are internal (to the US military) turf wars, even over the name. Some top people prefer "perception management", "influence warfare" or "strategic effects" | |
| 243a | In the case of the Kosovo convoy bombing fiasco, NATO issued 6 different stories at different times | |
| 243b | There are many arguments over mega-disinformation campaigns - a sort of "nuclear" information warfare | |
| 245 | JPSE (Joint Psycho Operations Support Element) - which distributes 'Psyop' leaflets - has been pretty much a failure | |
| 251 | There is a practice of issuing "packaged product" to the press, in the form of VNRs (Video News Releases) | |
| 253 | Most of the packaged stories "screamed falsehood" | |
| 256a | Vance Packard ("The Hidden Persuaders", 1950s): "Americans have become the most manipulated people outside the Iron Curtain." | |
| 256b | Boorstin: "The making of the illusions that flood our experience has become the business of America." | |
| 7 - The | 259- | Buying illegally-gotten information via hackers or blaggers (people who con their way into accessing confidential information) |
| Dark Arts | ... | Bribing insiders with access to databases; bugging premises; getting someone to raid waste bins; using Trojan Horses to bug home computers; intercepting emails |
| -286 | Newspapers use freelancers, from whom they distance themselves. No-one usually gets prosecuted or jailed, so the game goes on | |
| 8 - Insight | 287- -328 | The story of the decline in the Sunday Times, from the days of Roy Thomson, Harold Evans and the Insight team (which exposed Philby); through the Murdoch takeover and the abrasive Andrew Neil; to the fabrications of David Leppard and the winding-up of Insight - to save money. |
| 9 - The Blinded Observer | 329- ... -356 | Another story of decline, on the Observer. The paper had (via Ed Vulliamy in New York) all the information that the CIA knew that Iraq didn't have WMDs, but they preferred to support the Bush-Blair war line. They appointed an inexperienced political editor who was duped by Alistair Campbell (Blair's Press Sec), who encouraged acceptance (as accurate) of the 'dodgy dossier'. This was proved wrong "big time". |
| 10 - Mail Aggression | 357- ... -390 | The Daily Mail keeps up circulation by pandering to the prejudices of middle-class white Englishmen. It attacks whatever doesn't suit that line with aggressive distortion, pushed by Paul Dacre, the "bullying and foul-mouthed" editor. They don't care if they are later shown up to be wrong - they just apologize quietly and pay up |
| 363 | The Press Complaints Commission is pretty toothless. It refuses to take on most cases, especially if the complaints come from private individuals. They say that a complaint is not valid if the press is simply being unfair or biased | |
| 390 | Blair (or someone sounding very like him) said: "Paul Dacre has the kind of prejudices and beliefs no-one knows about. He has absolute and un-accountable power." | |
| Epilogue | 391 | "Journalists used to question the reasons for war and expose the abuse of power. Now, like toothless babies, they suckle on the sugary teat of misinformation and poop it into the diaper we call the 6 o'clock news." Kent Brockham, TV News Reader, The Simpsons |
| 395 | The Internet may help fight the epidemic of misinformation, but it is itself an "overloaded madhouse" | |
| 396a | The Internet might be used by media owners to just save more cash | |
| 396b | Nichols and Mc Chesney (in 'It's the Media, Stupid'): "This is a generation that is under pressure, from the media it consumes, to be brazenly materialistic, selfish, depoliticized and non-socially-minded. We should all be concerned. In the place of informed debate or political parties organizing along the full spectrum of opinion, there will be vacuous journalism and elections dominated by PR, big money, moronic political advertising and limited debate on tangible issues ... and a world where the wealthy few face fewer and fewer threats of political challenge." | |
| 397a | This book is maybe "taking a snapshot of a cancer" - but Davies feels that the illness is terminal | |
| 397b | Vance Packard thought that "we can choose not to be persuaded" - but Davies is not so sure | |
| 397c | Joseph Pullitzer: "A cynical, mercenary, demagogic, corrupt press will produce in time a people as base as itself" - right on! |
Index to more highlights of interesting books
Some of these links may be under construction – or re-construction.
This version updated on 22nd January 2011
If you have constructive suggestions or comments, please contact the author rogertag@tpg.com.au .