John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE ON CBC NEWS
“Attacks on the media are a threat to democracy, Trudeau says
“'The very capacity for a citizen to engage with truth is under attack,' PM tells press freedom event
“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a press freedom event in Paris Sunday that one of the bulwarks protecting democratic governments from being undermined is also an institution under stress — a free-thinking, robust media.”
"...a free-thinking, robust media."
The word "media" is plural, and it is getting very tiresome to see it used this way. First time I've caught it in a mainstream publication.
As to the heart of Trudeau's comments, yes, yes, all that stuff about the press is true, but it is largely true in the sense of platitudes.
Attacks on the press by the likes of Trump are of course inappropriate, but I think we have a far more fundamental problem concerning the press.
It, to a great extent, simply does not do its job anymore. With mergers and consolidation, the press has become just one more big corporate entity in a corporate state.
It largely echoes government because there is no advantage to it in seriously investigating government. Government approves mergers and acquisition. Government gives leaks and tips. Government offers access and validation. And in America, reporting against major government interests can get you labelled as subversive or disloyal.
The American government has been increasingly busy with dark operations abroad, operations which kill many people and create whole armies of refugees, but I follow the press closely and I don't know of a single North American press organization which looks into any of it.
They are simply complicit.
That's part of why there is such a large audience for some of Trump's ugly rhetoric. People know they often aren't being told the truth.
As one example of many. Refugees. Almost all the streams of poor refugees, whether on the frontiers of Europe or in Mexico, are simply the result of aggressive American policies of bombing and subverting governments, but our press virtually never examines this to try enlightening public opinion.
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Some of Trudeau's comments are simply blather.
For example, "When people feel their institutions cannot protect them, they look for easy answers," Trudeau said, "in populism, in nationalism, in closing borders, in shutting down trade, in xenophobia."
I do not see that as a valid observation.
Nationalism and xenophobia are genuine feelings by fairly large numbers in almost every country.
They bubble to the surface periodically for many reasons, but especially because of fear.
Fear of the unknown. Fear of a poor economy. Fear of wars, and we now have plenty of that. Fear of government dishonesty. Fear of press dishonesty. Just plain fear, which no one in position of responsibility does anything to dispel.
This kind of generalized talk doesn't deal with them at all.
