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The Media, the Adversary Culture, and U.S. Foreign Policy
| Article
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10761 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1986 |
5,565 Words |
| Author
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Albert Michaels
Albert Michaels is professor of History at SUNY /Buffalo. This
article is printed with permission by the World Media
Conference. |
In February 1983, the United States government sent four AWACS radar planes and an aircraft carrier task force to the Middle East. Their mission was to forestall a Libyan attack against the Republic of the Sudan. On hearing that ABC news was about to broadcast advanced warning of this mission, National Security Advisor William Clark requested that the network hold off its report for 24 hours in the national interest. The network refused the request. A network official later boasted that despite a "full court press by the Administration," the ABC executives decided to go ahead with the report. This blatant disregard and cynicism towards the national interest is not new. It illustrates a demoralizing trend in American journalism that has roots in post-World War II American history. It stems from the Stalinist intellectuals of the 1940s, the New Left of the 1960s, the war in Southeast Asia, the Watergate scandal and the deliberate media attack on the reputations of our last four presidents. The Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, has expressed concern over media undermining of legitimately elected officials by continually harping on "credibility gaps" and support loss in polls, or as more succinctly put by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "the issue is not one of serious inquiry but of an almost feckless hostility to power." The concerns of Trudeau, Moynihan and many others have justification. Part of the media in the United States, sheltered behind our constitution, and increased power brought about by television, libel law changes, centralization, high salaries, job security and lessened competition have waged a relentless attack on American society. These media critics have often questioned and devalued our values, institutions and leadership. The dangers, created by their activities, to our survival as a free and prosperous nation are obvious.
What are the causes for the growing negativism of the media whose practitioners are so critical to our democracy's survival? Although part of the press played a negative role in the progressive period, the present crisis began with the Vietnam War. After the war, many alienated intellectuals, often tenured and highly paid, have come to control the values taught at prestigious institutions of higher learning, the very places where our media elite obtain their education. Understanding the causes of their alienation, I believe, is the key to understanding the attitude underlying the bias, which has affected some of the American media.
I will analyze the causes of this intellectual alienation and show how educationally transmitted values, based on some intellectuals' frustrated desires for power, have had an influence on the distorted media coverage of international news. I have
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