[Peace-discuss] @ the Art: "Kill the Messenger" docdrama on natl security journalism martyr Gary Webb

Sun Oct 19 12:00:37 EDT 2014

I did not say that "there is no alternative." I said that we have no
alternative to consuming mainstream media.

Democracy Now makes a wonderful contribution. But it's mainly an interview
show, that also has a short "headlines" feature that echoes stories from
mainstream media. It doesn't do much original investigative reporting. It's
not, for the most part, doing what Gary Webb did and investigative
journalists do. That's not a criticism, necessarily; if you do one thing
well, it doesn't mean that you do everything well; it's not a damning
criticism to say that someone doesn't do everything well; the fundamental
problem isn't that there is something lacking in Democracy Now; the
fundamental problem is thinking that Democracy Now is doing something that
it's not capable of doing. If the only news source you consume directly is
Democracy Now, you're still consuming mainstream media - you're just doing
it through a filter constructed by Democracy Now. Constructing that filter
is certainly a useful function, and it certainly makes consuming the news
more palatable for leftists, but you're still mostly consuming news
originally produced by mainstream media. Democracy Now is reading the New
York Times on your behalf and highlighting particular things. It's a
dangerous illusion to think that getting all your news from Democracy Now
protects you from the biases of mainstream news in the United States. It's
one piece of the puzzle; it's not the whole puzzle.

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1

On Sat, Oct 18, 2014 at 1:34 PM, Karen Aram <karenaram at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Robert
>
> Excellent review of the film "Kill the Messenger", thank you. I do
> challenge your last statement that "there is no alternative to US main
> stream media", or rather our corporate owned media, there is
> however "Democracy Now", " The Thom Hartmann Show", "Aware on the Air", "
> News from Neptune" all on UPTV 6, and RT News, though no criticism of
> Russia takes place, also does a good job of covering international news on
> station Mhztv, along with Peter Lavelle's "Crosstalk" on Sundays which like
> NFN offers more indepth analysis. I am just referring to the tv programs
> which challenge mainstream media. There are many links, blogs, etc. out
> there, not to mention some of the radio programs.  The only newspaper I
> have come across is the Public I published here locally.
> "Democracy Now" did cover the film "Kill the Messenger," and the actual
> events of the time, a couple weeks ago.
>
> If we think the food might be poisoned maybe we shouldn't eat it at all.
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 12:27:19 -0500
> To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> Subject: [Peace-discuss] @ the Art: "Kill the Messenger" docdrama on natl
> security journalism martyr Gary Webb
> From: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>
>
>
> By happy chance, I saw the movie "Kill the Messenger" at the Art last
> night. I say happy chance because I had never heard of the movie until I
> saw it listed on the marquee. I happened to be downtown and thought, what's
> at the Art?
>
> Folks who were active in the Central America solidarity movement will
> remember that Gary Webb, a journalist at the San Jose Mercury News, "broke
> the story" in mainstream media terms about how the CIA supported
> drug-runners during the Contra war and "looked the other way" (at least)
> while these drug-runners brought cocaine into the United States, fueling
> the "crack cocaine epidemic" in urban America.
>
> But for an audience today, the story of the movie that is to me so
> resonant and powerful is not that the CIA supported drug runners without a
> care to the consequences of that for urban Americans; that's old news. The
> story of the movie that is resonant and powerful today is how mainstream
> American journalism betrayed Gary Webb. Instead of following up the story,
> newspapers like the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the New
> York Times set out to destroy Gary Webb.
>
> This was a guy who was established in his career as an investigative
> journalist. If you look at his entry on Wikipedia, every year or so he got
> another award for investigative journalism for publicly exposing wrongdoing
> by powerful bad guys, for things he wrote alone or with others.
>
> He didn't set out to expose wrongdoing by powerful bad guys in the U.S.
> government. He stumbled across it. But having done so, he wouldn't accept
> the idea that exposing wrongdoing by powerful bad guys in the U.S.
> government was off-limits. He thought that was part of his job, too. It
> reminded me of the young prosecutor in the Costa-Gavras movie "Z," who
> didn't get the memo that the generals in the Greek military junta were
> off-limits.
>
> For his service to the public, mainstream American journalism destroyed
> Gary Webb's career and destroyed his life.
>
> I highly recommend seeing the movie, particularly for its portrayal of the
> Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. These are good images to keep in
> mind as we consume mainstream U.S. media. We have no alternative to
> consuming mainstream U.S. media, just like someone in prison has no
> alternative to eating the prison food. But if we think that the food might
> be poisoned, we should eat it very carefully.
>
> ===
>
> Robert Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
> (202) 448-2898 x1
>
>
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