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Comrades, Steve Kaczynski wrote with regards John Swinton's comments on his role as a journalist:- --------------------------- > > > (Below is a priceless description of bourgeois journalism, all the more > priceless at a time when the media are fomenting war. It is possible that > this item has even been posted on this list before, but if so, it is good > enough to be looked at again. > Swinton was honest about his profession, but you wonder why he kept on in > it. Perhaps he had no other skill than this type of intellectual > prostitution. Steve Kaczynski) My response. While Swinton is being honestly cynical about his profession and the limitations journalists face in the capitalist-owned media in his the article following below, there are journalists who try and convey the truth -- or part of the truth either directly or between the lines in their articles. For instance we have journalists like Robert Fisk of The Independent, former Mirror correspondent John Pilger, several journalists here in Malaysia and others who have written particularly critical articles about the US and its "war on terrorism" and while journalists in the capitalist-owned media certainly face limitations on what they can say and the extent to which they can say it, so not all journalists are journo-prosititutes as Kaczynski implies. I say this as an information technology journalist writing for a computer and information technology pullout of a major English-language daily in Malaysia and at least in my section, it's a lot easier than for my colleagues especially in the news section of the main paper. Like media in the capitalist and imperialist world, the mainstream Malaysian media is either owned by holding companies with connection to political parties in the ruling National Front coalition government or they are owned by "independent" capitalists who are generally friendly to the present government. Thus, while different papers in the mainstream media here may reflect conflicts of interest between different sections of the Malaysian capitalist class, they generally do not go beyond highlighting the plight of some extreme cases of hardship among the working class -- just like capitalist and imperialist papers in the West. Furthermore, the government also can require editors to censor some types of articles and the media here practices self-censorship to fit in with government requirements, though more often than not, it's the media owners who decide editorial policy. However, despite all the limitations journalists face, it's far better that left and progressive journalists remain where they are and struggle to get the truth -- or part of the truth -- out to their readers, rather than to do the "feel good" thing and quit their profession, much like such elements in the West do by leaving "the system" to work on an organic farm, live in a cabin in the forest, join a hippie commune or join a monastary -- and essentially make themselves irrelevant in the politico-economic scene. Kaczynski's suggestion that journalists should quit their job in the capitalist media is like telling workers to quit their job in a factory or workplace just because they are being exploited or are inevitably serving the capitalist class by working for them. Some journalists here or critics of journalists here have condemned journalists who remain in the mainstream media rather than leave to join the alternative or NGO media but if all journalists who don't like what the mainstream media is writing decide to do that, there will not be enough places in the alternative media to absorb them and most will be out in the street. There are some alternative media in Malaysia which write critically about the government -- taking advantage of the Malaysian government's commitment to not censor the Internet. These include online publications like Malaysiakini.com (www.malaysiakini.com), AgendaMalaysia (www.agendamalaysia.com) and Saksi (www.saksi.com) and some of these publications are sponsored by western government agencies and NGOs. For instance. Malaysiakini.com was started with a grant from the South East Asia Press Alliance (www.seapa.org), a "civil society" NGO in Bangkok which campaigns on issues of press fredom in South-East Asia and calls fo transparanecy in government and so on. SEAPA was formed by Asian journalists covering the APEC meeting in Vancouver in 1997 and their concerns are not about the role of APEC, the IMF, imperialism, globalisation or the impact of currency speculation on Asia economies but about the "lack of transparency" in Asian governments. SEAPA is very vocal on these issues and it has an advisor from the Commitee to Protect Journalists stationed at its Bangkok headquarters whose salary is paid for by George Soros' Open Society Institute www.soros.org, and as leftists and progressives all know, the Open Society Institute has an agenda to promote George Soros' vision of "open society" which is in line with the imperialists' aims of busting open national markets for entry by companies from the imperialist countries. While the Open Society Institute has engaged in some philantrophic activities in various countries inlcuding in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, it's also played a role in supporting civil society NGOs and opposition parties with the result that the government of Slodoban Milosovic has fallen, opening up Serbia for penetration by western capitalist and imperialist interests, thus achieving what NATO bombing failed to do. Meanwhile, these civil society NGOs have been fairlly successful in creating splits between journalists' organisations in Thailand and such NGO-types have attempted to take over the National Union of Journalists, Malaysia (www.nujm.org) of which I am a member, by urging things like two-year terms for executive council members and they were thoroughly thrashed in the last biennial executive council elections. They have also criticised the NUJM of not being more vocal on issues of press freedom which is not true since the NUJM has made its stand on press freedom tough within the scope of its limitations as a union and not according to this group's agenda. Also as a union, rather than an NGO, the NUJM sees its primary role as defending the economic and work condition interests of journalists first. This group has stronger support among western- or English-educated journalists in the English-language media who are generally better paid than those in the Malay, Chinese and Tamil-language media. Furthermore, their support is strongest among journalists in the "softer" sections of the English-language media which write about environmental, lifestyle, art, entertainment, music and information technology sections, and perhaps to an extent among the business sections but they have much less support among journalists in the harder and rougher news sections who see the harder and sharper realities of life and perhaps face the brunt of government control of the media and have less latitude in what they write. This group are not leftist by any stretch of the imagination but rather represent the interests of imperialist globalisation and it is generally supportive of the Reformasi movement started by former Malaysian deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim who fell out with prime minsiter Dr. Mahathir in 1998. In analyses of the Anwar/Mahathir conflict, the right-wing think-tank, Stratfor Inc wrote that the conflict is primarily between Anwar's willingness to accept IMF aid and western involvement in Malaysia's economic affairs in the wake of the 1997 Asian Economic crisis, while Mahathir believed in doing it through a series of Keynesian-style measures and currency controls -- literally making the Malaysian Ringgit worthless outside the country, which was one of the first measures by a third-world leader to go against the neo-liberal tide sweeping the world at the time. For a while, this move got all the pro-Anwar and pro-Reformasi neo-liberals screaming and condemning Mahathir of being a "dinosaur" for daring to defy the "conventional wisdom" of neo-liberalism, globalisation and free-markets and it was inconvenient especially for Malaysians who had to travel out of the country but today, even the IMF has had to acknowledge that there is merit in Malaysia's policies, and Malaysia has barely managed to avoid recession so far at least, while other countries in South-East Asia which accepted IMF dictates are in greater economic difficulties. Today, even Singapore with its first-world living standards -- having depended heavily on US markets and investments for its prosperity -- is in recession, and these voices are now silent. Meanwhile, Malaysiakini.com has said that it will begin charging subscriptions for access to its online news, while it's already started charging for its analytical pieces and make no bones about it but Malaysiakini.com is very much a capitalist business, just like any other publication -- just like vendors of "alternative" medicine, cures, products and so on, or like Body Shop's Anita Rodick and her "caring capitalism" or the dope pusher round the corner. At the end of the day, big capitalism or small capitalism it's capitalism just the same,and many of the former San-Francisco hippies are now Silly Con Valley yuppies. Article on John Swinton follows. Charles F. Moreira > > Journalism > > > >One night, probably in 1880, John Swinton, then the preeminent New York > >journalist, was the guest of honour at a banquet given him by the leaders > of > >his craft. Someone who knew neither the press nor Swinton offered a toast > to > >the independent press. Swinton outraged his colleagues by replying: > > > >"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, > as > >an independent press. You know it and I know it. > > > >There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you > >did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid > >weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. > >Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you > >who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the > >streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear > in > >one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be > gone. > > > >The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, > to > >pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country > >and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly > >is this toasting an independent press? > > > >We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the > >jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our > >possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are > >intellectual prostitutes." > > > >(Source: Labor's Untold Story, by Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais, > >published by United Electrical, Radio & > >Machine Workers of America, NY, 1955/1979.) > > ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
