-Caveat Lector-
Dave Hartley
http://www.Asheville-Computer.com/dave
SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE
It will never be the same for the bulimic boomers of brutal capitalism. The
serial rapists of the planet's economy and environment still retain their
power but they have finally lost their cover of respectability. Even C-SPAN
felt obliged to interview a union leader. As Matt Drudge said, "The news was
becoming real again."
Wrote one newspaper: "Not since the days of the Vietnam War and the civil
rights movement has the entire downtown core of a major American city been
seized by popular uprising; rarely has so diverse an array of groups linked
elbows against a common enemy, in this case the faceless forces of
globalization."
Not that the television industry didn't try to keep a lid on the story. The
TV cabal of silence was in marked and totally unjustifiable contrast to the
excessive coverage given such events as JFK Jr.'s death, school shootings,
and highway chases. On the first night of demonstrations only Fox News gave
serious face time to the most important new movement since the beginning of
the dismal era of Thatcher, Reagan and Clinton. Even then, however, Fox's
White House correspondent distinguished himself by misinforming his viewers
on the meaning of both the WTO ('nothing more than a traffic cop') and the
protests against it.
The major print media did better until, of course, you got to the editorial
page where you found such gems as this from the Washington Post: "In
principle one might object that unelected advocacy groups have no right to
special treatment. But the Internet has handed these groups too much power
to make their complete exclusion practical." Of course, nobody elected the
WTO (or even got a chance to debate it under constitutional rules) but such
blatant disinformation by the Post is sadly familiar. It was, in fact, the
Post that created and then shamelessly promoted an "unelected advocacy
group" called the Federal City Council that has grossly exaggerated
influence over local affairs.
Some of the coverage leading up to Seattle revealed the deep corporate bias
of the media. For example, NBC financial correspondent Mick Jensen concluded
that "most experts say getting rid of trade barriers on both sides is a good
thing for American workers and consumers." An Associated Press report called
protesters' concerns "far-fetched," and continued by noting that "for every
campaigner lying down on a sidewalk this week to protest the WTO's efforts
to reduce trade barriers, there is a happily employed Seattleite whose job
depends on free commerce."
FAIR even caught ABC's Seattle affiliate bragging of its plans to censor its
own reporting. It announced that it would "not devote coverage to
irresponsible or illegal activities of disruptive groups," adding that "KOMO
4 News is taking a stand on not giving some protest groups the publicity
they want.... So if you see us doing a story on a disruption, but we don't
name the group or the cause, you'll know why."
As for the protests themselves, no one should be fooled. Demonstrations
don't make policy. They can only make it a little easier, especially when,
as in this case, the first task is to strip the mask of respectability from
those damaging the earth and its communities in order to improve next
quarter's profits.
These people are not to be trusted. The task is not to join them at the
table but to overturn the table. As Rep. Dennis Kucinich put it, the basic
issue is citizens' "control over civic institutions and over their own
government... that people can make decisions about clean air, clean water,
human rights, better health care, better retirement. If private interests
are simply running things, then that means that people are at their mercy...
The market is not going to be parceling out democratic rights."
The media seemed particularly confused that labor leaders and Pat Buchanan
could be on the same side, but as Carolyn Chute has put it: "There's no
right and left, there's only up and down. Up there are the fat cats having a
great time, while down here the rest of us are struggling to survive." The
problem for the major media facing such a story is that it has been up so
long it all looks down to it. What those paragons of photogenic pablum fail
to understand is that more and more Americans see them as part of the
problem. But then, Chesterton once noted that "to be smart enough to get all
that money you must be dull enough to want it."
Is it too early to talk about next? Perhaps, but a few cautions to file from
someone in his fourth decade of writing about demonstrations:
-- They are only the opening act. Too much reliance on demonstrations can
create a static ritual actually slowing a movement down or falsely
suggesting lessened interest in a idea when the real drop-off is in going to
protests that don't product results.
-- There are other ways to keep the public involved. For example, Tony
Schwartz, a guru in guerrilla media circles, says that the protest movements
of the 60s would have been far more successful if they had put more of their
money into radio and less into marches and demonstrations.
-- The first big demonstrations of our era were not just protest gatherings,
they were economic boycotts. Martin Luther King understood that the shortest
route to a wayward heart is through its wallet. Anti-corporatist
demonstrations need to be combined with focussed, mass boycotts with one or
two targets such as McDonald's or Nike.
But for a kick-off the Seattle show was beautiful -- people of all stripes
coming together to discover that they have more in common with each other
than any of them have with their leaders. There are few more hopeful visions
than that of America correcting its mistakes.
SEATTLE INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTER http://www.indymedia.org
WORLD TRADE WATCH RADIO
http://www.radioproject.org
KOMO 4 NEWS mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] .)
SEATTLE INSIDER http://www.seattleinsider.com/news/wtonews.html
FAIR'S RESOURCES ON TRADE
http://www.fair.org/issues-news/trade.html .
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