Max Sawicky wrote:
Most of the alternative press doesn't get very deeply, if at all,
> into data of any type. I've never seen any of these folks take
> a stand in support of government data collection. An exception
> to the first point is Bro. Henwood, but since he's his own boss
> as far as I know I fail to see what incentive he would have to
> form a "symbiotic relationship" with anyone in the government.
>
This is not about individuals but rather about systems, core
imperatives and parameters and resulting trajectories. For the
individual journalist for example--mainstream or alternate press--
the spiral of success goes something like this:
increased name recognition/ratings--->l
^ l
l l
l l
l V
increased exposure Preferred Access
^ l
l l
l l
l<------- Big Story/Scoop<------ l
For the individual media organization operating under the
parameters, constraints and competitive/total profit maximization (or
total profit satisficing) imperatives of capitalism it goes something
like this:
l------------>increased ratings/market shares--->l
l l
l l
l l
l V
increased increased Advertsing rates/revenues
exposure increased total profits
^ l
l l
l l
l----Big Story/Scoop<---Preferred Access<--------V
There are various ways into and out of these spirals; e.g:
Gimmick---->increased exposure--->increased name recognition---->...
established name recognition (another field)--->preferred access->...
Serendipity---> Big Scoop---->increased exposure--->...
Faustian Bargain---> Preferred Access---> Big Scoop--->...
Faustian Bargains can take many forms: 1) not asking a source of info
or preferred access the kinds of tough questions one might ask a non-
non-source; 2) asking tough questions of a non-source in service of a
source of access (e.g. LaRouchite at Reagan's Press Conference asking
about the mental health of Dukakis); 3) not applying or deflecting
criticism or analysis of the source of data or access in ways and at
levels that would be applied to a non-source; 4) acting as a
mouthpiece for a source of preferred access by posing only those
questions allowed/directed by the source; 5) accepting/promoting the
tacit/explicit "permissible" categories, conceptual angles,
parameters of debate/analysis and definitions of the source of
access; etc.
Anyone may have access to public data. In the news/opinion media
business, data is not enough. The issue is not merely the story or
the opinion but the scoop (being the first and most unique in some
ways) to get data ahead of publication times, often requires someone
on the inside giving out pre-publication data. To maintain
relationships with such sources, often compromises need to be made in
terms of critiques of those individuals personally or in terms of the
organizations with which they are associated. When I served[sic] in
Government, we had all sorts of journalists looking for scoops--
mainstream and alternate--and they all to a person indicated that
they understood the above-mentioned spirals of "success" in the media
in a capitalist-based environment and that they understood that being
granted data pre-publication or inside info for their "scoops" meant
some kind of quid pro quo in terms of giving us some inside info
and/or not writing nasty things about (biting) the hand that was
feeding them.
This is not an attack on any particular individual as there are some
in the media who understand the above-mentioned constraints, games,
quid pro quos etc in the alternate media and elect to hang on to
their principles in the hope that strict adherence to principles will
bring the levels of exposure and and recognition that lead to Ad
Revenues and Profits in order to survive to fight another day. Many
of them go about of business/existence swinging however.
Jim Craven
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