Issue No 115 | 12 October 2001 | |
Piers WatchStirring the Rubble
You know the media is at the limits of their ability to analyse momentous historical events when they wheel out Nostradamus and his horoscope-level predictions. Saturation coverage of the war on terror is big on volume but thin on context and understanding so this week's tool is a collective - the Fourth Estate.
While American bombers have been stirring up the rubble in Afghanistan our media has been dishing us up the usual banquet of rubbish that passes as foreign news. The last few months has seen three momentous political issues materialise from the ether - Tampa, the World Trade Centre carnage and the bombing of Afghanistan - all of which have turned our domestic politics on its head. A depressing feature of the last month or so is the inability or unwillingness of our media to interpret and provide context to help us all understand and deal effectively with these events. About four days after the 'propaganda of the deed' that reduced the centre of Manhattan to a scene that looked like ... well, a bit like Kabul over the last 20-odd years really - I switched on the idiot box one morning to the Today show - on Nine where everyone gets their news. Today's analysis focussed on Nostradamus and how he had predicted the attack eons ago. You know the media has reached the bottom of the barrel when they wheel out that old geezer and his malleable prophesies as political analysis. Later, on the morning of the first bombing raids on Afghanistan Nine ran some shots of kids playing in the rubble in Kabul. Without any sense of irony the voiceover stated that they weren't sure if the pictures were taken before or after the first US attack! While there is understandable outrage at a pathologically motivated suicide attack and mass murder by a small group of nutcase militants there are some pretty obvious questions and issues that the media should be asking and exploring. A little bit of healthy scepticism would be helpful too. Ironies abound. Who would have believed ten years ago that the USA and Russia would be cooperating together to invade Afghanistan? Aren't the refugees from the Tampa -so easily demonised - fleeing the maniacs we are now at war with? Wasn't it the CIA via their proxies in the Pakistani secret services the ones that backed, financed and armed the Mojahideen of which the Taliban were a significant force in the crusade against the Soviets? Doesn't the United States itself have an echo of the Islamic fundamentalism of Osama bin Laden within its own society with Christian cults like the Branch Davidians or the Rev. Jim Jones or the Montana militias with their armed resistance, mass suicides and organised terror? Aren't there American religious fanatics - not always at the fringes but often within mainstream political life -Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, the Moral Majority or the Morman theocracy of Utah - who influence American policy to an unhealthy degree? Don't other developed societies such as Japan have their pathological religious extremes as well - witness the Aum Shinrikyo and their sarin attacks on the Tokyo subway. Has the mobilisation of the world's biggest war machine ever been suggested as a solution to these other Christian and Buddhist maniacs? Isn't the zealotry of Jewish nationalism with uncritical American support at the core of Arab militancy? Hasn't the Hollywood fantasy factory been generating and exporting the ideas for these spectacular attacks through action and disaster movies for years? Will anyone get the little thrills and frissons from these movies ever again in the aftermath of September 11? Good questions but well beyond the imagination of most of our gutless mudrakers. Call me a cynic but the impression I get about the coverage of these events is a cynical attempt to portray our unscrupulous PM as some sort of tough guy statesman with all the answers. What a joke!! And all the more reason why we need to create and nurture our own media. Someone needs to ask the simple question: 'Why?' Nominate a Tool!
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Interview: Connecting the State NSW IT minister Kim Yeadon is the man responsible for enabling the people of NSW. Here's how he's doing it. Workplace: The Enemy Within In the IT industry it's the recruiters who are earning the workers' ire, as our special correspondent explains. Unions: From the Virtual Coalface Computer programmer Vince Caughley argues there is a place for unions in the IT industry. History: Conditions Precedent Frank Bongiorno writes that the recent events off the coast of Christmas Island recall a story once told by Paul Hasluck. International: Victims of Terrorism Repression against trade unionists on the increase world wide, with 209 trade unionists assassinated last year, reveals ICFTU 2001 Survey. Campaign Diary: Week One: Get Shorty Labor's first week of campaigning was as an effort to gain attention from a nation rocked by the telvised war on terrorism. Economics: Global Alliances Ray Marcelo reports from India that the ILO is arguing that globalisation needs a worker and employer alliance. Health: The Phantom Menace Trade unions made an impact this week at an international congress In Melbourne in the global fight against AIDS. Review: Rings of Confidence In his study on the 2000 Olympics, Tony Webb argues that the government and unions reached a new level of cooperation. Satire: Greens 'Quietly Unconfident' of Forming Government A leaked memo from a senior member of the Greens reveals the party is unconfident of winning government on November 10.
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