I meant Press self-censorship, not government censorship Re: [LINK] Guardian: Al-Jazeera tells the truth about war (fwd)

[Jan Whitaker]

At 03:23 PM 1/04/03 +1000, Ralph Seberry wrote:

>However, you've got Chomsky's argument wrong. He argues
>that (for a variety of reasons) the traditional media will
>self-censor, print dumbed down versions.

Agreed.  But there is another thing at work in today's world: spin.  Spin = 
putting the gloss on or saying things in a way that twists the real into 
the surreal through a mediated [media presented] statement that is received 
by large numbers of the public.  Orwell called in New Speak [I think I got 
that right re the source].  It's even different from bias.  Bias is 
generally recognised because of the editorialising that is in the writing 
and the public record can be used [eventually] to counter the position 
[much more so in the mainstream press in Australia, btw, than what I used 
to see in the US press].  By that time, though, the meme is embedded in the 
public psyche and we go on with the delusion until ----  ta da da da! ---- 
it might be exposed by facts.  Then the back peddling and buck passing 
begins, a la Rumsfeld and Franks at the moment.

This is terrible stuff.  Talk about winning hearts and minds.  It's 
happened on both sides in this war [I refuse to call it a conflict as the 
politicians continue to do -- see, even the choice of individual words is 
spin].  One reason it is terrible is that the sources cited are so often 
media, not the public record.  So on it goes.

Jan


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