Murrow’s observations are even more relevant today

“We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.”—Radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow, in a speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) convention in Chicago, October 15, 1958.

I was planning on writing about “Scooter” Libby and how he was convicted of four out of five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Plame/Wilson case this week. But when I mentioned it to a few different people around me, I either got blank stares, or a “remind me, what was that one about again?”

Yes, the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in this country, the U.S., is a confusing, bombastic mess. And, I know it’s hard to keep track of it all. I also know that when a problem seems huge, overwhelming and insurmountable, when one feels one can’t do anything about it, human nature is to more or less go into denial, to act like the danger isn’t present.
But I don’t think it’s really the problem is so big and insurmountable. I think that we are being failed by the “big” news media outlets, and our steady and ever-increasing diet of meaningless “infotainment” over the past five decades has replaced pretty much all relevant, in-depth news coverage to the point that a lot of average folks don’t even know what real news is any more.

Let’s start with what news is not. (This list is far from inclusive; what passes for news these days is endless.)

News is not:
Today’s tragic car crash on the highway.
What Brittany did to some body part, whether her own or someone else’s.
Some heinous crime in a distant city on the other side of the continent.
The nasty, prolonged divorce of a couple of famous people who weren’t famous five minutes ago.
The latest industry-created fad in breakfast cereals.
Lifestyles of the pets of the rich and famous.

These are just toxic distractions designed to take your attention away from the real issues. They can rightfully be considered toxic because they are sensational stories designed to evoke a response, often a negative emotion such as rage, sadness or envy, without any real purpose.

Fatal traffic accidents and distant murders happen every day, sadly enough. But unless the victim was a member of the community, what good does it do to dwell on something tragic that one can do nothing about?

News is what affects you directly—what your taxes are, what your lawmakers are doing and how it will affect you, how our nation is faring compared to other nations and how we are perceived around the world. It is how our workers are doing as well as the companies that employ them. It is the daily state of affairs in our communities.

Big and small, news is the things that actually, directly affect our lives. And news should be heard, because it is empowering in the telling, that people may be able to affect the things that affect their lives.

Like I said, I was going to write about Libby’s conviction in connection with the Plame/Wilson affair.

For those that need to get up to speed, Valerie Wilson was the undercover CIA agent whose name was leaked to the press a few years ago, by all indications, by someone in or close to the White House.

Joseph Wilson is her husband, the diplomat who was sent to Niger to find evidence of Saddam Hussein trying to get his hands on weapons-grade uranium, one of our justifications for going to war in Iraq. He didn’t find what he was instructed to and provided plenty of evidence that Iraq was not seeking uranium. (Wow, I just realized, the Bush administration doesn’t change its tune much, does it? Isn’t it the possibility of Iran getting their hands on a stash of weapons-grade plutonium the underpinning of Bush’s current saber-rattling with that country? Not real creative.) A grand jury was convened a couple of years ago to investigate the matter of who outed Plame, but when it subpoenaed evidence from the White House, the Bush administration argued that it had the executive privilege to without whatever it wanted. It took a couple more years of legal arguing, but eventually some of the paperwork the Bush administration wanted withheld was entered as evidence.

Some of that evidence points directly to the president and vice president.

But having noticed that very few other people have noticed, I can’t help but think that getting one’s news from TV, and even quite a few print media sources, is a bit like eating Pop-Tarts instead of a healthy meal, for every meal.

Edward R. Murrow was not only a great reporter, but a great observer, so much so that he seems as much prophet as newsman. His words of five decades ago ring quite true today, so much so that I have decided his words will end this week’s column as well as begin it, because he said then much more eloquently than I could ever say today how very worrisome it is that in many of the places this nation relies upon to keep them informed, the news is not the news.

Edward R. Murrow’s words, on a variety of subjects, may be of more import today than when they were first uttered.

“Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., Eastern Time. Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger.”—Edward R. Murrow, in a speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) convention in Chicago, October 15, 1958.

“No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.” —Speech to his staff (1954), as quoted in “Edward R. Murrow and the Time of His Time” by Joseph Wershba

“The only thing that counts is the right to know, to speak, to think— that, and the sanctity of the courts. Otherwise it’s not America.” —Speech to his staff (1954), as quoted in “Edward R. Murrow and the Time of His Time” by Joseph Wershba

“If...news is to be regarded as a commodity, only acceptable when saleable, then I don't care what you call it— I say it isn't news...
“But this nation is now in competition with malignant forces of evil who are using every instrument at their command to empty the minds of their subjects and fill those minds with slogans, determination and faith in the future. If we go on as we are, we are protecting the mind of the American public from any real contact with the menacing world that squeezes in upon us...

“The sponsor of an hour’s television program is not buying merely the six minutes devoted to commercial message. He is determining, within broad limits, the sum total of the impact of the entire hour. If he always, invariably, reaches for the largest possible audience, then this process of insulation, of escape from reality, will continue to be massively financed, and its apologist will continue to make winsome speeches about giving the public what it wants, or "letting the public decide."
“I do not advocate that we turn television into a 27-inch wailing wall, where longhairs constantly moan about the state of our culture and our defense. But I would just like to see it reflect occasionally the hard, unyielding realities of the world in which we live. I would like to see it done inside the existing framework, and I would like to see the doing of it redound to the credit of those who finance and program it. Measure the results by Nielsen, Trendex or Silex-it doesn't matter. The main thing is to try. The responsibility can be easily placed, in spite of all the mouthings about giving the public what it wants. It rests on big business, and on big television, and it rests at the top...”—Edward R. Murrow, in a speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) convention in Chicago, October 15, 1958.

The entire text of Murrow’s speech to the RTNDA may be found at: www.rtnda.org/resources/speeches/murrow.shtml

Stuff that qualifies as actual news on the Valerie Plame scandal may be found at: www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0406061libby1.html and www.truthout.org/ docs_2006/013107Z.shtml

(Originally published in The Easton News, March 15, 2007)