WHEN THE PRESS PRESSES FOR WAR

by Mumia Abu-Jamal

[Col. Writ. 10/25/01]

    It is often surprising what comes to mind when one thinks of the press.  We often think of it as a daily necessity, as our window to the world, as an impersonal, sometimes faceless acquaintance, whom we deal with daily.

    We rarely think of the press as a multi-million dollar industry, which, by its very power, wealth and burgeoning influence, has become a virtual branch of government.  Or, perhaps worse, as a subsidiary to a multibillion-dollar multinational corporation.

    Lastly, we may, rarer still, never come to see the press as the private possession of one person, or a small group of persons, for such a thought shocks us.  For most of us have come of age hearing, seeing, or reading of the press as "a public service."

    Seen this way, most of the nation's commercial media begins to resemble a tool, an institution, indeed an agency of the wealthy classes.  This is a dangerous thought, for it shatters any illusion that the press is an instrument of democracy (Ask any reporter if he ever told his boss, the editor, what  he  wanted to cover, as opposed to what his editor wanted done, and you'll learn that no newsroom is a democracy!).

    You see the true nature of the press clearest in times of war, when any notion of dissent is snuffed into silence.  In a case that is as shocking as it is silly, a number of newspapers around the nation have withdrawn the hilariously brilliant "Boondocks" comic strip, done by a young man named Aaron McGruder.  As was the case of its predecessor strip, "Doonesbury," the "Boondocks" strip takes on political, cultural, and social issues of the day.  In one banned strip, the central character, a pint-sized, perpetually petulant radical boy named Huey Freeman (who bears a rather striking resemblance to the late Black Panther founder, Huey P. Newton) calls up the FBI's Anti-terrorism hotline, and asks, "Is this the FBI's Anonymous Anti-terrorism hotline?"  A voice on the line promptly replies, "Yes, Mr. Freeman, this is the FBI's Anonymous Anti-Terrorism hotline.  Whatcha got?"  Huey is stunned for a second, then yells into the phone, "ANONYMOUS?!" The FBI guy responds, "C'mon, Huey! You know we've been  buggin' your phone for years! Whatcha got?"

    This is funny stuff.  But apparently, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands (or more!) won't see it to know.

    Many years ago, when the Zulus and the Lakota Sioux were fighting against encroaching white imperialism in their homelands, both indigenous empires scored impressive military victories over imperialist invaders. They are known to history as the battles of Isandhlwana and Little Bighorn.  The press described Sitting Bull as a "savage" and Zulu King Cetshwayo as a "bloodthirsty barbarian."  (When Custer slaughtered hundreds of Cheyenne men, women and children at the Black Kettle Village on Washita River, killing even ponies,  I doubt any newspaper in America called him either a "savage" or a "bloodthirsty barbarian").  The daily press criticized the British and American militaries for daring their "inferiors" to beat them, and whipped  them on to more brutal, violent, and punitive attacks on Lakota and Zulu peoples and lands.

    This imperialist training of the press in the 1800s can be seen today in the way the media whitewashes massacres, ignores or distorts history, and demonizes any opponents of the empire.

    As the old saying goes, it's a 'free press' -- only if you own one.

 

Text © copyright 2001 by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

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