Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Journalism values dead in US MSM, judging from its coverage of Gaza

I just came across a very specific, devastating analysis of US mainstream media coverage of the Gaza invasion over at AlJazeera, entitled, "In the US, Gaza is a different war."

The basic values of journalism are apparently quite dead in the US MSM, and this analysis helps explain in concrete form some of the reasons for my instinctual nausea at MSM coverage. I am finding the AlJazeera coverage, while it of course has its own biases, much more balanced and informative about what is actually happening (remember reality?) as opposed to the story we are supposed to be believe about what is happening.

One is closer to news as the product of journalism in the more traditional sense: collecting and supplying timely information that is weighted by reasonable judgments of newsworthiness. The other is "news" as propaganda, with the clear objective and effect of inculcating and maintaining a carefully packaged political stance on the part of the readership. This is done, if not through outright lying and misinformation, through the careful selection and packaging of what will be said and shown, what will not, and in what way, to create an impression that diverges, at times sharply, from what could be discovered with more investigation and thought to be considerably closer to the truth.