Oct 14, 2014

When the Media Ignore a Scoop or Suppress Sensational News – Examples

      Strangely, not every sensational news is selected by the media for publishing. One might think of military or other secrets, whose publishing could damage the interests of a Western democratic country and so help to its enemies – no this is not the case; such secrets are enthusiastically searched for and published by typical democratic media. Excessive vulgarity might occur to us as another reason, but quickly we drop the idea as we well know the typical media. So, what should be the reason for
overlooking a scoop? The answer is the political agenda or the personal taste of the journalists who avoid negatively imaging a favorite person or side, or positively imaging a disliked side. Let us have several examples. 
      A) On one of his trips to Africa in 1998, Bill Clinton was shaking hands with a crowd, when suddenly losing contact with his guards and being stricken with panic, he lost control and started to hysterically beat the people around him, trying to extricate from their touches, fear and hatred replacing Hollywood smile on his face. An amazing and authentic scene, but it was broadcast only once the first day – and then it disappeared from all important TV stations forever.
      B) On August 12 this year the famous Hollywood actress Lauren Bacall died at the age of 89 – all TV channels around the world reported about her death and reviewed her life. Being born Betty Perske, she later became a sex symbol and the last wife of Humphrey Bogart. She got onto the list of the 25 greatest screen female legends in American film history, unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 15, 1999. The public would surely be amused to hear that she was a cousin of the Israeli president Shimon Peres [1] – but big TV stations (e.g., BBC, Sky News, France 24) withdrew the fact.
     C) On October 5 this year, an explosion shattered the secret military complex in Parchin, southeast of Teheran, where Iran supposedly tests equipment for eventual loading nuclear warheads onto ballistic missiles. The explosion was seen even in thirty kilometers distant Teheran, and the effects of the explosion in the center of the complex was shown on a satellite image published by AP. New York Times reported the explosion on October 6 [2], and some newspapers mentioned the event during following days. The event got unexpectedly restrained acceptance by the newspapers, and was nearly ignored by big TV stations (e.g., BBC, Sky News, France 24).
      Case A) of Bill Clinton is quite simple; the political agenda and the personal taste of most journalists are identical with the agenda and taste of Bill Clinton, and the journalists loved their president, despite his scandals (or for his scandals). Therefore, this interesting but negative scene was deleted from history.
     Case B) of Lauren Bacall is more difficult to explain, as conventional wisdom would suggest that the media might love to connect a sex symbol (also being a politically correct actress who allegedly was a staunch opponent of McCarthyism) with a famous Nobel peace prize winning president. The most probable explanation for the media’s reluctance to get the scoop and connect the two famous figures seems to be ordinary anti-Israelism or anti-Semitism. Despite Peres’ popularity with the Leftists, nobody wanted the Bacall’s image to be tarnished by Jewish or even Israeli connection – but please suggest other possibilities. The fact is that on September 5 this year, less than month after the Bacall's death, all the world media reported that the famous London murderer of the 19th centurt, Jack the Ripper, was a Jew [3], athough it was from the beginning clear that the report was a canard.
      Case C) of the silenced Parchin explosion results from the journalists’ support for negotiating with Iran, which is preferred to any conflict, even if Iran should eventually emerge as a nuclear power. Said explosion might be a symptom of Israeli attempts to sabotage the desired peaceful arrangement with Iran. The political agenda and personal taste lead most journalists to avoid negatively imaging Iran during the hopeful negotiations, and to avoid positively imaging Israel’s strike capabilities.
      Suppressing the news which contradicts the personal agenda and taste of the journalists, and ignoring undesired events belong to a toolbox of the mainstream media people, other tools include emphasizing desired events – or inventing them if needed, cleansing the chosen positive side, blackening the chosen negative side, distorting reality in many inventive ways, and a lot of others. It is depressing that the media do not provide objective information and distort the truth, and still more depressing is that the distortion is mostly to the same direction – to the left. Nearly uniform political agenda and personal taste of most journalists explain similar reactions of most media. Like synchronized movement of fish or birds in flock even without communication, the Left instincts of the journalists lead to uniform behavior of the media.
     
[1]http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Lauren-Bacall-accomplished-actress-and-cousin-of-Shimon-Peres-dead-at-89-370927 
[2]http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/world/middleeast/two-in-tehran-are-missing-after-explosion-near-military-complex.html?_r=0