[Marxism] The Press of the West

[Chris Brady <cdbrady@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Press of the West
--a generic title for the capitalist media, with multiple meanings
associated with "press"

The Press of the West, all the media in unison actually, like a
well-rehearsed choir criticized "armed thugs loyal to Aristide" as
crucial fuses that ignited the current crisis.  Sometimes they're called
"government militias" or "gun-toting gangs of young toughs" that
brutalized the populace in the name of the slum priest President.  But
whatever the description, the derogatory designation of a group of poor
people in Haiti has become one of the more familiar boilerplates that
can be predictably observed in just about every report on Haiti in the
Press of the West.  It reminds one of the elitist pillorying of the
Parisian mobs of the French Revolution.

These political entities, les gangs d'Aristide, may have functional
similarities to Cuban Committees in Defence of the Revolution, but
perhaps were deformed by their births into the vicious hostilities of an
incomplete revolt, an episode in the history of the American Lake
(a.k.a., the Caribbean Sea) that may resolve into a brief mutiny of
exploited masses rather than any experiment in democracy.  For all we
know, they may be an approximation of Soviet militias criminalized in
the Press of the West in the early years of the Russian Revolution.  All
that we can be certain of is that the Press of the West can neither
delve as deep nor as comprehensively as it would if it was devoted to
real reportage, instead of playing a critical role in the apparatus of
the capitalist state.

Recent reports on Haiti invariably contain some strain of "Aristide was
re-elected in 2000 in a vote widely criticized as flawed."  One may
wonder how widely or how flawed, or how flawed they were compared to
other elections in the Caribbean more acceptable to President Bush, such
as the election of President Bush.  But we've hear this from others on
the Left.  What I wish to focus on here is that tendency to boilerplate,
to make the knee-jerk response in the context of the report that cleaves
to the dominant line.  It's like certain sectarian publications whose
articles always conclude with a by-now boring absolutist finality, i.e.,
some variation on "ONLY what WE say is correct." Or people who cross
themselves when they mention a dead familiy member. The religious
connotation is apt because they appear like litanies, reminders of the
correct perspective, the official truth, and they appear in almost every
report on the topic through almost every conduit whether broadcast or in
print, like a stamp of authority.

We remember the boilerplate reproofs of the Soviet Union, the typical
Press of the West photos of Fidel-usually from a dramatic angle, with
mouth wide open, shouting, haranguing, gesticulating wildly: the
insinuations of passionate madness-the description of opposition forces
and figures in places like Haiti, Cuba, and Venezuela that include Human
Rights advocates, champions of democracy, and anti-communists.  Here's a
typical example from the Washington Post; guess what country it's
about:  His opposition is made up of  "former supporters, civic
organizations, human rights groups and other democratic forces who seek
to strengthen the democratic process."*

By now we should be put on alert by such buzzy phrases, and interrogate
the so-called "human rights groups" and "civic forces" to find out just
who they are.  We should know by now how the USA has used the banner of
"Human Rights" as a cover for the destruction of economic and social
rights, and to advance the privileges of the minority.  We should know
by now that the "civic forces" oft supported by Washington have been of
the Kiwanis Club/Chamber of Commerce variety, replete with the usual
suspects: bankers, brokers, investors, dealers, lawyers, "middle class"
managers and professionals, in other words, trimmers and traitors to
people.

The Press of the West loves "former supporters." What could be more
convincing to the casual reader than the inside story from an eyewitness
who realizes, finally, that they were duped, led astray, sucked in by
the seductions of sinister scoundrels?  Remember those crazy, camp films
from the Fifties?  "I was a Commie!"  The headline, approximately:
Castro Crony sees the Light.  The radio interview: Once a member of the
Sandinista inner circle, now the wiser.  The magazine profile: Supported
Chavez but turned off by his arrogant disregard of democracy --which
legitimizes an arrogant disregard of democracy on the part of his
opponents, I guess, in someone's book of legitimacy.  Which leads to the
most obviously duplicitous descriptions of democracy, etc., ever
witnessed by a wondering world that if we were gods instead of human,
that is, if we were regaled by people's follies and foibles, hypocrisies
and hooplah, we'd be laughing to tears.


*"Q&A :  After the Uprising in Haiti" by Jefferson Morley, Washington
Post, Tuesday, March 9, 2004.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10067-2004Feb26.html

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