In Gaza we have witnessed a litany of lies by Israel and America peddled by our media day after day. The lives of white Jews and Christians are clearly more valuable than the lives of brown Muslims. (An updated post from Aug 23, 2021.)
Most political colonies have come to an end. But a colonial mind set continues in the media. That media mind set in turn promotes a “colonization of the mind”. It accepts the Washington consensus.
There are recent examples of the way the White Man’s Media (WMM) slavishly follows the Washington consensus on the war in Ukraine. The Washington/Kiev propaganda is recycled with little question. Zelensky’s nonstop propaganda is not seriously examined.
An example of the Washington consensus at work is its lack of interest in the high probability that US/Poland were responsible for the sabotage of Nord Stream. WMM initially was full of stories that the Russians were responsible. When that became less and less plausible the WMM changed tack and suggested that trying to pin the US was really a Russian disinformation campaign. The likely, perhaps certain responsibility, of the US was well and truly run off the rails by the WMM.
Another example is that the WMM has avoided almost any mention that Russia was interested in peace talks within months of the outbreak of war. Boris Johnson scuttled the Turkish peace proposals. There was scarcely a mention in the WMM. Even when Donald Trump on Oct 8 called for peace talks the WMM was silent. Peace talks offend the Washington mindset that plans endless wars for any misbehavior.
The Washington Club sees Ukrainians as cannon fodder to weaken Russia. So don’t talk about peace.
The WWM view of the world as framed by Washington is accepted as true and right. Australian media, including the ABC and The Guardian slavishly follow. Our journalists have been on the Washington drip feed for so long they are incapable of seeing the world differently. They have been groomed by decades of endless US propaganda.
US legacy media – CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, Fox News and Western news agencies – in association with drivers of US power and privilege, the military, business, think-tanks and security agencies exert dangerous and destructive influence that has contributed to the killing of millions of people. Add to that the way legacy media has helped excuse the way in which the US has attempted to overthrow, and often successfully overthrown, numerous governments around the world. The “indispensable state” regards it as quite natural that US hegemony should be enforced everywhere, with WMM support.
Just as the British East India Company effectively ran Britain and its empire, so the US military and business complex, along with its elite supporters particularly in the media supports Western hegemony. No US president, and certainly no Australian prime minister or Leader of the Opposition is prepared to challenge the US Imperium.
A person from Mars who reads and listens to Australian media would conclude that we are an island parked off New York or London. The ABC is no exception. It has a Planet America program as if we are a state of the US! Perhaps we are.
Many of our journalists who attack China relentlessly have little or no experience of China let alone any Chinese language skills. On overseas assignments they seldom go beyond the Australian Embassy and the Foreign Correspondents Club. They are more like Cold War warriors than professional journalists. Or maybe just stenographers!
The “world view” we get in Australia from these “journalists” is a derivative view of the world as seen from London, New York and Washington.
Most of the news we get in Australia about China, Indonesia, India and Vietnam is via Western news agencies. These media snapshots are usually about the exotic and dangerous- a coup here, a flood there. Not surprisingly we remain ignorant and fearful of Asia.
Our “colonial” media structure was laid down long ago. It remains today.
We talk glibly about our future in Asia, but we are stuck in a US and UK media cul-de-sac.
With the active encouragement of our media, we have been drawn into countless US military invasions. Then we had the war on terror. Now we have the vilification of China, perhaps even a war. The US never runs out of opportunities for war.
It is not that Chinese behavior and its human rights record has worsened or is beyond criticism. What has changed and what is feared is the growing power and influence of China. It is successful. That is seen as a threat to US hegemony. That fear of China is reflected in our legacy media in the US and the UK spewing out an endless daily campaign of anti-China stories. And our media follow.
Led by the US, our media showed no interest in “democracy” in Hong Kong throughout over a century of British rule. But now that Hong Kong is properly recognized as part of China, the US government, supported by its media, suddenly became concerned about democracy and independence for Hong Kong. They encouraged the 2019 insurrection.
The US has rained death, destruction and displacement on tens of millions of Muslims in the Middle East over the past 20 years. Now the US media shows a remarkable and belated concern about the persecution of Muslims in China. The US record, like Australia’s treatment of Indigenous people, is a blemish for all time. But who seems to care? Certainly not our own media, which wastes no opportunity to attack China.
The association of legacy media with the powerful is everywhere. As Alex Lo in the South China Morning Post wrote in August 2021, “It has long been known that the Department of Defense in the US and other government agencies such as the CIA, not only support film and cable production in Hollywood but also actively intervene and manipulate their content.”
And in June, Lo described how a long list of former US security chiefs e.g. John Brennan and James Clapper, joined US media — NBC, MSNBC and CNN.
Australian security heads have been leading the demonization of China with help from the Five Eyes. But we get a double whammy when our derivative media draws heavily on US legacy media that in turn is heavily influenced by former US security chiefs with their “expert opinions” and a track record of undermining and overthrowing overseas governments.
But Australian media does not have a problem just being dominated by legacy US and UK media. We have a particular problem. Its name is Rupert Murdoch, an American citizen who owns two-thirds of Australia’s metropolitan dailies and more.
News Corp was a key supporter of the Iraq War — the Murdoch War. Of the 173 Murdoch papers worldwide only one, The Hobart Mercury opposed the war. Murdoch told us in 2003: “I think Bush acted very morally, very correctly. US troops will soon be welcomed as liberators”. His foreign editor on The Australian, Greg Sheridan, could not contain himself. “The bold eagle of American power is aloft, high above the humble earth. For as it soars and sweeps it sees victory, power and opportunity”. He is still in his job. Murdoch prefers loyalty to competence in all those around him, including his family.
Even some of the legacy media apologized for their support of the illegal war in Iraq. But never Murdoch nor for that matter John Howard.
News Corp in Australia for over a decade has also led the campaign of denial on climate change.
Forgive me for quoting royalty but Prince Harry put it rather well about Rupert Murdoch. Harry said: “I couldn’t think of a single human being in the 300,000 years of history of the species who has done more damage to our collective sense of reality.”
The US military/business/security complex exercises destructive and pervasive power. Legacy media supplies a favorable frame for that complex.
Our derivative media ties us to the white legacy media of the North Atlantic. It frames our view of the world. It shuts us off from our region where are future will be determined.
Our WWM pulls us back day after day to the Anglosphere, to our past instead of our future.
John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.
Republishing from PEARLS & IRRITATIONS website: https://johnmenadue.com/best-of-2022-white-mans-media-the-washington-consensus-and-legacy-media-frames-and-conditions-our-thinking-and-actions-an-updated-repost-by-john-menadue-oct-17-2022/
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
