Sunday, January 22, 2006
Nothing New
Recent mainstream media coverage of the Minuteman controversy--one on the Canadian border, the other on the Mexican border--illustrate the limits of public education through network television, chain newspapers, and commercial radio.
In fact, if you stop to consider the patronizing language by the two newspapers (linked below) toward those protesting vigilante violence, it becomes easier to understand how the Minuteman militia--like the militias of a decade ago--working in tandem with the Republican right-wing agenda, actually rely on media cooperation to downplay liberal concerns; to conceal their violent histories, criminal convictions, and direct links to racist organizations; and to use the bigots' phony, stage-managed concerns to lend support to anti-democratic public policy simultaneously winding its way through state and national legislatures.
Hence, for those fighting fascism in the US, competing for media attention is an almost pointless exercise and use of energy. Better to develop their own forms of communication for educational and organizing purposes, and only use the hostile-to-democracy mainstream media strategically. Otherwise, they only defeat themselves.
http://news.bellinghamherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060122/NEWS03/601220324/1001/NEWS
http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2006_4040200
In fact, if you stop to consider the patronizing language by the two newspapers (linked below) toward those protesting vigilante violence, it becomes easier to understand how the Minuteman militia--like the militias of a decade ago--working in tandem with the Republican right-wing agenda, actually rely on media cooperation to downplay liberal concerns; to conceal their violent histories, criminal convictions, and direct links to racist organizations; and to use the bigots' phony, stage-managed concerns to lend support to anti-democratic public policy simultaneously winding its way through state and national legislatures.
Hence, for those fighting fascism in the US, competing for media attention is an almost pointless exercise and use of energy. Better to develop their own forms of communication for educational and organizing purposes, and only use the hostile-to-democracy mainstream media strategically. Otherwise, they only defeat themselves.
http://news.bellinghamherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060122/NEWS03/601220324/1001/NEWS
http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2006_4040200
