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Japanese News: The Least Independent and Trustworthy Media in the Democratic World?
KYOTO, March 21, 2005 -- As Dan Rather signed off from The CBS Evening News, and a slew of media scandals continued to reverberate all across America -- ranging from the US Education Department paying journalists to promote its policies to propagandistic "video news releases" produced by other government agencies being used as fake news on television stations -- the latest Gallup Poll showed that only 20 percent of Americans still trust their news media. It could be worse, said NBC News president Neal Shapiro: "We're still higher than congressmen and car salesman." Shapiro is correct. But if you think that the U.S. media's problems are bad, at least they have not yet sunk to the level of America's closest trading partner, Japan, whose media is cringingly compliant to government interests. Many decades ago, Japan pioneered the consolidated ownership structure and cozy government relationships that currently threaten US media credibility. During the 1930s, more than 3,000 independent outlets were put out of business until just six staunchly pro-war corporations dominated Japan's news media. Sound familiar? The resulting structure of Japan's media remains largely the same today -- untouched by any post-World War II war reforms. The worst holdover from before the war is Japan's system of so-called press clubs -- roughly 1,300 press pools housed inside the very government and corporate entities they cover. Press-club reporters work closely with PR officers and tend to regurgitate the information fed them, often without cross-checking. They receive exclusive access to sources, and hundreds of millions of dollars in perks and subsidies. In exchange, they police themselves. Any journalist caught straying from the approved line is punished by colleagues -- even blackballed. The rest Snipped. If you cut through the Leftist spin there is an important truth here which the article does nothing to elucidate. If you don't trust the MSM to provide unbiased news, then who do you trust? My answer for a number of years has been blogs, especially RB. Blogs provide both a fisking of facts and counterspin, that is, any conclusions or trends will be challenged and other explanations offered. Over time blogs will migrate to radio and online TV. The SW industry talks about a market of one. I anticipate a media demographic of one. Interesting times indeed. Posted by: phil_b 2005-03-22 |
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