Blaming the Victim
Bill Falzett
October 30, 2006
As a clinical psychologist, I treat victims of violence. At times, these people are blamed for their circumstances. Victims are usually on the short end of the power continuum. I recently realized what most of us already know intuitively; -- the American public has become such a case of the “blamed victim”.
The media has gone commercial and is focused on entertainment. As a result, information that makes a difference to voters is secondary or neglected. The answers to the question about why there isn’t larger voter turnout are usually: voter apathy, ignorance, disinterest, and laziness. In other words, the people get blamed for their inactivity and the resulting lack of say-so in government while being misinformed or not informed at all by a media focused on advertising and entertainment. If media conglomerates put the kind of energy and creativity into selling voting and political issues that they do in selling cars or toothpaste, we’d have tremendous voter turnouts.
In the early part of the 20th century, the air waves were viewed as the ‘commons’ – owned by us all. In the 1920s, the precursor to the Fairness Doctrine was passed to assure that the air waves were used responsibly. The media would keep us informed in a fair and balanced fashion.
Social psychology research shows that opinions, fairness, and moral decision-making are more dependent on external circumstances than on internal values. Our current media allows this administration to operate in secrecy. Transparency is blocked by the government and is apparently accepted by much of the media. Such an external environment feeds the fragmentation of groups and increases feelings of individual despair which then lead to scapegoating in many areas. One of those areas is to blame people for their ignorance and apathy rather than their information sources. Freedom of speech should not allow the media to spread misinformation and leave out relevant data without noting it.
I heard a man lamenting the state of our political system with what is a commonly heard cliché – “Oh well, it’s our fault, we get the politicians we deserve.” It is a good thing for the media and our government that many of us are so excessively responsible that we are willing to take the heat for them. What we should be doing is recognizing the sorry state of the media and the lack of transparency in our government. These factors have tremendous impact on voters and turnout.
When President Reagan disemboweled the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, media conglomerates numbered around 50. In his book, The Media Monopoly, Ben Bagdikian said that 5 huge corporations now control the vast majority of all news media in the U.S – Time Warner, Disney, News Corporation, Bertelsman, and Viacom. Media outlets number almost 1,700 daily papers, 8,000 weeklies, 10,000 radio and television stations, 11,000 magazines, 2,500 book publishers.
Unfortunately, these large numbers deepen the problem of excessively concentrated control. If the number of outlets is growing and the number of owners declining, then each owner controls even more formidable communications power. Decreasing regulation since 1987 has led to decreasing quality and quantity of news reporting. The emphasis has become entertainment and pandering to the power centers.
What network would really expose oil-and-gas corporate welfare? What newspaper would carry stories about the huge sums of money spent by media to influence legislators and legislation? What radio station would present a consistently unbiased and balanced view of any significant national conflict? For that matter, what media outlet would even present alternative viewpoints in a balanced format? Not many. In fact, the media spends as much or more than other industry groups on lobbying to maintain their status quo and increase market share.
The threat to the public is that this narrowing control of outlets leads to increasingly high levels of misinformation. It also restricts the presentation of troubling information or differing views. There is great pressure to conform to an agenda dictated by big corporations and the current administration.
Take a simple example like the recent “spinach alarm” in California. The articles said spinach was dangerous. Farmers or packagers were at fault and may even have been responsible to some degree. Few articles explained that E-coli bacteria come from grain fed animals and only from them. Oh, yes, it can come from people or other animals after they become infected. But, it originates in grain fed cows and is spread via their manure.
There are two issues that our limited media does not mention in this charade: What’s being done about the cows and where are the FDA inspectors? The current administration doesn’t want regulation yet people are dying. Over 200 were sickened. It finally took California state health inspectors to track down the real culprit – a cattle operation.
Stories also did not mention the cattle farm by name. The cattle lobby is strong. Let’s remember Oprah’s difficulty with them. Remember also the administration’s single-minded push for de-regulation of business. These factors are affecting lives. People and the media are intimidated by the power of business and the government. Potential voters doubt their ability to have any positive effect. They feel their votes won’t count. Many don’t even bother to vote. Of course, you could fault people who seem so easily discouraged. I wish this one story were the only hurdle. Keep in mind that we are inundated with stories that carry misinformation, lack of information, conflicting information, or lies left unexamined by reporters.
Another example of media sloth -- CNN reported $2 million lost in food stamp fraud last year. Yet, it is difficult to find continuing stories on the millions of dollars given away to farmers last year for drought relief in states with no droughts. Or, consider the billions unaccounted for in Iraq by contractors or persons unknown and what’s being done about that. Or, the millions and billions of dollars given away to oil and gas industry giants. The media does not balance coverage of those wastes. Why is that? Why is there so little outrage motivating publishers and investigative reporters?
What can the average Jane and Joe do? Many opt out because they are ‘underwhelmed’ by their impact on the political process. Many of the people I talked to in a recent campaign felt that they did not count. Many don’t vote. Most were uninformed or misinformed. To borrow a phrase from the President, “it takes a lot of work…” to dig for truth in the current media mines.
People are busy making a living in a troubled economy. The media trumpets the burgeoning stock market, lower unemployment, and smaller budget deficits. That cheerful news is not cheering to the average worker. Medical costs have gone up, wages have stagnated even though worker productivity has increased, and jobs have gone offshore.
There is little emphasis on the notion that when the administration overestimates budget deficits at the beginning of the year they can claim credit when the budget deficits are less later in the year. We are not presented with figures that almost double the deficit when you add in that the Social Security fund has been raided again as it has been in every year since 2002. If you were to take money from your retirement fund, that would be part of your personal deficit, right? The true deficit in the last 6 years is almost $3 trillion not the $1.6 trillion acknowledged by the Bush administration. Where do we find information? Can we count on publishers and reporters to be fair and balanced?
Tax breaks to dividend producing stocks lead to the rich getting richer but don’t generate new jobs. At the same time, the Republican, Anti-tax Congress passed a tax increase on college educations and college savings plans. Teachers who pay for school supplies can no longer deduct those expenses resulting in another Anti-tax tax increase for teachers. These inequities and more are minimized or ignored by a controlled media.
The result of narrowed control of information is that the public is the victim...and the culprit as well – they are blamed for being too “lazy, stupid, uninterested, apathetic or all of the above” to vote to change things. It’s time for the media to be re-regulated with something like the Fairness Doctrine. We need responsible journalism for an educated public. It shouldn’t be so hard for people to get correct and complete information from the media. An informed public is crucial to a true democracy. At present the U.S. is ranked 53rd of 168 countries on the Worldwide Press Freedom Index. Maybe it’s the media that is lazy, stupid, uninterested, apathetic, and intimidated. It’s certainly not as free as it was a short 6 years ago.
The media has gone commercial and is focused on entertainment. As a result, information that makes a difference to voters is secondary or neglected. The answers to the question about why there isn’t larger voter turnout are usually: voter apathy, ignorance, disinterest, and laziness. In other words, the people get blamed for their inactivity and the resulting lack of say-so in government while being misinformed or not informed at all by a media focused on advertising and entertainment. If media conglomerates put the kind of energy and creativity into selling voting and political issues that they do in selling cars or toothpaste, we’d have tremendous voter turnouts.
In the early part of the 20th century, the air waves were viewed as the ‘commons’ – owned by us all. In the 1920s, the precursor to the Fairness Doctrine was passed to assure that the air waves were used responsibly. The media would keep us informed in a fair and balanced fashion.
Social psychology research shows that opinions, fairness, and moral decision-making are more dependent on external circumstances than on internal values. Our current media allows this administration to operate in secrecy. Transparency is blocked by the government and is apparently accepted by much of the media. Such an external environment feeds the fragmentation of groups and increases feelings of individual despair which then lead to scapegoating in many areas. One of those areas is to blame people for their ignorance and apathy rather than their information sources. Freedom of speech should not allow the media to spread misinformation and leave out relevant data without noting it.
I heard a man lamenting the state of our political system with what is a commonly heard cliché – “Oh well, it’s our fault, we get the politicians we deserve.” It is a good thing for the media and our government that many of us are so excessively responsible that we are willing to take the heat for them. What we should be doing is recognizing the sorry state of the media and the lack of transparency in our government. These factors have tremendous impact on voters and turnout.
When President Reagan disemboweled the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, media conglomerates numbered around 50. In his book, The Media Monopoly, Ben Bagdikian said that 5 huge corporations now control the vast majority of all news media in the U.S – Time Warner, Disney, News Corporation, Bertelsman, and Viacom. Media outlets number almost 1,700 daily papers, 8,000 weeklies, 10,000 radio and television stations, 11,000 magazines, 2,500 book publishers.
Unfortunately, these large numbers deepen the problem of excessively concentrated control. If the number of outlets is growing and the number of owners declining, then each owner controls even more formidable communications power. Decreasing regulation since 1987 has led to decreasing quality and quantity of news reporting. The emphasis has become entertainment and pandering to the power centers.
What network would really expose oil-and-gas corporate welfare? What newspaper would carry stories about the huge sums of money spent by media to influence legislators and legislation? What radio station would present a consistently unbiased and balanced view of any significant national conflict? For that matter, what media outlet would even present alternative viewpoints in a balanced format? Not many. In fact, the media spends as much or more than other industry groups on lobbying to maintain their status quo and increase market share.
The threat to the public is that this narrowing control of outlets leads to increasingly high levels of misinformation. It also restricts the presentation of troubling information or differing views. There is great pressure to conform to an agenda dictated by big corporations and the current administration.
Take a simple example like the recent “spinach alarm” in California. The articles said spinach was dangerous. Farmers or packagers were at fault and may even have been responsible to some degree. Few articles explained that E-coli bacteria come from grain fed animals and only from them. Oh, yes, it can come from people or other animals after they become infected. But, it originates in grain fed cows and is spread via their manure.
There are two issues that our limited media does not mention in this charade: What’s being done about the cows and where are the FDA inspectors? The current administration doesn’t want regulation yet people are dying. Over 200 were sickened. It finally took California state health inspectors to track down the real culprit – a cattle operation.
Stories also did not mention the cattle farm by name. The cattle lobby is strong. Let’s remember Oprah’s difficulty with them. Remember also the administration’s single-minded push for de-regulation of business. These factors are affecting lives. People and the media are intimidated by the power of business and the government. Potential voters doubt their ability to have any positive effect. They feel their votes won’t count. Many don’t even bother to vote. Of course, you could fault people who seem so easily discouraged. I wish this one story were the only hurdle. Keep in mind that we are inundated with stories that carry misinformation, lack of information, conflicting information, or lies left unexamined by reporters.
Another example of media sloth -- CNN reported $2 million lost in food stamp fraud last year. Yet, it is difficult to find continuing stories on the millions of dollars given away to farmers last year for drought relief in states with no droughts. Or, consider the billions unaccounted for in Iraq by contractors or persons unknown and what’s being done about that. Or, the millions and billions of dollars given away to oil and gas industry giants. The media does not balance coverage of those wastes. Why is that? Why is there so little outrage motivating publishers and investigative reporters?
What can the average Jane and Joe do? Many opt out because they are ‘underwhelmed’ by their impact on the political process. Many of the people I talked to in a recent campaign felt that they did not count. Many don’t vote. Most were uninformed or misinformed. To borrow a phrase from the President, “it takes a lot of work…” to dig for truth in the current media mines.
People are busy making a living in a troubled economy. The media trumpets the burgeoning stock market, lower unemployment, and smaller budget deficits. That cheerful news is not cheering to the average worker. Medical costs have gone up, wages have stagnated even though worker productivity has increased, and jobs have gone offshore.
There is little emphasis on the notion that when the administration overestimates budget deficits at the beginning of the year they can claim credit when the budget deficits are less later in the year. We are not presented with figures that almost double the deficit when you add in that the Social Security fund has been raided again as it has been in every year since 2002. If you were to take money from your retirement fund, that would be part of your personal deficit, right? The true deficit in the last 6 years is almost $3 trillion not the $1.6 trillion acknowledged by the Bush administration. Where do we find information? Can we count on publishers and reporters to be fair and balanced?
Tax breaks to dividend producing stocks lead to the rich getting richer but don’t generate new jobs. At the same time, the Republican, Anti-tax Congress passed a tax increase on college educations and college savings plans. Teachers who pay for school supplies can no longer deduct those expenses resulting in another Anti-tax tax increase for teachers. These inequities and more are minimized or ignored by a controlled media.
The result of narrowed control of information is that the public is the victim...and the culprit as well – they are blamed for being too “lazy, stupid, uninterested, apathetic or all of the above” to vote to change things. It’s time for the media to be re-regulated with something like the Fairness Doctrine. We need responsible journalism for an educated public. It shouldn’t be so hard for people to get correct and complete information from the media. An informed public is crucial to a true democracy. At present the U.S. is ranked 53rd of 168 countries on the Worldwide Press Freedom Index. Maybe it’s the media that is lazy, stupid, uninterested, apathetic, and intimidated. It’s certainly not as free as it was a short 6 years ago.
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