One of the publications I enjoy studying weekly is a magazine called: The Week. It reflects news coverage from around the world and showcases many of the actual editorials and commentary offered concerning foreign perceptions of American politics, culture, morals and demeanors.
It’s enlightening because these people affect their governments’ responses to American moves in the economic, political and cultural realms. From there they add the # of their culture and ethnicity to develop a response to effects of American influence on their economies, cultures and politics.
So many Europeans marvel at the perceived fact that Washington was hijacked by ultra-conservatives ready to destroy the nation if not obeyed by the elected minions in Congress. Europeans wanted to believe in Obama’s ability to bring “hope and change” but imprinted their ideas of what “hope and change“ actually means.
Their perception of a just and righteous world follows a heavily influenced vein of Socialist-Marxist development where everybody comes together under the umbrella of a beneficent state and all work together for the betterment of society. They evidently forgot the Iron Curtain, the Communist Regimes of the USSR, Bulgaria, East Germany, Albania, Hungary and myriad others world-wide. There’s been a veil of forgetfulness descending over these people’s eyes when it comes to the horrors of greedy, powerful individuals hijacking the dreams of overly idealistic theoreticians.
The European community takes the news offered them by American news services and develops their understanding of American ethos. Therefore if they are quoted stories and impressions offered by liberal or left-wing sources in American politics they develop an awareness of ALL Americans based on a subjective element.
After all, who knows better about the American people than American journalists? It almost seems logical but for one thing: the subjective element of the commentary appended to any and almost all news reports.
The reportage is developed from the prejudicial viewpoint of the observer/reporter. An example of this would be Dan Rather, formerly of CBS News. He couldn’t speak about former President G.W. Bush without a commentary insinuated to elevate the reporter over the element of the story. If you do a web-search, check out the CBS Report immediately surrounding the events of 9/11/2001. It shows exactly what I’m discussing here as a description of what is meant by subjective vs. objective reporting.
Objective reporting is what Joe Friday used to ask for on a criminal investigation: “just the fact”.
Subjective reporting is when the reporter tells you what he/she believes the events mean, the effects they will have on the people in the area, what could happen next if this, that or the other thing happens and how the world could react to all that’s been mentioned. It’s prejudiced because it’s opinion masquerading as fact. But most insidiously it’s fact used to conceal the prejudice. When questions are asked to incite and draw a specific response and allow for the twisting of a public opinion as developed by the reporter, it is no more than propaganda.
Propaganda pertains to the growth of a point of view among the public elements doing the interpretation. The interpretations are products of the personal mindsets, preconceptions and experiences of the news receiver. None of this is built on a foundation of fact or the completion of reasoned arguments, but more the edifice of internal feelings and emotions of questionable maturity. The thoughts come from within and could be illusions crafted for them rather than the realities of personal experience and understanding as it refers to what is known, not merely described.
Subjective reportage destroys the realities in favor of the perceived. In this it creates illusion, smoke and mirrors; hocus complementing pocus.
As Europeans watch Obama’s quest to charm the cobra back into the basket they fail to see ALL the elements involved in the economic mess we’re dealing with now. They don’t get the facts so they act on the theater presented them. They only know what they’re told. They all look through the jewel of existence through a different facet-just as we do.
Does that sound familiar?
Thanks for listening
