The changing media coverage of the
Downing Street Memos provides further evidence in favor of the
propaganda model. The media is reflecting the views of the rich & powerful, emphasising and ignoring facts that conform with or contradict their views. Initially, the memo was ignored. The first memo was ocassionally mentioned in coverage of the British elections, but that's it. The low level of coverage reflected the perspectives of the US
power elite - none of them were saying anything about it and so the
media said little. Some of the British power elite, a close ally of the US
power elite, were saying things about it, though, so there was the ocassional rare mention in coverage of Britain. On June 7 the memo came up in a joint news conference with Bush & Blair. Bush made a few comments on it, and as a result
coverage of the memo increased. The media act as a megaphone for the powerful: when the powerful were saying nothing about the memo they
said nothing, when the most powerful man in the country said something about it they all started covering it. A few relatively powerful people (compared to the average American) - mainly opportunist Democrat politicians - started bringing it up and criticizing Bush over it. Last week they held an informal hearing on the subject. The subject has thus recieved some media coverage, more than before a few politicians were talking about it. However, the vast majority of the power elite haven't been criticizing Bush over the memos or even saying anything about them. The result is media coverage has been fairly low (compare coverage of the memo to coverage of the much less important Michael Jackson trial), only the first memo is mentioned when there is coverage, and a substantial percentage of that coverage has been quite
hostile towards Bush's critics. Many editorials take on a
defensive tone, making up lame excuses for their lack of coverage. Few journalists will admit what they really are: steinographers of power.
"We are inevitably the mouthpiece for whatever administration is in power" -
Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Reporter and former assistant managing editor
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