Who Will Find the Facts for Us?

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

by Guest Contributor Brian Robinson

This past Friday, I spent some time watching  ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ on HBO. While you may or may not agree with Maher’s politics or his point of view on a number of different topics, his show is really quite entertaining. I really do value the free and honest exchange of ideas and most network TV and cable TV shows have to (or choose to, in cable’s case) stick to the rules of the FCC, which puts a de facto chill on how people express themselves. On Maher’s show, not so much. The ‘F’ Bombs fly like US military drones on this show and it like those drones, they usually have specific targets when the bombs are dropped.

On Friday’s show, I was reminded of why I really do have a contempt for the job that American journalists seem to be doing, or not, these days. One of Maher’s recurring guests is an investigative journalist named Jeremy Scahill. For the past few years Scahill has been looking into the actions of a company named Blackwater that does paramilitary work for the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, and possibly (likely?) other countries around the world. They ‘augment’ the efforts of the US military’s fighting force in both countries, and as a matter of fact OUTNUMBER the amount of official US military personnel in those countries (there are actually over 600 different companies that have private security forces in these two countries.) Scahill’s efforts have uncovered incendiary allegations of crimes ranging from murder and arms smuggling to child prostitution. All of which is carried out in the name of the citizens of The United States.  The use of these forces was significantly increased by the Bush administration during the two wars we have prosecuted since 2002, and has remained in force under the Obama administration thus far.

At one point in the show Scahill challenged another show guest, Chuck Todd, Chief White House Correspondent and political director for NBC News. Scahill asserted that the current White House Press Corp — with the exception of the venerable Helen Thomas — has really not done due diligence in following up on the current situation in Afghanistan. Todd, looking rather defensive from the moment Scahill turned to him, visibly bristled at Scahill’s pointed comments. As soon as Scahill stopped speaking, giving Todd an opportunity to respond, Todd smirked, looked away and essentially said that ‘everyone in that room has had a question on Afghanistan and you got your little agenda out there…’ (completely paraphrased and not a quote.)

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Jeremy Scahill

Honestly, I was livid about Todd’s dismissive attitude towards Scahill. Todd has the kind of direct access to the President, via the Press Secretary, that puts him in a singularly unique position to help get to the bottom of this situation. Will Obama, or the Press Secretary Gibbs, give Todd or anyone in that room the real plan for Blackwater in Afghanistan with one question? No. But with feet being put to the fire about that situation by a number of PROFESSIONAL journalists it will force some kind of response on the part of the administration. There are answers owed to us, the American citizenry. Crimes are (allegedly) being committed in our name on foreign soil. Of course we all realize that horrible things happen in war, but when these horrible incidents have been institutionalized and codified by the government, we need to know and talk about it. We need to demand that it stop.

And this is where I feel let down by those in the industry we call  ‘The Fourth Estate’. Journalists in our society take on a special status when they go into profession. Their job is to probe, provocate, question, dig and, yes, investigate. Is this what you really feel you get from Fox, MSNBC, CNN, et al? Do I watch Cable news? Sure. But I have the view that these channels are, for the most part, opinion shows and not news shows. Most of the time, we are getting people’s opinions about the news rather than the actual news. I don’t get the impression that Wolf Blitzer or Lou Dobbs really are breaking news; they aren’t the ones putting rubber on the road and getting the story from the horse’s mouth – they are, essentially, news ‘readers’. I just don’t envision any of the people in front of the cameras having done any of the real work it takes to find out what’s going on behind the doors in the halls of power. One thing you will constantly notice is that the same three or four stories will be repeated over and over in slightly different forms on all of the daily newscasts. Now, this isn’t to say that there shouldn’t be editorial decisions made day to day on what should and shouldn’t be reported. Obviously, there needs to be some direction on what is presented to the audience. But, what is obvious to anyone who looks a little closer is that the news channels these days essentially follow the bread crumbs that other institutions lay down for them. In other words, how many of the stories we see really create a new narrative on a daily basis? Don’t they all at least seem to be working from the same script that the government, corporations or other media entities have provided them?

One recent example was the Henry Gates arrest. How did the press end up spending all that valuable time on the head butting of two massive egos like that? Why would we spend hours upon hours wondering what kind of beer they would have at the White House? Couldn’t we have spent more time and resources on the current state of our economy and efforts to revive it, the two wars we are engaged in, the poverty in our streets or the political corruption of our corporations?!

Now, I do understand that every ill or wrongdoing in our society and the world cannot be solved by the press, government, religion, schools, etc. But, I think we should demand more from our journalists, whether online, print or broadcast. They are our voice and true conduits to power, and if they don’t ask the questions we need the answers to, we lose. We lose security, we lose representation, we lose life.