Within the space of a week, the mainstream press in the United States has embarrassed itself at least three times by confusing fact and fiction Not only have many television stations and newspapers managed to attribute unsourced (and patently false) racist remarks to the conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, they have also managed to attend a fake press conference without realising that they were listening to actors, and devoted dozens of hours and thousands of column inches to the dramatic story of a young boy borne up into the sky by a homemade balloon, only to discover that he had never been inside the balloon and that the whole incident had been staged by his family.
None of this happened within the context of a high-stakes political campaign – where distortion and misinformation are commonplace – but during the routine newsgathering of a relatively quiet week. When CNN first cut to the “balloon boy” saga, it interrupted coverage of a speech by President Obama, seduced no doubt by the greater visual drama of the strange silvery object tumbling through the sky above Colorado, and the prospect of broadcasting a rescue in “real time”. It took a giant anti-climax and a strange and unconvincing explanation from the boy’s parents — the family had appeared in a TV reality show and staged the incident in hopes of being invited to appear on another— before it dawned on the media, and the police, how easily they had been duped.
The Washington press conference was a similar comedy of errors. Since the event was held at the proper venue and the “spokesman” for the American Chamber of Commerce looked like the real thing, the press corps took everything that was said at face value. Never mind that the speaker made jaw-dropping assertion after another, claiming, for example, that America’s businessmen — having finally seen the error of their ways — would embrace strict environmental policies. All the while the press sat there absorbing this high parody with a straight face. When a genuine representative of the Chamber of Commerce interrupted the proceedings, the press were not sure whom to believe. It was only when the activists could not produce a business card that they decided to unmask themselves and explain the joke. Afterwards, in a further postmodern twist, the Yes Men — the group behind the prank — were soon feted by the media they had just deceived, and stayed on the air for many news cycles beyond their notional fifteen minutes.
Perhaps these two mistakes are excusable given the frenetic pace of broadcast journalism in the age of the Internet, but the defaming of Rush Limbaugh cannot be rationalised away so easily. When he decided to buy into the St Louis Rams football franchise, the press reported widely that Limbaugh had made a series of remarks which clearly showed that he was an unrepentant racist – a slur from which nobody in American public life ever truly recovers. Well known for his provocations of the American left, Limbaugh was an easy target. (After the election of president Obama, he memorably rallied the faithful by saying that he hoped the new president “would fail” – a remark which prompted Democratic strategists to brand Limbaugh as the unspoken leader of the Republican party.) However, despite a long track record of intemperate remarks and innuendos, there was absolutely no proof that Limbaugh had uttered any of the offending remarks. Nevertheless, having been damned in the media, which made much of the fact that Limbaugh’s “racism” would sit very badly with the team’s black athletes, he was forced to withdraw from the prospective purchase.
Unforgivably, as it became increasingly clear that Limbaugh had been falsely accused, instead of apologizing shamefacedly, the press generally took the attitude that it was up to Limbaugh to clear his own name since the fictitious statements sounded just like the sort of things that he might say. This decision to gloss over the mistake ended up confirming a longstanding caricature among millions of conservative voters that mainstream news are bastions of the anti-Republican “liberal media.”
These lapses of judgement are of more than passing interest because the rest of the world has tended to follow America’s lead in consuming the news primarily through images. Although it could be argued that Rupert Murdoch’s egregious Fox News channel routinely produces far greater distortions than any of these examples, that merely underscores the dangerous pseudo-authenticity which infotainment poses to any society that wishes to keep its citizens reasonably well-informed. This is not an abstract problem. Not too long ago, America and Britain launched an invasion of Iraq that was based on fictions just as flimsy as any of these hoaxes. After months of speculation disguised as reportage, the Bush administration’s fictions were powerful enough to tip public opinion towards war. Since then, apart from a few discreet mea culpas when the promised weapons of mass destruction could not be found, there has been little improvement in the US media’s gullibility.
In less developed countries the tendency to take seriously and believe whatever is printed or broadcast by the major media outlets — state-owned or private — is no less troubling. And while sensational but empty stories like these dominate the news, far more important matters, like the progress of foreign wars, or political debates about the economy, education, criminal justice or climate change take place largely out of public view, or get lost completely in the surrounding noise.
