The mainstream corporate media just don’t get it. After watching the coverage of #Idle No More,
#J11 and Chief Theresa Spence’s hunger strike, it is clear that a major
obstacle to getting our message across to mainstream society is the media
itself. I must admit that I am not an
avid media watcher: I don’t read any printed newspapers or magazines (except
alternative ones), the only news I watch is CBC News Network and the The
National, and occasionally I may check out CTV and Global just to see what spin
they are putting to a story I am interested in.
However, I do listen to CBC Radio
daily (no ads) and I get my print news online from alternative sources. Lately,
I have been considering not watching any TV news at all.
However, lately, during the life of Idle No More, I have
been making exceptions to my rule of ignoring mainstream media, only to be
affirmed that my mainstream media boycott is a wise course of action. Don’t get me wrong – I used to be a reporter,
editor, even started my own magazine which ran for five years (no ads). Furthermore, I believe we need a strong and
vibrant media in order to have a healthy democracy. I may even be a bit old-school in favouring
the role of print and radio media, and looking somewhat askance at social
media. So I am not some raving
anti-media fanatic.
I am in favour of informed decision-making, intelligence,
critical or big-picture analysis, investigative journalism and
thought-provoking articles. But that is
not what you get with any of the mainstream media (individual exceptions, of
course), and based on some of the columns Huff Post has been publishing lately,
it looks like they want to be mainstream as well. By the way, I do not include Fox News or the Toronto Sun as part of any
kind of media (further comment about that would be a waste of time).
So what don’t the media get.
With respect to Idle No More, the media does not understand anything to
do with Nation to Nation relationship, honouring and restoring the historic
Treaties, the history and ongoing practice of colonialism in Canada or
sovereignty of First Nations. These are
big picture items that require a fundamental power shift in how Canada is run. To understand the emergence and popularity of
Idle No More, to understand why so many chiefs boycotted the Harper-AFN
meeting, and to understand why Chief Spence took the drastic step of going on a
hunger strike, you have to deal with the very issues the media doesn’t
get.
Instead what the media asks for is a list of specific
demands on the part of Idle No More. The
media would be much happier if Idle No More spokespersons said: “We want more
and better housing;” “We want programs to fight diabetes or improve health
indicators;” “We want jobs;” “We want economic development programs;” “We want
more suicide intervention or addiction programs.” This would fit much more conveniently into
the dominant media narrative (and public stereotype) about Aboriginal people:
that they are an impoverished, unhealthy people living in terrible
conditions. In other words, they are
inferior. Based on this, the media can
then package and sell a story much easier because it fits with what a
significant segment of the public expects or assumes about “Indians”.
Another reason media asks for specific demands such as those
listed above is because they have an orientation to what is possible and
practical, what is deliverable, to their notion of reality. So asking for repeal of Bills that have
already passed through Parliament and approved by Senate, or restoring a Nation
to Nation relationship, or having the Crown (through Governor-General) present
at a meeting with government and First Nations is a non-deliverable according
to Harper, and the media has largely bought into that. If it’s not practical or realistic, the media
will dismiss it, and do so with a lot of condescension. This is very similar to how the American
media got sucked into Bush’s notion that reality is whatever he made it out to
be.
One other factor to be mindful of with the media is that
they have a notion about what they call balance or objectivity. This is the way the media notion of balance
works: if we find someone who says “A” then we have to find someone who says
“Z”, and then the viewer can decide for herself and probably land up somewhere
around “M”. Then the media thinks it has
done its job and brought balance. But
what if the media quotes someone who is saying “M”, or even saying “C” and it
is actually the truth. Doesn’t matter. Then they go off the other end of the scale
and find someone who is saying “ZZ”, simply to reach what they think of as
balance. Case in point? The Lang-O’Leary Report on CBC. Amanda Lang is a little right of centre in
her economic perspective so they go and find someone like Terry O’Leary who is
way off the scale (ZZZ), and they think they have balance. Whether it’s intended or not, this is also a
very effective divide and conquer technique.
Idle No More is about honouring the Earth and about a
transformational change where First Nations are in charge of their own
destiny. As soon as a movement for
fundamental change yields to the seduction of providing specific demands, the
system wins. Then the government can talk about these demands for years to
come, in the meantime allowing their corporate masters to continue the ongoing
destruction, and finally providing a watered down settlement that doesn't
change anything, take it or leave it. Such an outcome would only reinforce the
power of the corporate state and allow it to play the benevolent benefactor
role which keeps First Nations and Metis people in submission and dependant.
The principle of ending corporate and colonial rule and shifting power to the
people must be remain the focus of Idle No More.
