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Journalists and the news media generally are taking stock of the presidential election results from the United States. Almost universally, reporters and editors - not limited to the US - were shocked to see controversial candidate Donald Trump elected. Concerns are being raised about his campaign promises to punish reporters and their employers.
“Worrying signals” led journalism advocate Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) to “call on (Mr. Trump) to ensure respect for press freedom and free speech under the First Amendment,” said a statement from RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire (November 9). “The press must be able to carry out its work without fear of reprisal from a hostile White House.” (See more about elections and media here)
The organization cites threats to take legal action against the New York Times and Washington Post for “purposely negative” reporting. And, too, there were the regular taunts and insults. The annual RSF Press Freedom Index ranks the United States 41st in the world, below Slovenia and above Burkina Faso. (See more about press freedom here)
The most ardent supporters, well documented, are openly hostile to traditional news outlets and their reporters for “bias” while eating up a regular diet of erroneous or out-right fake news from right-wing sources. A Trump supporter wearing a shirt emblazoned with “Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some Assembly Required” was photographed (Reuters November 5) at a rally a few days before the election, a very unambiguous reference to white supremacist lynchings of African-Americans.
In other “illiberal” parts of the world, the trial of RSF Turkey representative Erol Onderoglu and two other press freedom campaigners for “terrorist propaganda” began in Istanbul this week. RSF recently added President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to its expanding list of press freedom “predators.”
Polling is finished. Punditry is over. TV news is dead. Truth is but a memory. As the world enters the Trump era, these things we know.
Vast resources spent on new and improved public opinion research, expected to hook readers and viewers into revealing insights, were wasted. Who could not have missed that a significant set of people were beyond science? Polling was wounded by the UK referendum on exiting the European Union. Now it is mortal.
From newspaper columnists to TV talking-heads, punditry failed ingloriously. Sharing insightful thought is one thing, appearing to speak from an Ivory Tower something else. Barely visible radio howlers and website flame-throwers get more traction. (See more about elections and media here)
On the TV news tombstone will be etched the prescient words of CBS chairman Leslie Moonves: Donald Trump’s candidacy “may not be good for America, but it’s damned good for CBS.” TV news channels - hardly limited to the US - lowered the relevance threshold to minuscule, repeating - sometimes manufacturing - gossip, flash and trash. But, ad revenues are up. (See more about TV news here)
On truth, George Orwell saw it coming… and going.
American songwriter Bob Dylan was awarded a few weeks ago the Nobel Prize for Literature to the consternation of some literary elites. His laudable career rose into popular consciousness in an era of considerable change. And he wrote about it brilliantly:
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no telling who that it's naming
For the loser now will be later to win
Cause the times they are a-changing
Times They Are A-Changin’ (1964) Bob Dylan
Social media is so very popular, nearly two billion people regularly log-on to enjoy cat photos and catch-up on all the news from great aunt Nellie. It is also a prime mover of hate speech. Rules have been drawn up to prompt removal but free speech absolutists see any restrictions as anathema to democratic values. Hate trumps civility.
Facebook is in trouble again. The Bamberg, Germany State prosecutor opened an investigation this week into comments posted to the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) Facebook page directed at Archbishop Ludwig Schick “for incitement and insult,” reported public radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk (November 7). There were more than 1000 hateful posts, some threatening physical harm including death, starting at the end of October.
The Facebook flaming began with a reference to Archbishop Schick’s published remarks on the possibility of a Muslim elected to the German presidency, in which he said the Church should have no problem. That set off roaring from the racist, xenophobic AfD. Most of the posts were subsequently deleted and the Archbishop has been given police protection, noted Süddeutsche Zeitung (November 7). (See more about social media here)
Just days earlier Munich prosecutors accepted for investigation a complaint against Facebook and several of its executives for violating German anti-hate speech laws, which require prompt removal of tightly defined threatening and racist posts from any online media. Würzburg attorney Chan-jo Jun originally filed a criminal complaint last year with the Hamburg prosecutor, who declined last March to move forward citing Facebook’s US and Irish legal domiciles as outside German jurisdiction. He then filed in Bavaria this past September, citing more than 400 “legally unambiguous statements” posted to Facebook.
The Bavarian prosecutor’s office is taking a different view, considering “the deeds prosecutable,” said a spokesperson. “Also, German law is applicable to internet giants. For the first time, there is the political will to impose sanctions against Facebook.”
Under pressure from the Munich filing Facebook retained Bertelsmann internet services subsidiary Arvato last January to meet the demands of deleting racist and anti-refugee posts, reported Der Spiegel (January 15). “We are not commenting on the status of a possible investigation,” said a Facebook spokesperson in reference to the Bavarian filing, “but we can say that the allegations lack merit and there has been no violation of German law by Facebook or its employees.”
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