During the keynote speech he gave to the Newcastle Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly annual dinner dance last year, Tim Anderson remarked on the dominance of the world news at the time with stories of floods in the US. Why was this, he mused? Was it that the floods had laid waste to entire cities, destroyed an economy or caused massive loss of life?
In fact the US floods, Anderson argued, were news only because the TV pictures were plentiful. Far worse, more damaging floods had swept through parts of China, Bangladesh and other Third World nations earlier in the year, yet these were barely reported.
The establishment media use news as another entertainment. Only sanitary stories complete with easy visuals usually make it to the screen, or the front page. The continuing plight of Somalis, the politics of Bosnia, the statistics of black deaths in Australian jails, get a passing mention at best.
You could almost bet that the establishment press will never print a story on a successful medical innovation made by Cuban doctors. They would rather write articles decrying the state of the Cuban economy, blaming it on the Cuban government and mentioning the US blockade only in passing.
Macabre as it may seem, that's why the mass media love an LA earthquake. A few deaths (not too many), lots of good pictures, instantly on the wire (not too gruesome) and a few tales of heroism. Nothing like that to take our minds off the real international issues and leave us feeling overwhelmed and isolated.
In Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, you won't read about the LA quakes. You won't read about the floods in Kansas. You won't read about President Clinton's new hairstyle. You will read the international news that the others choose not to print. You will be presented with the facts of the situation, and who is really to blame. You will be informed and educated, but you won't be left feeling powerless and ineffectual.
In order to effect social change, it's important to know what society really is. Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly — it really is your newspaper.