HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-04-06, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 1988.
Editorials
Victories and losses
The spring of 1968 was a time that shook people across the
United States and around the world. Twenty years ago Monday
Martin Luther King was murdered in Atlanta. A matter of
weeks later Robert Kennedy was assassinated as he celebrated
a primary win that might have set him on the road to becoming
president.
The anniversary of Mr. King’s death this week brings back
memories for those who lived through the period of the turmoil
of the civil rights battle of the 1950’sand 1960’s. Mr. King, like
Mahatma Gandhi, fought a battle through non-violence. When
one remembers the troops in the street, the murders, the riots
used against the people fighting for the rights of blacks across
the southern United States it is hard to believe so little time has
passed. Today there are cities all across the U.S. that have black
mayors. One of the front runners in the Democratic leadership
race is a black. Even on television the biggest TV star of the
1980’s is a black man in a comedy about a black middle class
family.
Yes, things have come a long way and yet not far enough. The
condition of poor black people in the United States is worse
today than it was a decade ago. Even well-educated blacks like
lawyers earn only a fraction of what their white counterparts
make. And for the poor in U.S. cities there is a desperation that
makesdeathby violence,eitherbymurderor suicide, the
biggest cause of death of young blacks.
The generation of whites that once helped blacks fight for an
evenbreakhasnowrelaxed into comfortable middle age,
concerned about its own well-being and electing a Ronald
Reagan government that has cut social programs that helped
blacks in the name of government restraint (while embarking
on an incredibly expensive Star Wars defence plan).
One can only wonder what impact Martin Luther King would
have had if he hadn’t had his life snuffed out that day 20 years
ago. We can be thankful that he lived for as long as he did, not
only to improve the lot of his own people but also to teach us all
that change can be brought about even against huge odds, by
peaceful democratic means.
Listen to the people
The people of London North riding of the provincial
legislature sent a loud, clear message to their neighbour David
Peterson last week: “we don’t want Sunday shopping’’.
In the by-election last week voters turned what had been a
Liberal riding for 10 years over the Progressive Conservatives,
reversing a huge Liberal majority only last September. Even
Liberal insiders are reported to have said they didn’t know the
backlash against the government’s plan to turp the Sunday
closing hot potato over to the local municipalities was so strong.
Earlier last week, speaking to a meeting of the Association of
Municipalities of Ontario Premier Peterson had said bluntly
that if the municipalities didn’t like his proposal to turn the
decision making over to them it was too darned bad. He was
going to go ahead against their protests.
It is less than 10 months since the Ontario Liberals won their
massive majority and already the bad old days of big majorities
for the Progressive Conservatives seems to have returned with
Mr. Peterson sounding just as arrogant as did various Tory
premiers in their heyday.
Mr. Peterson may add to that feeling that the worst of the old
days are back if he goes ahead as he has hinted and raises the
provincial sales tax, a tax that reminds voters every time they
buy something from a restaurant meal to a new car, of the bite
the government takes out of the economy.
Many people across the province, even those who voted
Liberal in September, probably cheered the voters of North
London last week for sending a signal to Mr. Peterson that
voters don’t want an arrogant government that doesn’t listen to
the people. With a huge majority and still 94 seats in the
Legislature Mr. Peterson can afford to lose this one seat. He
can’t afford to ignore the message.
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Letter from the editor
Little words
that shape
the news
BY KEITH ROULSTON
The U.S. troops have flown
home from El Salvador so the harm
is probably not lasting but when
the news broke that the U.S. had
dispatched troops to the south
there was the reemergence of a
disturbing trend in the U.S. media:
the subtle shaping of public
opinion througha manipulative
media.
If you listened closely to the
words used in news casts during
those weeks you would have
noticed how words can shape the
perception of the public. The
Nicaraguan government, for in
stance, was never called the
government of the country but was
always called the “Sandinistas”
while the rebels weren’t rebels but
“Contras”. Listen to that day in
and day out and gradually you will
begin to forget that one side is the
governmentandthe other rebel
guerillas. You begin to think of
both as just two warring fractions.
One can forget that, whatever its
economic and democratic failings,
the one side, the government, has
the strong support of the popula
tion. If it didn’t, the rebels would
have swept to victory long ago,
backed as they were by the U.S.
The other disturbing trend was
that once the U.S. troops were in
place, suddenly all the news that
came outcame from “Pentagon
sources”. It brought back bad
memories of all the years U.S.
newsmen took the word of ‘ ‘ Penta
gon sources” in Vietnam before
they finally got out and found out
for themselves that they were
being lied to and the U.S. was
losing the war.
This shaping of the news is as old
as time. It has often been said that
truth is the first casualty of war as
political and military leaders feel
people can’t be trusted to make
proper judgements if they are
given all the facts so they must be
fed carefully managed news. The
news mediausually goes along,
feeling what it does is in the
national interest.
The subtle shaping of the news
through the use of key words and
phrases to leave almost subliminal
messages with readers and listen
ers is a newer phenominum. Henry
Luce and Briton Hadden brought in
the shaping of the news in a big way
with their creation of Time maga
zine and to a lesser extent with Life.
They treated the news as the raw
material for entertainment (on
Hadden’s part) and propaganda
(on Luce’s part). Hadden liked to
have fun while Luce had a
righteous cause to save the nation
from socialists and communists
and other evil ways. When Hadden
died Luce was able to turn Time
intoapersonal propaganda ma
chine. When Italy’s dictator Benita
Mussoline marched into Ethiopia,
Time left no doubt who it supported
when it called the Ethiopians
“savage and illiterate” and
“screaming savages” and “mud
wallowing savages”. It made the
point that they were cowards: “At
the first sound of an Italian
bombing plane Ethiopian officers
dive to the nearest Red Cross
shelter. ’ ’ Haile Selassie, the Ethio
pian emperor was made into a
character in a minstrel show in one
Time piece.
The Italians meanwhile were
called “ebullient” and “cheerful”
and other words that left a
favourable impression.
The Spanish Civil war was much
the same. Time of course support
ed the fascist General Franco who
was supplied by Germany and Italy
over the socialist government. In
two adjoining pictures of General
Franco and President Caballero
the cutlines read - ‘ ‘ White Franco:
Laughing he advanced”, “Red
Caballero: Orating he fed”. Time
liked to make things simple, if not
black and white simple at least red
and white simple. It also liked to
portray its favourites as strong and
upright while its opponents were
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