The Doctor is Dead & Free Speech Is Ailing

[Harry Edwards]

Published on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

The Doctor Is Dead and Free Speech Is Ailing

by Michael Winship

 


A couple of weeks ago, I attended a conference of non-fiction 
television and filmmakers. Network executives in attendance repeatedly 
used the phrases, “We're reinvigorating our identity,” and, “We're 
changing our DNA.” Oh, brother. It sounded to me like euphemistic high 
talk for, “Our new shows are even more idiotic than our old ones!”

  I thought of the words of gonzo reporter Hunter S. Thompson: “The TV 
business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some 
kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the 
journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run 
free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.”

  And now Hunter Thompson's dead; the author of “Hell's Angels” and the 
“Fear and Loathing” books, the good doctor, the drug and 
booze-inhaling, freewheeling id of journalism, has taken his own life.

  The timing stinks. We need his grasp of the ill-mannered rant more 
than ever.

  Thompson wrote, "The main problem in any democracy is that 
crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage 
and whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy - then go back to 
the office and sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a 
nickel apiece."

  That kind of talk doesn't go down well in today's White House. They 
don't believe in free speech. They pay for it, or try to squelch it.

  Late last week, the head of the Government Accountability Office put 
out a letter to all agency heads warning them to stop manufacturing 
fake newscasts, as the government did to promote the new Medicare bill 
and anti-drug abuse programs.

  The warning comes on the heels of revelations that the Bush 
administration had hired black conservative commentator Armstrong 
Williams to talk up the No Child Left Behind education program and two 
other conservative writers to work on programs promoting the 
president's marriage initiative. Since President Bush came into office, 
a quarter of a billion dollars have been given to outside public 
relations companies just to cook up this kind of stuff.

  What's more, the White House continues to throw staged “town meetings” 
around the country to promote itself. Last year, it was for the 
President's re-election; now it's for his Social Security agenda.

  Even though Bush press secretary Scott McClellan says, “The President 
is reaching out to all Americans,” as with the pre-election meetings, 
audiences are vetted and potential naysayers kept out, even if it means 
empty seats. At least the re-election rallies were paid for with 
campaign funds -- the dough for these Social Security meetings, eight 
so far, is coming out of taxpayer pockets.

  When not trying to buy media coverage, the government is busy muzzling 
it. Last week, the House of Representatives passed legislation that 
would raise the fine for indecent material on broadcast radio or TV 
from $32,500 to $500,000 per infraction. Then there's the censorship of 
PBS' Buster the Bunny, for goodness sake, and a federal agency's 
“suggestion” that the words gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender be 
removed from the program of a federally funded suicide prevention 
conference in Oregon.

  And don't forget the federal appeals court ruling that two reporters 
are in contempt of court and could be imprisoned for up to 18 months if 
they refuse to tell a grand jury who in the government told them that 
Valerie Plame, wife of Joe Wilson of Niger yellowcake fame, was a CIA 
agent. More than eight pages of the ruling were kept from the public, 
allegedly for reasons of security. As ABC News President David Westin 
wrote in the February 18 Wall Street Journal:

  “What makes this particular case bizarre is that the underlying crime 
was committed, if at all, by an official of the very government that is 
trying to punish the reporters who allegedly witnessed it. This appears 
to be a case of a government unable or unwilling to take the steps it 
needs to police its own senior officials and, when caught, taking it 
out on innocent journalists simply trying to do their job."

  Hunter Thompson famously said, “When the going gets weird, the weird 
turn pro.” Friday night in Washington, the Conservative Political 
Action Conference honored the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth for their 
success in slurring John Kerry's military record. And of course, 
there's James D. Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon, phony boy toy reporter 
fobbing soft ball questions to the president and his press secretary. 
As one blogger noted, “Pay no attention to the gay conservative male 
prostitute sitting in the middle of the family values White House 
living room.”

  “Big Darkness Soon Come. Take my word for it,” Hunter Thompson warned. 
Too late, Doc. It's already here.

  Michael Winship (BartlebyMW at aol.com) , Writers Guild of America Award 
winner and former writer with Bill Moyers, writes this weekly column 
for the Messenger Post Newspapers in upstate New York.

  © 2005 Messenger Post Newspapers