My Take | How the Western media hegemony operates
- In a formal democracy, particularly one with a global empire to uphold, public opinion is too important to be left to the people to think for themselves
“Verbal”, the kingpin who conned everyone into thinking he was just a crippled, small-time criminal in the classic thriller, The Usual Suspects, quoted Charles Baudelaire at the end of the movie: “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
I am not remotely as eloquent as Baudelaire, but as a journalist and commentator, I have often thought the greatest trick Western journalism, of which I am a practitioner, has ever pulled is to have convinced many people that it is objective and unbiased, or at least tries to be so with every news story published.
It may fall short often, but the good intention and professional standards are always there, in every story or edition. It is, of course, nonsense. Tell that to Mr Rupert Murdoch and see if he could suppress a hearty laugh.
Be that as it may, Western news media cannot admit it has a lock on global opinion by its bias and influence operations, but rather through its objective truth and professional integrity. It is, ideologically, a lot like the West’s self-righteous claims on universal human rights. The empire has to deny that it is an empire, only one to promote democracy and human rights, by force if necessary.
02:03
US warns American companies about operating in Hong Kong, sanctions 7 Chinese officials
The news media has always had an agenda. Modern journalism came into its own mostly through the British industrial revolution (mechanised printing presses), and the American, French, Russian and Chinese revolutions. It was always about taking sides, demonising the enemy and glorifying your own.