Reviews

James Winter (2007) Lies the Media Tell Us

Montreal: Black Rose Books. 293 pages. ISBN: 1-55164-252-9. $24.99, £16.99 paperback.

Lies the Media Tell Us is an important book. The final main chapter alone, on the Canadian government's clandestine role in kidnapping and deporting (while still in office) the democratically-elected president of Haiti, and the subsequent media cover-up, makes this book essential reading for all concerned with social justice, international integrity, democracy, and media performance.

More than likely, readers have not seen a review of this book, at least in the mainstream press. If a review did perchance appear, it was undoubtedly negative. The cause is manifest in the very title. Lies the Media Tell Us condemns the Canadian media's record in performing its single most important duty, enlightening Canadians. If the media do not perform that function adequately, Winter insists, democracy is a sham.

Some readers might initially be put off that Winter eschews stylistic objectivity for 'one-sided' accounts. It is certainly true, for example, that he omits acknowledging triumphs of the drug industry in extending life-spans and alleviating suffering. Instead, he 'one-sidedly' recounts the malfeasances of the drug industry, which are legion. This objection, namely 'lack of balance', however, is met when it is remembered that Winter's topic is not the drug industry per se, but rather drug industry practices which are under-reported, not reported, or which are reported with spin. Winter convincingly demonstrates that actually it is mainline media which lacks objectivity and balance, and once accepting of that proposition we can then appreciate the zeal with which Winter countervails media's proclivity to schmooze with the rich and powerful.

In his approach, Winter keeps exceptional company. Parallels between Winter's work and that of Noam Chomsky-Edward S. Herman are immediately obvious. The comparison I would like to make here, though, is with that preeminent of Canadian scholars of the first half of the twentieth century, Harold Adams Innis. Like Winter, Innis was a trenchant critic of the press. Like Winter, Innis did not refrain from penning the occasional 'purple passage', so immense was his disgust and so hypocritical would have been his prose had his concerns regarding the possible demise of western civilisation been cloaked in 'value-neutral' academese. And like Winter, Innis saw himself as emphasising the other side of a continuing dialectic (in Innis' case, the side of time bias as opposed to space bias), in his effort to help neutralise prevalent conditions and restore a healthier balance.

Be not mistaken. Winter's book is not just about, nor even primarily about, media. This is a book on the political economy of our times, both domestically and internationally, on the misuse of power by a tiny elite, on gross injustices in our political-economic system, and on the lapse of democracy. It is in that context that Winter addresses the media's role and complicity.

Chapter one ('How it Works') provides the theory or explanation for what is to be covered in the remainder of the book. From a financial or economic perspective, Winter notes, 'news is not written for readers, it's written to please advertisers ... and any corporation is a potential advertiser' (p.28). Governments, too, are large advertisers. Rather than acting as the fourth or fifth estate, then, media normally are part of and servants to the narrow political-economic elite. They are 'stenographers of power'. Part of the problem stems from the immense concentration in media control and to direct connections between media ownership and other forms of wealth and influence: holdings of five of the top seven richest families in Canada, Winter remarks, are at least partially in media (p. 279). If democracy is to have a chance, this new 'Family Compact' must be redressed. Ownership means control, and those lower down in the media hierarchy either toe the line set by the owners, or look for jobs elsewhere. Winter reprints an op-ed column by Russell Mills, formerly publisher of the Ottawa Citizen, fired after 30 years with the paper by owner David Asper for publishing an editorial calling for the resignation of the Prime Minister, contrary to Asper's personal position (pp. 11-13). Winter quotes, too, David Radler, former president of Hollinger International, that 'if editors disagree with us, they should disagree when they're no longer in our employ' (p.43). As far as the media are concerned, Winter advises, 'the muckrakers of yore have become the stargazers of today, owned by and beholden to conglomerates' (p. 47).

Chapter two, 'Eco-Zealots, Greenwashers and Parasites', recounts some of the atrocious environmental coverage by mainstream media. Winter begins by recalling the scandalous but well publicised assertions of Condolezza Rice that the air around Ground Zero was safe for firefighters and police, likely so the New York Stock Exchange would reopen quickly after the 911 attacks; by late 2003, however, 78 per cent of the workers at Ground Zero were suffering from respiratory ailments (p. 64). This deception and resulting tragedy is recounted not just to demonstrate inadequacy due to the lack of critical, investigative reporting by media, but also to show which side elite power is on when money and environmental health are in conflict. Other topics in the chapter include news coverage of global warming and the Kyoto Accord, Hurricane Katrina, the MMT (gasoline additive) scandal, and 'Rachel vs. Bjorn'. In this last-named topic, Winter compares press reviews of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring with Bjorn Lomborg's Skeptical Environmentalist. Carson, who earned bachelor's and master's degrees in zoology and who had taught biology at the university level, was first to sound the alarm (in 1962) over contamination and health hazards attributable to the overuse of pesticides. The press at the time dismissed her seminal and now classic book as being authored by a 'crusader', who used 'poetic license', and who distorted the facts (pp. 94-9). The author was accused of sensationalism, of being motivated by 'crass commercialism', and of being an 'idealistic flag waver' (p. 93). Lomborg's Skeptical Environmentalist, on the other hand, was supported in the Canadian media not only through highly favourable reviews but also by affording the author copious space for op-ed columns, despite the fact that the Scientific American (in line with other scientific publications) described Lomborg's book as 'a clever polemic ... superficial, muddled, often plain wrong and filled with misreadings and misunderstandings of data' (p. 102). Winter concludes: 'It is difficult to imagine more disparate results than these. The media were critical of an author and scientist who issued dire warnings about the deleterious effects of man-made chemicals on ourselves and nature generally, although she was highly qualified ... On the other hand, the media did everything in their power to promote the work of a man who had no relevant expertise, whose assertions were contradicted by bona fide experts in the field, and who came under intense criticism from the scientific community' (p. 111).

Chapter three is entitled 'Big Pharma'. It explores some of the PR tactics of the drug companies. Winter recounts the extraordinary strategies used to woo doctors to prescribe branded medications, the enlisting of celebrities to hawk drugs to the general public, the continual widening of guidelines whereby ever-increasing proportions of the population are enfolded as candidates for life-long medications, the demonising of expert critics, the ghostwriting of articles by drug company personnel for publication in medical journals, and falsification of medical research. The chapter contains a relatively brief section on 'the media role', dealing mainly with public relations and crisis management and with stories not covered or under-covered by the media. The chapter concludes with an analysis of media support for the privatisation of heath care.

Finally we come to chapters four and five: 'Canada Joins the Imperialists', and 'Global Village, or Global Pillage?' Regarding Canada's participation in the war on Afghanistan, Winter proposes that media coverage adheres to the theme of 'Canadian exceptionalism', a borrowing from our neighbour to the south. For years, Americans have believed in 'American exceptionalism', that is the conviction that the United States alone among the great powers is motivated not by self-interest but by benevolence and a desire to ensure the welfare of the broader international community. Nowhere in the coverage of Canada's military activities in Afghanistan, Winter notes, are the beginnings of the war recounted. Shortly after the 9/11 attack Winter reminds us Bush, demanded under threat of invasion that the Taliban turn over Bin Laden; Taliban leaders responded that they would comply as soon as Bush provided evidence that Bin Laden had actually been responsible for the World Trade Centre attack. Bush, however, was unwilling or unable to do this, and so the UN coalition bombed and invaded, with Canada a participant (p.182). Over the ensuing months and years, however, Bin Laden eluded the US/UN-led forces, and so the tune changed: the invasion, the media now claimed, is all about 'liberating people from despotic governments, and coming to the aid of Afghani women' (p. 182). Little or nothing in the media's account of 'Canada's War' would induce Canadian viewers and readers to ponder how they would feel and react if Canada were invaded by, say, a US-led force and was occupied by a foreign military that was responsible for so many deaths and damage: 'It is a common theme in imperialist propaganda', Winter writes, that 'the ignorant, savage locals ... stubbornly refuse help, and in so doing reject a better way of life' (p. 187).

On another front, Canadian media consistently fail to report American terrorist attacks against Cuba, of which there have been many. For example: '"pirate" attacks on Cuban fishing boats, shelling of a theatre, commando raids on oil refineries, chemical plants, bridges, cane fields, sugar mills; a bombing attack on a baseball stadium, blowing up of ships, orchestrating ship collisions, and the use of chemical and biological weapons; Cuban turkeys have been infected with viruses, rain clouds have been seeded with crystals producing torrential rains and killer floods... In 1971 the CIA provided Cuban exiles with a virus causing African swine fever, and within six weeks an outbreak forced the slaughter of 500,000 Cuban pigs ... " (p. 219). Nary a word on these and other terrorist attacks made the Canadian media.

Finally, regarding Canada's role in the US-led coup d'état and presidential kidnapping in Haiti, any brief treatment I could give here would be a total disservice to Winter's detailed and nuanced account. Perhaps by drawing attention to the episode, this review will induce curious readers to refer to Winter's book to learn what happened. Let it simply be noted here that 'the entire story [was] conveniently omitted from mainstream media accounts' (p. 268).

In my view, Lies the Media Tell Us breaks new ground in Canadian scholarship. Canada has lacked the likes of Chomsky-Herman to balance biased and boosteristic media accounts of international affairs. With this book, more so than others he has written, James Winter has stepped up to the plate. As Canada seems increasingly intent to participate in foreign misadventures, and given the mendacity of our media in covering such illegal and morally dubious activities, James Winter now stands as one of the few voices that can help make our governments and media accountable.

Robert Babe, University of Western Ontario, Canada.

This review appeared in the Spring, 2008 edition of Topia, the Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, in Toronto, under the heading: 'Fourth Estate or Forum of the State? Journalism and the State of Canadian Democracy'. http://www.yorku.ca/topia/main.html