DVD review: The idea that the media, and television in particular, is just one giant propaganda machine for the rich and powerful is widespread. Which is why anything by journalists who do uncover the grotesque reality behind government lies and distortions is always so welcome.
A chance to see some of John Pilger’s classic documentaries has been provided with the release of a set of 12 dvds – John Pilger: In the Name of Justice. Although his more recent programmes are more immediate, these DVDs each uncover ugly realities that our rulers would prefer to have hidden.
One in particular – The Truth Game – has a terrible relevance to today. Made in 1983, it uncovers the US, UK and the then USSR’s lies surrounding the build up of nuclear weapons.
It follows the classic Pilger format: present a lie – that the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima was a military necessity, that the Russians have “massive nuclear capacity”, and vice versa, that cruise missiles are “an insurance policy for the west” – and then demolish it. Gripping interviews, devastating facts, followed by shamefaced justifications from those supposedly in control, are all part of the powerful mix.
Two other classics in the set are about Vietnam – the country which Pilger covered as a war reporter for around 10 years. In one, made in 1978, Pilger revisits the country three years after the US was finally booted out to see how the Vietnamese were recovering from the devastation their country had suffered.
In Vietnam: the last battle, made on the 20th anniversary of the US defeat, Pilger presents a brief, bitter history of the war and the dreadful weapons the Americans deployed, and attacks relentlessly the claim, then being broadcast by the US administration, that the war had been a “noble cause”.
Three documentaries uncover the scandals, lies and corruption in Pilger’s homeland, Australia, with one focussing on the history of successive governments “sending people off to fight other people’s wars”, and another delving into its immigration policies.
Into the mainstream
John Pilger’s massive body of work, most of it for TV, shows that, despite their built-in bias towards the establishment, the mainstream media can sometimes be forced to broadcast programmes that challenge ruling class propaganda. Opportunities to air alternative viewpoints have to be fought for, however.
This is an important point. The alternative media, such as Indymedia and ZNet, are important operations. But the mainstream media is still the place where most people get their news and information, and must therefore remain the arena within which media workers who want to follow in Pilger’s footsteps fight for space.
Of course, it’s important to see how Pilger and (until his tragic death in July 2004) Paul Foot both won their credentials as great journalists during a brief period when independent channels made efforts to make an impact and distinguish themselves from the BBC with hard-hitting programs.
As Pilger has recalled: “Almost all of the more than 50 films I have made (mainly for the ITV and some for Channel 4) have had to navigate a system that rarely declares its intention to create and shape public opinion. The BBC exemplifies this, with its specious neutrality, mythically balancing contending extremes while turning out a flow of official assumptions and deceptions as ‘news’. In its youth, British commercial television was different.”
Since then, media workers have suffered massive attacks on their unions which have not only damaged their capacity to maintain conditions, but also their capacity to challenge the editors and broadcasters over what and how to present the news, both in casts and documentaries.
The intervening period has also seen the rise of neo-liberal policies which have themselves brought greater restrictions on the ability of journalists to buck the system – the “embedding” of war reporters being one clear example.
That said, however, even BBC2 was prepared to show one of the most hard-hitting documentaries about the build up to the war on terror – Adam Curtis’s three-part The power of nightmares – and that was after Lord Hutton had panicked the corporation’s executives. Nor have such programs been unique.
Of course, it is more difficult for journalists to “navigate” the system today, and particularly in the post-Hutton BBC. And requirements for “balance”, cast-iron facts, no hint of bias, and certainly no chance that people will sue, are greater than ever. But that does not mean the doors are completely barred to hard-hitting programs.
As Tariq Ali said at a recent Media Workers Against the War public meeting, media workers who want to present programs that uncover the truths our rulers want to hide will have to fight for space in the media. That space can be attained, but only through a campaign that brings together media workers sickened by the increasing contempt that their employers have for the truth.
Apart from those already named, films featured in this DVD set are: The Mexicans, Street of Joy, Pyramid Lake is dying. A faraway country, Do you remember Vietnam?, Japan behind the mask, Apartheid did not die, and the three one from Australia – Heroes unsung, Secrets and other people’s wars.
By Alan Gibson
