BOOK REVIEW:
The Free Press - Hilaire Belloc

Belloc...on Manipulating News and Opinion

by John M. Sharpe

To even the most casual observer, the recent (late summer, early fall 2002) tub thumping in and by the national media in support of President Bush's determination to start a war with Iraq has to stand as a classic example of media influence, or perhaps more accurately, manipulation. Upwards of 65% of average Americans (or more, depending on which poll you chose to believe) and a goodly percentage of our national politicians (including a large majority of the Democrats) were initially opposed to the idea of an unprovoked, preemptive attack on Saddam Hussein. But persistent media pressure brought about such a shift in both public and political opinion that Congress ultimately caved in and gave the President a free hand to do as he pleased as regards initiating a war in the Middle East.

To some, this was a "free press" in action. Others might view it differently.

When Hilaire Belloc refers to "the free press" in the recently reissued volume of the same name, he is speaking of a concept that should not be confused with what most Americans would think of as synonymous with "freedom of the press."

Quite to the contrary. In the new, redesigned, and fully referenced edition of The Free Press, an incisive essay on the manipulation of news and opinion, Belloc makes the point that "the Press" of his day - what we now call the "media" - was anything but "free." He discusses and dissects the phenomenon of media growth, its concentration in the hands of powerful men, its impact on public, social, and moral life, and, possibly most frightening, its ability to suppress and/or distort truth and warp thinking.

He tells us that "The development of Capitalism [in the late 19th century] meant that a smaller and yet smaller number of men commanded the means of productiion and of distribution..." of newspapers; and thus of news and opinion. But Belloc offers more than just a critique of what in his day constituted a "managing" of news and opinion by the controling forces. With thoroughness, yet with an economy of detail, he delves into such topics as the change in news reporting from a civic responsibility to a profit-driven enterprise; and to the advent of paid advertising as the lifeline of the "news industry's" corporate survival, and upon which most, if not all, major journalistic decisions hinge.

In Belloc's words, "[Advertising] became more and more the basis of profit..." (A hint of the $1 million 30-second Super Bowl commercials to come!) And a newspaper, "if it was of large circulation, was...a venture dependent wholly on its advertisers."

He also goes on to explore the means by which the media moguls of his time could (not unlike today) "make or break" politicians; or for that matter, could be instrumental in the making or changing of laws.

Thus it's interesting to note an example of how the more things have changed in the "media world," the more they have obviously stayed the same. Even some of those who earn their living through the modern media are unhappy with today's version of what Belloc called the "official press." Molly Ivins, a well-known liberal columnist, recently pronounced that, "As far as the media conglomerates are concerned... [they] are just profit centers." But she had a more biting, philisophical criticism: "That the media have a public responsibility that is protected by the Constitutiion gets lost in the profit chase."

This and numerous other examples of the parallells between "the Press" of today and 100 years ago are found in this book's well-composed preface, which makes a thoughtful and entertaining complement to Belloc's classic essay, and gives it an updated and fresh-faced immediacy.

The preface illuminates how Belloc's words have an almost eerie, deja vu quality about them, to the extent that, if we didn't know better, we could be persuaded that he was writing in 21st-century America rather than early-1900s England. Such was the man's penetrating vision of not only what things were, but what they were likely to be.

In this expose of the shortcomings, not to say abuses, of the "fourth estate," Belloc distinguishes between what he calls the "free press" (i.e., the small, independent, sometimes underground publications of his day) and the "official press" (the corporate leviathans who dominated news and opinion dissemination in the early 20th century much as their even larger counterparts do today). And the publisher's preface in this spruced-up edition of The Free Press makes a similar distinction as it describes the media "industry" in modern America. Today, scores of small, Internet communications vehicles have assumed the role of the "free press;" and the "official press" now consists of ever-expanding, monopolostic conglomerates of TV, radio, cable, print, movies, and publishing - often all under one corporate umbrella.

Will Rogers, an American contemporary of Belloc's, also had a ready wit and a penchant for both writing and speaking his mind with social commentary that often had a sting to it. And, like Belloc, he was an avid newspaper reader. But Rogers had a self-depricating saying that he used frequently: "All I know is what I read in the papers."

Readers of The Free Press are likely to conclude that Belloc would probably have countered: "Don't be too sure, Will."

______________________________

The Free Press (paperback, 96pp) is available from IHS Press for $8.95.
See www.ihspress.com
Call (757) 423-0324
Write 222 W. 21st St., Suite F-122, Norfolk, VA 23517
Add $3.00 for shipping.

Contact

I.H.S. Press
http://www.ihspress.com VA, US
John Sharpe - Publisher, 757 423-0324

Email

info@ihspress.com

Keywords

Hilaire Belloc

More Catholic PRWire

Showing 1 - 50 of 4,716

• « Prev
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• Next »

A Recession Antidote
Randy Hain

Monaco & The Vatican: Monaco's Grace Kelly Exhibit to Rome--A Review of Monegasque-Holy See Diplomatic History
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.

The Why of Jesus' Death: A Pauline Perspective
Jerom Paul

A Royal Betrayal: Catholic Monaco Liberalizes Abortion
Dna. Maria St.Catherine De Grace Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.

Embrace every moment as sacred time
Mary Regina Morrell

My Dad
JoMarie Grinkiewicz

Letting go is simple wisdom with divine potential
Mary Regina Morrell

Father Lombardi's Address on Catholic Media
Catholic Online

Pope's Words to Pontifical Latin American College
Catholic Online

Prelate: Genetics Needs a Conscience
Catholic Online

State Aid for Catholic Schools: Help or Hindrance?
Catholic Online

Scorsese Planning Movie on Japanese Martyrs
Catholic Online

2 Nuns Kidnapped in Kenya Set Free
Catholic Online

Holy See-Israel Negotiation Moves Forward
Catholic Online

Franchising to Evangelize
Catholic Online

Catholics Decry Anti-Christianity in Israel
Catholic Online

Pope and Gordon Brown Meet About Development Aid
Catholic Online

Pontiff Backs Latin America's Continental Mission
Catholic Online

Cardinal Warns Against Anti-Catholic Education
Catholic Online

Full Circle
Robert Gieb

Three words to a deeper faith
Paul Sposite

Relections for Lent 2009
chris anthony

Wisdom lies beyond the surface of life
Mary Regina Morrell

World Food Program Director on Lent
Catholic Online

Moral Clarity
DAN SHEA

Pope's Lenten Message for 2009
Catholic Online

A Prayer for Monaco: Remembering the Faith Legacy of Prince Rainier III & Princess Grace and Contemplating the Moral Challenges of Prince Albert II
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe

Keeping a Lid on Permissiveness
Sally Connolly

Glimpse of Me
Sarah Reinhard

The 3 stages of life
Michele Szekely

Sex and the Married Woman
Cheryl Dickow

A Catholic Woman Returns to the Church
Cheryl Dickow

Modernity & Morality
Dan Shea

Just a Minute
Sarah Reinhard

Catholic identity ... triumphant reemergence!
Hugh McNichol

Edging God Out
Paul Sposite

Burying a St. Joseph Statue
Cheryl Dickow

George Bush Speaks on Papal Visit
Catholic Online

Sometimes moving forward means moving the canoe
Mary Regina Morrell

Action Changes Things: Teaching our Kids about Community Service
Lisa Hendey

Easter... A Way of Life
Paul Spoisite

Papal initiative...peace and harmony!
Hugh McNichol

Proclaim the mysteries of the Resurrection!
Hugh McNichol

Jerusalem Patriarch's Easter Message
Catholic Online

Good Friday Sermon of Father Cantalamessa
Catholic Online

Papal Address at the End of the Way of the Cross
Catholic Online

Cardinal Zen's Meditations for Via Crucis
Catholic Online

Interview With Vatican Aide on Jewish-Catholic Relations
Catholic Online

Pope Benedict XVI On the Easter Triduum
Catholic Online

Holy Saturday...anticipation!
Hugh McNichol

• « Prev
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• Next »