If you cover up a killing, interfere with an homicide
investigation, or tamper with a jury, you face hard time in the big
house. When newspapers, radio and television outlets promulgate false
and deceptive information leading to the deaths of innocent people, they
face a good time in the White House – or at least access, and some
one-on-one interviews with important politicians.
What
we read in the newspaper, see on television, and hear discussed on
“news/talk” radio is often an absurd mix of distorted opinion,
misinformation, and outright lies. When such lies result in multiple
deaths, looking for someone to blame is a common reaction. Blame,
according to me, is only important to drunks and lawyers. Culpability is
another matter.
I've worked in broadcast
news, and have watched stories mutate between initial report and
eventual mass media dissemination. If rumor is more entertaining than
facts, the rumor gets the lead paragraph; the facts are buried in the
bottom. When it comes to international “incidents,” it is not only facts
that get buried, but human beings. The bottom line of irresponsible
journalism is death by headline.
If you need an example, an obvious one is the infamous Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
The official story was that North Vietnamese torpedo boats launched an
"unprovoked attack" against a U.S. destroyer on "routine patrol" in the
Tonkin Gulf on Aug. 2 — and that North Vietnamese PT boats followed up
with a "deliberate attack" on a pair of U.S. ships two days later.
"American Planes Hit North Vietnam After Second Attack on Our Destroyers; Move Taken to Halt New Aggression", announced a Washington Post
headline on Aug. 5, 1964. That same day, the front page of the New York
Times reported: "President Johnson has ordered retaliatory action
against gunboats and 'certain supporting facilities in North Vietnam'
after renewed attacks against American destroyers in the Gulf of
Tonkin."
It was all horse feathers. Johnson
ordered U.S. bombers to "retaliate" for a North Vietnamese torpedo
attack that never happened. One of the Navy pilots flying overhead that
night was squadron commander James Stockdale, "I had the best seat in
the house to watch that event," recalled Stockdale a few years ago, "and
our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets — there were no PT
boats there.... There was nothing there but black water and American
fire power."
In 1965, Lyndon Johnson himself confirmed, "For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there."
In
the absence of independent journalism, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution —
the closest thing there ever was to a declaration of war against North
Vietnam — sailed through Congress on Aug. 7. The resolution authorized
the president "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack
against the forces of the United States and to prevent further
aggression."
American journalism reported
official claims as absolute truths when they were not true at all. If
journalists didn't know better, if journalists didn't have access to
honest accurate information, then there is no culpability in the deaths
of 50,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese.
The
tragedy,of course, is that reporters did have have access to honest
information, and they kept it quiet. Perhaps they didn't want to appear
unpatriotic, or be accused of “not supporting our troops.” Whatever the
pressure, a pattern took hold: continuous government lies passed on by
pliant mass media reluctant to question official pronouncements on
national security issues.
The original role
of the press, as envisioned by our Founding Fathers, was as watchdogs –
expose lies, reveal corruption. We were to be mirrors of truth,
uncontrolled by political or religious special interests. Our only
interest, as professional journalists, was an unfettered search for
truth. Get the facts, present them accurately, and let the public decide
what to do about it.
So, my friends,
here is the brain teaser question of the day: If a news outlet, acting
as a conduit for government propaganda, knowingly passes on
misinformation leading to deaths, or having access to contradictory
information, fails to give that information public exposure when failure
to do so results in death, does that outlet have culpability?
This issue plagues journalists, believe you me. Columnist Sydney Schanberg
warned journalists not to forget "our unquestioning chorus of
agreeability when Lyndon Johnson bamboozled us with his fabrication of
the Gulf of Tonkin incident." Schanberg blamed not only the press but
also "the apparent amnesia of the wider American public. We Americans
are the ultimate innocents. We are forever desperate to believe that
this time the government is telling us the truth.”
