The use of media to serve the propaganda of governments and financial interests is an old story, and only those who have never questioned power fail to realize the limits set. As the American political analyst Michael Parenti said, “only those who step away from the stake will feel the leash around their neck.”
Those outside newsrooms usually have no idea how the system of control and shaping of journalists works. It relies on a set of diverse vectors.
It is no coincidence that veteran journalists, with accumulated experience and knowledge, are replaced by young people in precarious situations, easily molded, unable to perceive the instrumentalization to which they are subjected. The next phase, already underway, is the implementation of an AI that is there to discard them as well. To make things more disconcerting, some are excited about the transformation, like in the anecdote of the turkey that excitedly celebrates the approach of Christmas.
There is also the element of censorship, in the form of top-down pressure that, like an electric fence for cattle, ends up creating a psychological barrier. But even more pernicious is self-censorship, when journalists imposes greater restrictions on themselves because, in their eagerness to please their superiors, they choose to exaggerate.
The fear of losing one’s job is another important piece of this system. In certain cases, to avoid taking risks, the journalist decides to fully align themselves with what seem to be the expectations of their superiors. As Upton Sinclair said, “it is difficult to make a man understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Casting is also crucial. Terrible is the newsroom where leadership positions are occupied by insecure individuals because they are aware of not being brilliant. Every subordinate they suspect of being more capable will panic them and become an obstacle to be removed. Desperately clinging to power, they will surround themselves with mediocre and subservient sycophants, preferably without passion for journalism. The result is the degradation of the team’s journalistic quality. In a newsroom where such an atmosphere prevails, anyone who questions even the slightest detail of the editorial line is seen as a spoilsport who ruins the good environment.
The only thing better than this would be AI.
Nelson Pereira
