A well-known television personality on Thursday used the occasion of an awards ceremony to deliver a blistering critique of Russian television, saying its journalists had bent so completely to the will of the government that they were “not journalists at all but bureaucrats, following the logic of service and submission.”
Journalists in Russia have been attacked and even murdered for saying such things. We tend to take freedom of the press for granted here in America, but journalism is a dangerous profession in much of the world. (That fact makes right-wing claims of persecution here - because, although they can freely say whatever they want, they might be criticized for it - laughable, doesn't it?)
Mr. Parfyonov was accepting the first annual Vladislav Listyev television award, which comes with a prize of one million rubles, or about $32,000. Video of the speech, which could be found on Channel One’s Web site, was viewed many thousands of times on Friday, particularly in media circles. A prominent blogger, Rustam Adagamov, called it “an epitaph for modern Russian television.”
Mr. Parfyonov sketched out the recent history of Russian broadcasting, starting with Mr. Putin’s ousting of media moguls whose channels were critical of the government and the demand for national unity that came in the wake of terrorist attacks. Journalists in Russia saw their work shearing into two categories: suitable for television, or not suitable for television. While newspaper reporters can still occasionally confront Mr. Putin with uncomfortable questions, television newscasters “guess the authorities’ goals and aims, their moods, their friends and enemies,” when tackling delicate subjects, he said.
“I have no right to blame any one of my colleagues, since I am not a fighter and I do not expect heroic deeds from others, but it is necessary to call things by their names,” he said. As media independence drains away, Russians are increasingly contemptuous of journalism in general and shrug their shoulders when journalists are beaten for their work, he said.
“People do not understand that journalists take risks because of their audience,” he said. “They do not attack journalists because they wrote something, or said something, or filmed something, but because people read it, or heard it, or saw it.”
That "demand for national unity" in the wake of terrorist attacks sounds very familiar, doesn't it? But unlike in Russia, where the government forced this on their people, we Americans voluntarily censored ourselves, while eagerly supporting the worst excesses of Bush administration.
Even our media censored themselves, not because of what the government would do to them, but because they feared losing income if they didn't jump on the bandwagon. Remember when Bill Maher was taken off the air for making the point that the 9/11 hijackers weren't, whatever else they were, cowards? The Bush administration didn't do that. They didn't have to.
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