Tim Russert was a propagandist. Can you tell the difference?

I have had a long stand interest in the media. If it is true that through our communications we create our own reality, then the media has a tremendous influence on the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a people and what we value and what we are about as a nation, a state, a community, a family, a person.

I listened to Bill Moyers interview Glenn Greenwald and Amy Goodman, the first recipients of the Izzy Award, named after I.F. Stone, given to independent journalists.

Here is part of what Glenn Greenwald said in that interview about Tim Russert being a propagandist and not a journalist. I think Glenn has it exactly right and the American public needs to become more media literate if our democracy is to survive.

And if you look at what Tim Russert actually did there were a couple of actually interesting episodes where not his image, but the reality of what he did was unmasked, during the Lewis Libby trial, in particular. The trial of Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff for obstruction of justice.

That involved a lot of journalists, because they were participants in the effort to unmask Valerie Plame Wilson and to smear Joe Wilson. And what he said during that trial, under oath, was they asked him, well, when you have a conversation with one of your sources, with the government official, when is it that you decide that it's confidential. And when is it that you can report it?

And what he said was, well, actually, when I have a conversation with the government official, I consider that conversation presumptively confidential. And I will disclose it only if they authorize me to do so. And it was it was an extraordinary revelation, because if you talk to government officials, and you only disclose to the public things that you know, when they allow you or give you permission to do so, what you're really describing is the role of a propagandist, not of a journalist.

And yet, that was what you know, Tim Russert in many ways was. That's what his celebrity was based in.

And so what Americans get from the corporate media, for the most part, is progaganda wrapped up in the guise of tough reporting and real news. I doubt most Americans can tell the difference between propaganda and real information. If our democracy is to become vibrant once again, our kids must be taught the importance of critical thinking, and they must become media literate. These are skills which are sorely lacking and skills which the establishment does not want taught if they are maintain control of the populations which they profess to serve.

It is interesting that media celebrities must not be embarassing critical of power or they loose access. Beware of media celebrities who the powerful like.

This is article #1 in a series on media in america.