A price tag on truth

In light of the Broadcasting Authority’s announcement that it will be selling radio slots to MEP candidates, I wish to discuss the challenges facing the media landscape. Currently, as critical thinking seems to be losing ground to cheap instant gratification, politics has degenerated. We have given politicians the tools to appeal to our worst aspects, and this is reflected in our governance.

Any such discussion must begin with the concept of ‘fake news’, which has become an overused expression; one rendered meaningless by the fact that it is now used by liars to ward off criticism. When the term was first coined, it was a eureka moment, because it accurately described a very particular media strategy which many people had been unaware of. We recognised fake news on a subconscious level, but we were waiting for someone to coin the expression to become aware of it.

‘Fake news’ originally referred to propaganda used by Russia, international corporations, criminals and also by the media organs of political parties to push biased agendas and half-truths. Over time, mainstream politicians took up the expression. I remember the shock and disgust I felt when the cry of ‘fake news’ was taken up by Konrad Mizzi and his klikka to dismiss growing evidence relating to the Panama Papers. The expression ‘fake news’ lost all meaning in Malta at that instant.

In Malta, our politicians control much of the media, replacing reporting with advertising. As a result, even the obvious can become hidden in plain sight. Any scandal can be waited out, it would seem. In fact, new scandals distract from old ones. With no action taken by compromised institutions, such as the police, then people become desensitized to truth, since truth never seems to lead anywhere.

Our major newspapers are therefore the final bastions of reliable reporting. It is understandable that, in an age of such misinformation, people have given up on the notion of truth and prefer to go with whatever feels good or familiar instead.

Many people also naturally follow whatever their peers pressure them into. They may voice doubts when exposed to a bit of genuine news, but that doubt will quickly be buried by peer pressure and the air horns of propaganda.

Propaganda, in turn, is funded indirectly by the donations of businesspeople to political parties and via the economic activities of the parties in general. For a similar reason, in the United States, corporate lobbies set the congressional agenda.

In Malta, we are more disadvantaged because the media is more directly controlled. I have seen it argued that this makes it easy to identify who is funding propaganda, as opposed to having propaganda under the guise of independent media. Either way, what is clear is that money spoils politics and the media. It brings us back to the clumsy decision of the Broadcasting Authority to open up the opportunity for candidates to buy radio slots. For a public media body to so callously empower the rich and incumbent political parties is unconstitutional, as our Constitution makes provision for the neutrality of the coverage offered by the Broadcasting Authority. It is crucial that we empower the independent media as far as possible, while being aware each newspaper has its own lens through which it views the world. It is similarly important that politicians present their messages on these independent platforms, rather than enjoy the blind worship that comes with their paid party propaganda. Otherwise, we will remain stuck in so many echo chambers.