The farce that is press freedom

As I watch the ridiculousness that is Trump only barely losing the 2020 presidential elections and the obstructionist Republican-led senate that somehow maintained their majority, it struck fear into me how dangerous the media can be.

Disclaimer: I don’t live in the US, so my best source of information is none other than Fox News arch-enemy and comedy show The Daily News, formerly by Jon Stewart and now by Trevor Noah.

The one consistent theme of The Daily Show since 2008, has been how Fox News is the conservative peddler of disinformation, lies, and more disinformation. Fox News was Fake News before Trump popularized the term. Despite all that, they are the most popular TV news network in the US [1], and wield a high degree of influence over Trump’s supporters, and none other than Trump himself! I don’t have evidence, but I get the feeling that Fox News is single-handedly propping up the conservative base, and feeding the far-right Tea Party. If they didn’t exist, there would be almost zero oxygen for the tea party among the major news networks, and the debates might start to revolve around more level-headed arguments (*).

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/373814/cable-news-network-viewership-usa/

(*) Example: instead of Last Week Tonight demanding, “What about the children?” and Fox declaring, “They are criminals!”, there might be a cool discussion around how much responsibility the US should even have for migrants from countries that won’t even take responsibility for their own people.

I pointed out to my wife that News Corp, the company behind Fox, is a hauntingly powerful company, shaping domestic politics in the US, Australia, and the UK. It’s so powerful that Australian and British leaders kowtow to the Murdoch every time they visit New York [2].

[2] https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/10/23/rupert-murdoch-power/

And it is awful, that the driver of conservative politics in the US is not elected, and therefore can’t be voted out of power.

The role of the unelected media

Lee Kuan Yew was extremely clear about this point:

He knew too well the power a press baron could wield to make or break an elected government, and he was determined to have none of it in Singapore. He made sure that political leaders are never beholden to unelected media owners, and wanted the media out of the political process. Foreign colleagues who have worked for capricious owners tell me how smart a move this was. [3]

[3] https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/the-unique-blessing-for-singapore-that-is-mr-lee-kuan-yew

In fact, LKY was clear that as unelected entities, the newspapers should not be pushing their own agenda, but should support the elected government of the day.

My wife then pointed out that, for all the power News Corp wields, numerous smaller, more fair-headed and professional news networks exist; like The Daily Beast. Press freedom has allowed all manner of news networks to thrive in a way that couldn’t happen in Singapore.

I don’t disagree. In fact, during the Covid-19 lockdown in Singapore, I grew appreciative of how much entertainment the free American press was exporting to the world. A diet of locally-produced entertainment (Zombiepura being a notable exception) would have been torturous. The Daily Show is almost staple among my more liberal-minded friends in Singapore. It does not withhold criticism of the US government the way Mothership.sg, even with its casual and light-hearted tone, has to tone down their criticisms of the Singapore government. And who can forget Netflix? Netflix made my quarantine in Seattle so much more tolerable, and I’m sure millions of people around the world can say the same when they were locked down. Can we take a minute to appreciate the amazingness of US media entertainment?

Nonetheless, can we also take a minute to appreciate how, despite the numerous newspapers and TV networks, none achieve the same level of influence on politics as Fox News? It is basically the same as the monopoly power of Google —yes, in theory, one could use Duckduckgo.com, or Bing.com, or heck, Yandex. In practice, if your opinion piece isn’t indexed by Google, your opinion piece doesn’t exist.

The farce of media freedom

This brings me to my point: the farce of press freedom is that, despite the freedom to publish, the power to influence is still concentrated in very few hands.

For example, you may watch CNN, and I watch CBS, and Julian watches MSNBC. Collectively, we’ve all found our favourite echo chambers, but my watching of The Daily Show is not do a damn thing to convince rural voters that obstructionist behaviours in the Senate is destroying the country, if Fox News is convincing them that the Republicans are defending the Constitution from the extreme left. It will do nothing

That is, just because I can publish does not mean it can have any effect.

We see this every day: Science journals don’t all have the same levels of influence. If you publish in a third-rate journal, you might as well not publish at all. Likewise, personal blogs don’t have the same level of influence as a highly promoted political commentary.

“It’s fine,” you think, “small time publishers go viral when they make a pertinent point.” For example, Susan Fowler’s blog post went viral after it was published, prompting Uber to make sweeping changes to their HR policies.

Or do they? How many people outside of liberal tech circles have even heard of Susan Fowler? In terms of moving the needle in the entire USA, what has it done?

To conclude this section, media freedom alone, among other possible media controls, is not enough to ensure a well functioning democracy.

Luck and path dependence

All I can say is, I’m glad I’m not in the US right now. I’m glad the riots of the 1950s and 60s prompted the Singapore government to clamp down on the media; the lawsuits against FEER established a precedence on the right of reply; and POFMA correction notices allow the publishing of most online media, while ensuring the government’s right of reply. I’m glad the Singapore government has strict controls on the foreign ownership of domestically published newspapers (or rather, THE newspaper)

I don’t believe the Australian politicians are exactly enjoying their subservience to the press, while having to espouse the virtues of a free press.

I’d emphasize, however, that I’m not opposed to media freedoms. In fact, I appreciate them. I’m typing this post on a US service, logged in with my Google account. In truth, the American Internet giants forced the Singapore government’s hand. Where they had been draconian before, they now admit their inability to control public opinion on the numerous online forums.

I think the sad truth of the matter is that, there is probably no silver bullet to great government. So much of it revolves around where you are today, what influences the external environment has on you, and the kind of leaders and activists the country can muster. I’d count my lucky stars today, and let tomorrow worry for itself.