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Eager to learn how the Committee That Really Runs America had adapted to the new administration in Washington, I called Ananias Ziegler, its director of media relations.
Despite a rough start in the transition, things are
going well, once we discovered how to use television
effectively,
Ziegler explained.
I know the presidential election didn't turn out your
way,
I offered.
Had us worried for a while,
Ziegler agreed,
when Clinton got elected on a domestic agenda of
health-care reform, public investment in infrastructure,
improved education -- history seemed to be running against
us.
But now the president seems to be preoccupied with
Bosnia, and the other stuff has faded,
I offered.
You think that's an accident?
Ziegler asked.
I don't know what to think,
I confessed.
Think about this,
Ziegler said. You Baby
Boomers grew up listing to songs like 'Blowin' in the
Wind,' which asks how many times you can turn your head and
pretend you just don't see, right?
I agreed.
Okay, and did you notice that while there are famines
all over the world, the U.S. went to Somali last year
thanks to all those awful images on TV?
I noticed.
And did you notice that during the first quarter of
1993, the Bosnian civil war was the most-covered story on
network news? It had 233 stories, compared to only 137 for
the runner-up, the transition.
I didn't keep count,
I confessed, but it did
appear a lot. So you're telling me that if the networks
saturate us with the horrors of the Bosnian war, President
Clinton will eventually feel compelled to intervene, even
if there's no real way to resolve the problems, and even
though there are problems in this country where government
action might actually accomplish something.
Precisely,
Ziegler said.
But why would anybody want to do that?
I asked
naively.
Well, Oliver Stone might theorize that NBC is owned
by General Electric, and GE is a major defense contractor,
and the more we use our military, the better the bottom
line. But you might also consider that all the networks
have been losing market share, and that their ratings shot
up during the Gulf War.
Sort of like William Randolph Hearst using Cuban
atrocity stories to ignite the Spanish-American War and
thereby improve newspaper circulation in 1898?
I asked.
Or the British flooding America with stories about Huns
raping Belgian nuns to get us into World War I on their
side?
Same idea,
Ziegler said. You're catching
on.
But suppose they started focusing on domestic things
like guns at school, Americans dying for lack of medical
care, decaying bridges -- wouldn't it be a refreshing
change for Americans to help themselves once in a
while?
Silly notion. Most of those don't offer good visuals,
and even if they did, it's depressing. Makes you think,
which puts you out of the mood to buy more stuff you don't
need. What good does it do to have ratings if the ads won't
work because you're not receptive?
Good point,
I agreed.
Damn right,
Ziegler said. If we provide the
pictures, you'll get a war. No matter how you voted last
November, the Committee will stay in charge.
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