Three Feminist Media Principles: Envisioning a Path to a Less Violent, More Truthful Media

A “sting” video targeting Planned Parenthood was released by the anti-choice group Live Action on February 1st -- and declared a lie the same day by media watchdog group Media Matters for America. Planned Parenthood, whose clinics were the target of at least 12 visits by a two-person “sting” team, one of them posing as a pimp in a sex trafficking ring, was way ahead of the story. The group’s leaders issued a press release on January 24, in which they underscored that they had contacted the FBI and that they believed they were the victims of a hoax carried out by anti-choice activists. That release was reported by the Washington Post.

Still, since the beginning of February, well over 600 articles covering the bogus “sting” video have appeared in media across the U.S. Many of them failed to fact-check the story at all.

Wading through such lies, especially those fanned by the vastly greater proportion of air time given to conservative media figures, becomes a monumental challenge.

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Mere hours after the January 9 mass shooting in Tucson, in which six people were murdered and thirteen others, including Congresswoman Garbielle Giffords, wounded, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik spoke out against violent rhetoric in a national news conference, launching a long overdo public conversation about dangerous language and imagery in the media. “I'd just like to say that when you look at unbalanced people, how they are -- how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths, about tearing down the government, the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous,” said Dupnik.

But is the mainstream media allowing for a full and accurate discussion about the depth of this problem? There seems to be unsubstantiated acceptance that such foul, derogatory and inflammatory, and deceitful language comes equally from the political right and left. Melissa McEwan of the blog Shakesville wrote an excellent piece, reprinted here on AlterNet, debunking that myth:

There is, demonstrably, no leftist equivalent to Sarah Palin, former veep candidate and presumed future presidential candidate, who uses gun imagery (rifle sights) and language ("Don't Retreat, RELOAD") to exhort her followers to action....

There is no leftist equivalent to Rush "I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus—living fossils—so we will never forget what these people stood for" Limbaugh, nationally syndicated radio show host and invitee to the Bush White House.

There is no leftist equivalent to Pat "Hitler's success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path" Buchanan, a regular MSNBC contributor and syndicated columnist.

There’s been significant push-back against this notion from the likes of Rush Limbaugh, who said in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, “The sheriff of Pima County has made a fool of himself. I don't know if he knows it yet or not. Most in the State-Controlled Media, the Drive-By Media, are illustrating why we call them ‘the Drive-By Media’….Hold your heads high and turn this back on the media.” Then there was Noel Sheppard of the blog NewsBusters, who attacked New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos for “doing the same thing,” i.e., using the word “target.” Sheppard even implied that a bulls eye graphic that he pulled from HillBuz was actually Moulitsas’. Very deceitful.