MediAlito & the quest for a good society

The media's endorsement of Alito, miscast (not necessarily consciously) as the inevitability of his confirmation, is, of course, infuriating.

(Note this kind of crime against democracy is not necessarily always pro-Republican -- Clinton's nomination and eventual victory in 1992 was facilitated by similar acts; remember when Clinton was dubbed the Comeback Kid and annointed with the mantle of frontrunner/inevitability when he came in SECOND in the New Hampshire primary?)

Perhaps the very ubiquity of the media-tors contains the seeds of their demise. In that respect, this Alito situation is yet another opportunity to refine our pro-democracy analysis of the media's role in politics and society.

One point that I think needs to be right at the root of our understanding is the fact that what is called the "mainstream media" would be better dubbed the "corporate media". This would emphasize the fact that these powerful public voices that pretend to neutral reflection of objective reality are in fact capitalist organizations that exist to make a profit for shareholders – members of a class of about 10 or so percent of the population that owns over 80 percent of the stock market and "capital" generally. These are the true, yet weirdly hidden (even from them/ourselves) "Establishment" elites in whose interest democracy is suppressed by the corporate media and politicans.

In other words, built into the corporate media is a pro-Establishment bias that could and sometimes does reflect the views of Democrat-style members of the top 10 percent/Establishment/corporate/elite, but will apparently tend toward the more authoritarian, power-centralizing Republican views, which, in the short term at least, seem most likely to advance the abstract (but real and effective) interest of capital. On top of this, of course, is the last 30 years of "conservative" attacks on the corporate media, which has them cowed or 'reeducated' or willing to be bought off.

So should our goal be to cow or reeducate or buy off the media to get them to reflect our views? Ulitmately, like many of the other real issues progressive people should be confronting, the question might be do we directly confront the Establishment power, as if we would like to take our turn at those reins, or do we work somewhat separately, even a bit underground, and start establishing a better society on our own, happily separate to the extent possible from the Establishment's tottering edifice and its legions of tyrants, sycophants, and dupes?

I know this is utopian, but I believe if we give up utopian impulses and goals, we have given up altogether and surrendered the possibility of a good society populated by good people to the selfish, anti-democracy Establishment.