Page 82 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

THE POLITICAL MEDIA

conspiracy theory to explain Stalker’s treatment in Northern Ireland.
Referring specifically to the press (but in terms which apply equally
to broadcasting) he notes that their account of the Stalker affair
‘conflicts utterly with the conventional academic picture of a right-
wing dominated press, producing an ideological justification for the
status quo and the forces of control’ (1991, p.8). In this case the
media ‘largely arrived at a consensus which challenged the legitimacy
of the state in its handling of the affair’. Coverage of the Stalker
affair revealed a willingness on the part of journalists ‘to call into
question not simply the wisdom of government policies or the good
faith of individual politicians, but a questioning of the good faith
and legitimacy of the state and its agents, and of the establishment
which is seen as lying behind them’ (Ibid., p.262).
It has been argued, on the other hand, that in reporting objectively
manifestly corrupt or unethical behaviour by the political class,
which may be causing fragmentation and disunity amongst the
establishment (such as the Watergate scandal in America, or cash-
for-questions in Britain) the media are contributing to a wider
popular belief in the self-rectifying properties of the system. They
may be doing this, but they are also carrying out what journalists
regard as their professional duty, independently of the political class.
Liberal journalism has evolved over three centuries or more as an
autonomous cultural and political force, the power and prestige of
which is measured at least in part by the readiness of journalists to
act as a ‘fourth estate’, looking out for and exposing the abuse of
political power. Much of the critical political coverage which
emerges from the application of this professional ethic may be
viewed as tokenistic and superficial, posing no real threat to the
centres of power in capitalist societies. ‘Monicagate’, for example,
in which the US media were filled with full and explicit coverage of
a president’s sexual habits, did not threaten American capitalism,
although allegations of cover-up and lying under oath did evoke
memories of Watergate and the possibility of presidential
impeachment. What it did do, unquestionably, like Watergate
twenty-five years before, was to demystify and undermine the
institutional power of the American presidency.
However we choose to interpret the significance of media criticism
of the establishment, it is clear that assertions of a ‘hegemonic role’
for the media must be able to accommodate those frequent examples
of the ‘breakdown of consensus’ and the splitting of elite groups. To
that end we may usefully distinguish between the work of Chomsky
and others, who stress the ‘propagandistic’ nature (if not necessarily

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