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214 Critical Theories of Mass Media
demonstrating the critical continuities in this book’s choice of
theorists from then and now. Benjamin’s seminal account of the
significance of reproductive media technologies, rejoices in their
explosively revolutionary nature – ‘Then came the film and burst
this prison-world asunder by the dynamite of the tenth of a second’
– to the point that ‘in the midst of far-flung ruins and debris’ he
enjoins us to ‘calmly and adventurously go travelling’ (Essay: Section
XIII). We reserve the right to put on our intellectual hard-hats and
point out that we still need to find a better home than either a cave
or the ruins and debris of a culture dominated by the spectacle.
Despite this book’s consistently pessimistic and critical interpreta-
tion of today’s mass-media society there is still hope to be found in
Adorno’s assertion that the culture industry is ‘pornographic but
prudish while true art is ascetic but unashamed’ (Adorno and
Horkheimer 1997: 140). This goes directly to the theme of the
obscene. A culture based upon mechanically reproduced explicitness
is prepared to exhibit and unveil everything at a surface level (the
pornographic) but needs to censor the ambiguous and the seductive
(it has a prudish attitude to high art and idealistic concepts
autonomous from commercial values). On 5 February, 2003 at the
United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York there was an
emblematic demonstration of critical theory’s continued relevance to
today’s mediascape. The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, spoke
at a press conference as part of a concerted diplomatic effort by the
US and the UK to obtain UN backing for an invasion of Iraq. In the
hall where the press conference took place normally hangs a large
tapestry–areproduction of Pablo Picasso’s famous anti-war painting
– Guernica. For the press conference, the tapestry was covered by a
blue curtain veiling the evocative scenes depicted in Picasso’s
artwork. While Benjamin hoped to see the greater politicization of
aesthetics, events at the UN that day illustrated the continued
aesthetic manipulation of politics. Two competing arguments were
put forward to explain this veiling. One was that a plain blue
backing was much more suitable as a neutral background for the
television cameras. To the extent that this book is unashamedly
pessimistic, critical media theory can point to this effective censoring
of Picasso’s message not by heavy-handed authoritarianism, but by
the no less effective removal of a powerful political aura due to the
media’s technical requirements and innate grammar. The other
reason suggested for the veiling was that US diplomats requested the
action to avoid the incongruity of discussing an impending military
action under this powerful anti-war symbol. If this was the true
reason, critical theory offers optimism and hope to the extent that,
in the midst of media-sponsored obscenity, there is still a need to
veil and politicians can still be made to feel shame.

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