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3 "3 ve 1, So b 5. 3 % grey Eh NL --~ » gs vl at BTS En Sn Pe Pat -- TET Sh oD Lok or AML Es 5 4 » AN Ye I LK pe OE rr St na Pet a SETI RA te DP AEC The Power Of The Media There is an ever increasing criticism that the media in North America have too much power, and that the influence the media can wield over just about any aspect of our lives may not be healthy. There is no question that the major broadcast networks, magazines and newspaper chains do have incredible resources at their disposal, especially in the United States, and to a somewhat lesser degree in Canada. A case in point for those who argue that the power of the media is, becoming too great was evident at the U.S. Republican convention which concluded in Detroit last week. There were for example more journalists (about 7000 than Republican delegates, officials and voting alternates. The schedule of the convention itself was tailored to suit the broadcast requirements of the three major networks. Certainly, the Republican convention in a presi- dential election year is a major news event, even if this one was nothing more than a coronation of Ronald Reagan who locked up the nomination months ago in the primaries. And the Republican Party, seeking to maximize its exposure, can be expected to bend over backwards and cater to the needs and deadlines of the media. What is shocking is the number of people, the extent of the resources, and the amounts of money spent by'each TV network for its coverage of the event. i Each network had about 700 employees in Detroit for the convention coverage. ABC spent an esti- mated $8 million, which included the renting of 500 cars: limousines, station wagons and sedans. NBC built an entire election coverage room the size of a football field adjacent to the arena where the convention was held as its operations headquarters. To accomodate its 700 staffers, ABC rented 69 apartments, 23 hotel suites, and over 600 single hotel rooms. The list goes on and on. In fact, superstar CBS correspondent Dan Rather was put up in a gigantic apartment that rented for $4000 a week. He had a limo, servants, and bodyguards at his disposal. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, by comparison, sent 20 staffers to Detroit for its convention coverage. Top dog Knowlton Nash stayed in a $50 a night hotel room, and took a cab back and forth when he could find one. The fact that the convention was dominated by the media can be illustrated further as major -. [TE yg 1 AN LB b, AOE AUT RTs * 0 Yo AI Lay Me SAK A EEA AS WLS editorial poge "ov TAKE THE HIGH roar an' 11d rane 7+= LOW ROAD AND LL BE OUJA' MONEY AFORE YE |" newspapers carried front page stories about how the media were covering the political event. Assuming that the three U.S. networks spent about $25 million on their coverage, and the rest of the media spent about the same, that cost alone would amount to $50 million. And that is shocking. Reports out of Detroit quote network spokesmen defending the lavish spending on two counts: the convention is big news and must be covered with all the technology and resources available; and second, the avertising revenues generated for the networks by their convention expenses will more than cover the costs. Be that as it may, the $25 or so million spent by the three networks alone for coverage of an event lasting less than a week is ample evidence of the power and resources that can be mustered. How have the networks in particular and the media in general come to the point where money doesn't seem to be an object? Advertising revenue, of course, must pay the bills. In turn, the company making and marketing the products pass on the advertising costs to the consumer. If these incredible sums of advertising revenue are floating around for just one media event like a political conyegtion, how much is it costing the consumer over 'a year, for example? One can't help but wonder where it will all end? How much will it cost the media to cover a convention in 1992? There are of course, numerous corporations in the world with more resources, more assets, and greater cash flows than the TV networks or major newspaper chains. But none with as much potential power. The access to and control of public information, what the guy on the street reads and sees, is of almost unparallel importance in the world today. The dilemma for all of us arises when the conveyors of this information reach a level of power and importance equal to or greater than the sources of this information; when the media stars outshine those they are reporting about; and when the media start to report about themselves and call it front page news. bill by Bill Smiley There are times that are sent to try us. And whoever said that said a mouthful. Every time a child is born, first, second, 12th or grandchild, we are tried with a combination of fear and joy. Every time an oldster dies, we-are tried with regret, sorrow and nostalgia. When a daughter is married, we are tried with grief, happiness and the bank manager. When we're applying for a job, we are tried with sheer terror, a mind that funct- ions like a rusty pump, and sweaty armpits. On the eve of an operation, we are tried with a sudden realization that we've let our communication with God slip rather badly in the last five years, and a simultaneous realization that surgeons are not God, and one little slip means you've lost your spleen instead of your left ovary. ) Wives and husbands are sent'to try us. The former with what Mary said to Edith before Gwen butted in. The latter with why they double-bogied the 17th hole. smiley Politicians try us. And try us, and try us, and try us. And we always wind up with a gaggle of geese nobody in his right mind would vote for. Preachers try us, either by reminding us we have sinned and there is no health in us, or going off into a tedious half-hour dialogue with God, who must be as bored as the congregation. Waitresses try us. They don't wipe the table. They bring the two-eggs-over-lightly tough enéugh to sole your boots, and the meduim rare steak so raw no self respecting wolf would eat it. Or so well done you could use it as charcoal on the barbecue. Old frinds try us, sometimes thoroughly. After 15 minutes of eager conversation during which they tell you how successful they are at Acme Screw and Gear, they ask: "And how's Jack?" Since you've never had a brother called Jack, John, Johann, Ian, Sean or Jan, and your two sisters are Mabel and Myrtle, this can be quite trying. Best answer is 'Fine, How's Archie?' You then find yourself talking about two people neither of you ever knew. Some of my earlier readers will long since have realized that this is merely an inordinately lengthy introduction to a personal experience that is trying. In other words, a long spiel to a pain in the arm. Right on, crafty readers. The most trying time for the head of the English department is the end of June. Alone on your bowed shoulders and greying head is the chore of deciding what 1,500 sensitive teenagers are going to read next fall. Actually, they're about as sensitive as an old rubber boot, but their parents think they are. Here's the situation. You have 20,000 books. One third of them are falling apart. Another one-fifth is so scribbled with obscenities by those sensitive youngsters that you couldn't peddle them at a burlesque show. - y our budget for new books is the same as it was eight years ago. Books have doubled and trebled in cost. Well, no problem there. You simply sprinkle some gasoline around the book storage centre and drop a match hoping you don't burn the whole shoe factory. But there is a problem. The books aren't insured. Of course, you get great support from your English teachers. Their tastes range from Dickens, who turns the kids off like a tie in summer, to the Texas Chain Saw Murders, which would probably turn them right on. After these suggestions, they - the English teachers - go off to sail their boats or stride the golf course. And lurking in the wings, of course, are the self appointed censors, most of whom have never read a book from cover to cover in their lives. They know less about sex and profanity than the veriest Grade Sixers. Hovering behind the censors is the great body of administrators, educators and politicians, huddles in terror that their sponsorship of a book might cost them a job, a vote, or a censure from some other nit who has ascended to their height of his-her competence. Ah, what the heck. It happens every year. I'm too old to go back to The Mill on the Floss, the most boring book I've ever read. A Tale of Two Cities is liable to stir up the Pequistes in Quebec. Uncle Tom's Cabin will infuriate the black militants. We'll hang in there with Huckleberry Finn, a homosexual novel about a black man and a white redneck; Who Has Seen The Wind, a filthy novel about the sex life of pigeons; Henry IV, Part One, about an old drunk and a young libertine; Hamlet, a play about an incestuous hippie; Lord of the Flies, a novel about kids murdering each other; True Grit, with 17 violent deaths; The Great Gatsby, concerning a weird bootleg- ger; Dracula, which the kids love; and The Pearl, in which a guy kills four people and his baby has its head shot off. Then there are: Of Mice and Men, in which a chap shoots his buddy, a moron, in the back of the head, and Julius Caesar, in which the lead character is stabbed 16 times by his buddies. LN) ©