Chris Hedges Was Supposed to Write a Book About the Media (from FAIR)

[jpgray]

I caught this story at Single Payer Action. The account is based on a talk veteran reporter Chris Hedges gave recently at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, New York:

"Knopf – which of course, like all of these large publishing houses is owned by a large transnational corporation--asked me to write a book on the press," Hedges told the Sanctuary for Independent Media last month in Troy, New York.

"The advance was pretty low--I said no. But after giving a talk at the Ford Foundation, they said they would kick in the money. And I agreed to do it."

"It was a bad idea. I learned never to write about somebody else's idea."

But Hedges produced the manuscript anyway--and turned it in on time.

"When Knopf got it they were horrified," Hedges reports. "Because it exposed the rot within the commercial media, the complicity of the commercial media with the power elite--and all of the things they won’t write about, the things they won’t tell you."

"The editor called me up and said they didn't like it. But that's all right--they would help me take out all the negativity. All the negativity would be removed and then Knopf would happily publish it."

"What they wanted was a mythic version of the press--without fear or favor, America's great investigative and truth telling enterprise of journalism--is collapsing under the onslaught of declining circulation and declining ad revenues. And American democracy will be irrevocably damaged."

Hedges shared with Knopf the feeling that the loss of a print-based media "will be deeply damaging."

"But I was not about to mythologize an institution that I know intimately and know far better than any editor at Knopf," Hedges said. "So, I called Nation Books and asked them to buy out the advance, which they did."

"I then reconfigured the entire book. I had written about one pillar of the liberal establishment and its collapse. What I realized in the process of writing it was that all of the pillars of the liberal establishment had collapsed. The liberal church, the universities, the press, labor, culture and the Democratic Party have all failed."

http://www.fair.org/blog/2010/11/19/chris-hedges-was-supposed-to-write-a-book-about-the-media/

[mrdmk]

1. As much as I respect Chris Hedges, I do disagree with the following

<snip from OP>

"I then reconfigured the entire book. I had written about one pillar of the liberal establishment and its collapse. What I realized in the process of writing it was that all of the pillars of the liberal establishment had collapsed. The liberal church, the universities, the press, labor, culture and the Democratic Party have all failed."

<end of snip>

'Failed', is a strong word and a simplistic explanation. Taken out of the national discussion, thus knocked back on heels and suppressed by means of bullying and out right lies from charismatic persons with highly over rated opinions is more like it. Then there is the overworked American having no time to change the society they live in, more-or-less keep in-the-know of the crap they are being spoon feed.

[grasswire]

2. not quite fair to dispute his statement without reading his argument.

I look forward to this book. Let the blame fall where it is due.

[jpgray]

3. And I respectfully disagree with you. :-)

"Failed" in this case is objectively true. We have failed to counter the collapse of our discourse. As for overwork and lack of time, you and I are here typing. Others are obsessing over sports, Dancing with the Stars, and any number of other largely passive activities that require inordinate amounts of time. No time is enough if we remain isolated from and in fear of one another, and our failure as a party is partly in our inability to counteract, and willingness to promote, that state of affairs.