The powerful say the powerless wield all power
The thought came to me while reading this essay by Frank Furedi that seemingly has nothing to do with newspapers. Then again, I think it has everything to do with newspapers.
Furedi is writing about 1968, but look at today. The rich and powerful, including newspaper publishers and columnists, are quick to find scapegoats (gays who want to marry, Mexicans who want to eke out a living, Jerry Springer, drug addicts, etc.) to carry the blame for all of society’s ills. Powerful conservative Republicans for many years controlled Congress, the White House and much of the judiciary, but blamed their failure to solve problems on the weak, demoralized “Liberals” who controlled nothing.
Within the industry, publishers and columnists turned their wrath outward. The industry’s problems were the result of readers who didn’t care about their communities, who were too stupid to appreciate the need for a daily newspaper, who were too cheap to promote their small businesses …
Everyone, it seems, is to blame for the decline of newspapers. Everyone, that is, except the rich and powerful who own and control them.
So the powerful can sip scotch at the country club and tsk-tsk at the rest of us. After all, it’s not their catastrophic failure to lead that is causing all the world’s problems.
It’s our failure to follow that’s to blame.
