In one half of a generation we have witnessed a massive collapse of the independence of our news media; an utter and total failure of the free press to be watchdogs, to be free, and they willingly gave us their freedom in return for access to power and steak and wine dinners.
That said, it’s good to keep in mind that Plus Ca Change, Plus Ca La Meme Chose. In the 1790s, Marie Antionette represented the Austrian Empire when she married the King of France as a child. The peasants hated her. She tried to refashion her image with paintings and parties but for naught.
Anonymously written pamphlets called Libelles ( source of the word Libel), appeared calling her an incestuous rich harlot, and chienne ( Yes-"bitch")
While we often pat ourselves on the back for being at the epicenter of the rise of citizen journalism, the fact is, alternate press and opposition press are old ideas and were created at great expense.
Thomas Paine as the original American blogger. He had access to a relatively modern press that was rare in the Colonies. 120,000 copies of Common Sense on good paper were distributed at a time when a famous playwright would be lucky to have 20,000 copies in Europe.
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
These words expressed feelings that inflamed the independence movement.
arthistoryguide.com talks about the first pamphleteers. The first opposition press tiptoed to a public wall toting a chisel and a chip on their shoulder and placed clever sayings where citizens with similar sentiments would see them. From the website:
In ancient times the term graffiti referred to figure drawings, wall carvings and inscriptions found on ancient ruins, throughout Pompeii, and within the Catacombs of Rome. The word evolved to include artistic vandalism. The first known example of ‘modern’ graffiti exists in the Ephesus, an ancient Greek city that is now Turkey. The graffiti conveys a ‘for a good time’ sign which appears near a long mosaic stone walkway. The sign includes a heart shape, a footprint, handprints, and a numbers. The hands represented how much the ‘good time’ would cost, and the foot shows how many steps it would take to find the lover. Pompeii is a Roman city that depicts many examples of graffiti art – you’ll find, in Latin graffiti, magic instructions, insults, love declarations, signs for political campaigns, caricatures, and quotations from literature. Ancient graffiti is also found in Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli, in the Mayan site of Tikal in Guatemala, Viking graffiti in Rome, and vandalism art in Ireland at Newgrange Mound.
Interestingly when Crassus was a brutal Roman Senator graffiti appeared all over the walls in the entrances to the public baths referring to him with epithets.
In other nations throughout history where there were no Hollywoods expose the hypocrisy of Religious leaders and Kings, there was the theatre. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, otherwise known as Molliere, was a wealthy courtesan and actor who thrilled the court of Louis the XIV with his comedies that were often laden with openly political criticism. Molière's satire Tartuffe ou l'Imposteur attacked church hypocrisy and Don Juan was simply outlawed.
The point here is that we will always find a way to get the message out. We complain that the blogosphere still lacks the reach and power of the Anna Nicole press. But then, how many Romans read the epithets on the way to the baths? Even though 120,000 copies of Common Sense were distributed, there was still a large and rich pro-King George constituency here.
The blogosphere is probably the most power democratized press apparatus in the world, and even though Bush has done irreparable damage to the country, the blogosphere has proven itself to be a valuable supplement to a sycophantic and ideological public media.
When I was a kid, once in Georgia, I saw old Hebrew prayer books in a trashcan behind a synagogue. I grabbed a few of them and took them home. They were printed on underground presses in Vilnius at a time when it was dangerous to declare your Jewishness. Yet here they were, in Hebrew and with Yiddish translations, printed on hidden presses by the people you might see in Fiddler on the Roof, shtetl dwellers who realize that somehow, someway, they will find their way to freedom. The siddurim ( prayer books) held the greatest political opposition these jews could muster: their ancient texts.
Thanks to the alternative media that Blogger paved the way for, Steve Gilliard was a Thomas Paine of sorts and tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people wither know who he was or read something he penned. ( OK, typed).
I am proud to be a part of this community, but I have no illusions about having a place in history. I mean, if you think the Iraq War was concocted, you should look at the Spanish-American War. But, that’s a whole other post.