Contribution by Mary W Maxwell, LLB,
Wag the Dog, January 2, 1998, at RogerEbert.com: “The US invasion of Grenada, I have read, produced more decorations than combatants. By the time it was over, Reagan’s presidency had proven the republic could still flex its muscle–we could take out a Caribbean Marxist regime at will.
Barry Levinson’s “Wag the Dog” cites Grenada as an example of how easy it is to whip up patriotic frenzy, and how dubious the motives sometimes are. The movie is a satire; like “Dr. Strangelove,” it makes you laugh, and then it makes you wonder. It is getting harder and harder for satire to stay ahead of reality.
Brean, a Mr. Fixit who has masterminded a lot of shady scenarios, has a motto: “To change the story, change the lead.” Meanwhile, he cooks up a phony international crisis with Albania. Why Albania? Nobody is sure where it is, nobody cares, and you can’t get any news out of it. As spokesmen warn of Albanian terrorists skulking south from Canada with “suitcase bombs,” Motss supervises the design of a logo for use on the news channels, hires Willie Nelson to write the song that will become the conflict’s “spontaneous” anthem, and fakes news footage of a hapless Albanian girl fleeing from rapists with her kitten. (The kitten, before it is created with special effects, is a bag of Tostados.) It’s creepy how this material is absurd and convincing at the same time.”
Dee, my reaction to the above is that Ebert wrote it 16 long years ago. Shouldn’t we be at a place now where we don’t just keep on saying “This is fake”? All the young people are familiar with “Wag the Dog.” So is there any reason to treat each new Murdochian nonsense item as though it needs analysis? (By the way, his headline yesterday in The Adelaide Advertiser, re beheading, was: “This Is Pure Evil.” Oh my.)
Probably the big boys keep on testing to see if there is any point at which the public will balk. Dee, as you know, the public is NOT balking. That, not Murdoch, is the problem. We have met the enemy and he is us. So what to do now? I appreciate your role as honest journalist, telling us the truth. And I hope there are some Melbournians who did not know the knife was plastic, and now are enlightened. But, my question again is, how to take the next step?
Mary W Maxwell, LLB, lives in Adelaide. In the 1980s she wrote for The Age. Her forthcoming book is “Fraud Upon the Court: Reclaiming the Law, Joyfully.” Imagine that — joyfully.