Neo-Conservatives and the Press

One of the more curious phenomena of the past 20 years has been the neo-conservative movement’s concern that the press isn’t permitting their message to get out.

Those of us working in and for the press are seen as gatekeepers so thoroughly ‘liberal’ that we are perceived to be censuring the good news or deep insight of neo-conservatives and serving instead the ideas and parties of the centre left. We are, it’s asserted, far more critical of neo-conservative ideas than we are the ideas of the rights revolution, the women’s movement, the welfare state, of nationalists, greens and the like.

In acting on this concern, we have seen Stephen Harper try to discipline the press corps in Ottawa; try to get its message out via regional reporters, blogs, ad campaigns; and, more recently (if we are to believe the Opposition) by using public service home pages as a vehicle for their political messages.

In Nova Scotia, the Progressive Conservatives have employed an attractive brochure mailed to all citizens as a way to get its good news message past what they appear to see as the provincial gatekeepers.

This concern is curious because it asserts a claim that’s no longer, if it ever was, true. Since the Reagan presidency, the American press has become much more conservative than liberal. This conservative orientation is found in Fox News and in most AM radio stations in the US.

And since Clinton—and at least until recently, where Bush’s war has given them pause— CNN, NBC, ABC and even the old liberal crew at CBS have sat comfortably in the conservative camp. Indeed, while the Washington Post is still a “liberal” paper, it’s increasingly lonely in this space.

Canada has followed suit

In Canada, a shift from a liberal to a conservative press has followed suit, first with the publishing of the National Post, an undeniably neo-conservative paper that makes the Globe seem Liberal to some, with much more conservative-friendly coverage in the Post’s brother papers and on CTV than was previously the case.

Mike Duffy’s show provides an interesting test question for Politics 101: if you can’t see that it runs a conservative spin not particularly friendly to the progressive interests of women in politics then perhaps you need to redo the course. Even the CBC has moved some distance away from what was arguably its left liberal perspective of old, and from most of the 65 per cent of Canadians who don’t vote Tory.

Despite the shift in Canadian news organizations, there remains something to Conservatives’ concern. Four features can characterize the majority of journalists in Canada: they’re proud of their work, believing they serve a democratic purpose in the interests of their country or province (and they take umbrage at being put down or manipulated); they’re fairly smart, at least smarter than many neo-conservatives assume them to be and often smarter than the neo-conservatives who seek to manage and manipulate them; they believe their audience’s intelligence and integrity are greater than these appear to neo-cons, finding it disturbing when, as journalists, they’re asked to dumb down their work; and they have long memories.

These journalists find some of the policy ideas of conservative politicians more attractive than they let on. However, the conservative movement in Canada insists in making it difficult for journalists to say so by favouring the minority of journalists who are already in their camp; by seeking to manipulate and manage the press, often in a way that insults their pride and intelligence; and by attempting to develop greater public support for their movement by appealing to what they take to be citizens’ simple-mindedness and “lower selves.”

The Bloc, NDP and Liberals appeal much more regularly to citizens’ and journalists’ intelligence and professional integrity, even though they’re far from innocent on the manipulation front.

Respecting journalists’ pride and intelligence and having more faith in the capacity of the electorate to see through crude manipulation and dumbing down pays political dividends. Once conservatives in Canada truly understand and accept this, they will find many more of their ideas getting serious deliberative attention.

But they will need to leave their American and Australian advisors and their own public relations classes behind. One step in this direction would be for conservative leaders to hold more press conferences where the agenda is open and reason prevails.