After the controversy surrounding Mike Daisey’s fabricated stories in This American Life and the subsequent attacks by leading journalists from almost every major publication, I became keenly aware of both the average reader’s priorities and the nature of corporate media: the news cycle is, to put it bluntly, suicidal.
When Daisey told his stories of life in an Apple factory in Shenzhen, China, he aimed to do what other journalists had not. Although he embellished his interactions to create a more compelling storyline, Daisey revealed the basic reality of the abysmal working conditions at FoxConn. Statistics exist to back up this truth.
Unfortunately, what resonates today in readers’ minds is the Daisey scandal. His supposed lies are simultaneously side-stepping and undermining an injustice which activists live to expose—that factories in China exploit workers on a daily basis.
Stories come to life—they’re pampered by fleeting circulation in small affected pockets of the world, and then they peter off unceremoniously into a black hole. With the media constantly flashing images of protests in Syria, malnutrition in Sudan, mass murder in Afghanistan, and the like, every day is a bad day for news, and readers can’t be expected to have the time or impetus to care about every issue. This trend is larger than forgetfulness. A common thread in the news cycle appears to be an obsession with drama that unfortunately leaves the original cause behind in the dust.
The Kony 2012 scandal perfectly encapsulates a reader’s tendency to dodge the point in question. The docudrama, created by Invisible Children, Inc., quickly accumulated at least 80 million views and called for the arrest of a Ugandan warlord. The video inspired donations and campaigns, but a week later Kony was a passing scandal. As a friend of mine aptly put it, “What happened to all the ‘Stop Kony’ statuses? Did America win? Or did it just stop trending?” The cause lost itself in a vast ocean of scandal.
Here at Georgetown, news appears to be cycling in a similar manner, as is shown with Rush Limbaugh’s comments on Sandra Fluke. Last week, I wrote the Voice’s feature story about birth control in Georgetown’s student health plan. Sure, I had to mention that what brought Fluke national fame was Limbaugh calling her a “slut” and a “prostitute.” His insults prompted backlash from the national media, yet no one seems to remember why Fluke was in the news cycle in the first place.
While Limbaugh’s comments were undeniably heinous, the actual debate over the availability of birth control took a backseat to the outrage over his insults. My story, just like many others, focused on the important conflicts that a lack of birth control in student insurance presents. At the end of the day, the news cycle killed that too.
We promote civility, discourse, dialogue, engagement, or whichever buzzword sounds the least committed. But we at Georgetown forgot something in our desperate attachment to scandal—women at Georgetown don’t have access to birth control. Women at Georgetown are hampered by antiquated ideals that many other Jesuit universities have had the courage to override.
The Voice ran a feature on the practices and the finances of the Corp, and a huge part of the organization exploded with outrage. The online commenting was seemingly endless, eventually landing at 92 mostly pissed-off comments. Law Students for Reproductive Justice garnered just six. I see a disparity between what matters and what trends.
Each example shares a common link to drama and scandal over forgotten priorities. Daisey may very well be a pathological liar, but that doesn’t matter, at least not to the original cause of labor rights in Chinese manufacturing. He spoke up for the facts and statistics that remain unnoticed on the websites of labor think tanks, and, as he alleges, prompted a New York Times article that conducted the real research.
Tomorrow, Georgetown student leaders will hold an event called Stand for Civility to support President John DeGioia’s letter urging rhetorical restraint. Last Sunday, our beloved GUSA passed a bill supporting Fluke and DeGioia’s civility in the debate over birth control.
Let us not forget that our University promotes social justice and the health of all students just as much as it does productive and civil debate. Rather than shying away from yet another divisive topic, we could actually take a stance.
Go forth and be uncivil. At least you’ll be making a difference.
