Professor Robert W. McChesney's Secret Desire

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Robert W. McChesney is one of the most influential and outspoken press critics in America. For two decades he has railed against increasing corporate domination of the media, manipulation of the press and the need for journalistic reform. Some may think him radical, but McChesney does have a secret desire -- to be Rush Limbaugh. "I'd love to be Rush," McChesney said in a telephone interview. "It's an easy job, no wonder the guy was stoned all the time. You don't have to be on your toes to do what he does.
"You memorize 20 statements and keep repeating them. It's really not difficult. But it's hard to present something that goes against the dominant thinking and what is acceptable. I do it all the time."

McChesney just released a new book, "The Problem of the Media," and will be at Buffalo State College's Bulger Communications Center North Lecture Hall on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. On Wednesday, he will give an address at 12:15 p.m. in Dunleavy Hall, Room 127 at Niagara University.

Media coverage of the Iraq war heightens McChesney's concern. "The most important decision any country can make is to go to war," said McChesney, a professor at the University of Illinois' Institute of Communications Research. "Look at the press coverage leading up to the war. How good a job did it do to give the people the information they needed to make an informed decision? "All the evidence shows the coverage was inadequate and woeful. Our news media was vastly too uncritical toward claims, dubious at best, by the Bush administration." This harks back to one of McChesney's core principles -- those who own the media, control the media. The surge of powerful media empires in television and radio changed not only the ownership structure but also influence and coverage. "The rise of the conservative media, like Fox News and talk radio changed things," McChesney said. "They're sort of this unbelievable megaphone for the administration, always pushing the administration's line. "They never questioned the veracity and integrity of the comments of this administration on the war. It was just yelling and screaming about weapons of mass destruction or terrorism. They question your patriotism if you question the president. That has a chilling affect on discourse."

But don't just blame right wingers. McChesney blasted the New York Times for repeatedly reporting "claims of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction before the war." He criticized major television networks and newspapers for cutting back on foreign news.

This year's never-ending presidential campaign coverage also irks McChesney. "It's awful already and we still have eight months to go," he said. "What is called political coverage today is all too often the media covering political ads on TV. The media uses the ads to set the agenda for the debate.