Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Why Honest Journalism Matters and Can Make a Difference: Interview with Nick Ut 40 years after the ‘napalm girl’ picture

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, June 29, 2012

Why Honest Journalism Matters and Can Make a Difference: Interview with Nick Ut 40 years after the ‘napalm girl’ picture

Click here to access article by Dominic Ponsford from Press Gazette (UK).

Well, yes, honest journalism matters. But as Nick Ut makes clear, it no longer can make a difference in capitalist controlled media simply because the latter no longer permits it.

“In the Vietnam war you could go anywhere you wanted. After the picture of napalm girl and other pictures you don’t have any freedom to cover war any more. They control the media a lot more now. They don’t want more pictures like napalm girl.

Thus, it is imperative that activists must create their own media to cover everyday reality so that people can understand the issues, organize, and formulate appropriate strategies to bring down the system that makes wars inevitable.