Published in the Mountainview
Walt Brasch's nationally syndicated weekly column on the
media provides the source material for Enquiring
Minds and Space Aliens: Wandering through the Mass Media and Popular Culture,
published by Mayfly Productions. The oddity begins with three different tables
of contents. as a way to get potential critics "to shut up and let the
rest of us enjoy life." A series of commentaries on the politics and
influence of the media, the collection of columns entertains and informs.
Brasch has a finely honed sense of fair play; he breaks
ranks with most pundits by holding media organizations and reporters to the
same standards to which they hold the public and public figures. He also puts
them in familiar contexts, portraying a fictional trade between news
organizations, of one seasoned reporter for "two rookie reporters, an
editorial clerk, and a future draft choice."
Brasch decries media collusion with big business and
government to mislead the people, and satirizes the media's ability to
influence the public. He offers several examples throughout the book, including
tabloids in supermarket checkout aisles, explaining that as a commentary on
American public interest, they are a frightening spectre indeed.
Also frightening, he notes in one somewhat subversive column
(“Wonderings of an Idle Mind"), is the American tendency to ignore bad news
and to favor what Brasch clearly considers not "news."
Beyond the serious to the humorous are examples of stories
journalists can't file (because they're not true), but should (because it would
be so nice if they were true). One of these is NBC's reinstatement of a failed
series based on the 1960s civil rights struggle, because, despite terribly low
ratings, the subject matter is important,
Brasch's work has a serious element; he uses his column to
provide a combination of several interviews: Woodstock
attendees and Ohio National Guardsmen present at Kent State
Brasch holds forth with critiques, both positive and
negative, of all forms of media in the United States . Advertisers take
heat for promoting cigarettes, newspapers for hiring practices, government
publicists for their forms of "spin control," and news magazines for
theirs. Brasch advocates responsibility and accountability, while offering
insight into the true motivations of the public affairs industry.
His story, however, is one-sided. Those who disagree with
him have no voice of their own in this book. This is only appropriate because
it is a collection of columns; the columnist is traditionally allowed to put
words into mouths of adversaries and allies alike, while a news reporter tends
not to be permitted the same liberty. This is not to criticize Brasch's
journalism skills; those columns in which they, rather than his pundit alter
ego, are present, indicate a particular adeptness with words and facts.
Perhaps Brasch will expand some of these columns into chapters
in a future book; his observations as a veritable turncoat in the news business
are informed from the inside, and attempt to permit the average person to see
his world from the inside. It is a world with inherent and deep contradictions,
and one which until recently had the respect of a large portion of the American
public. It is for reasons like those Brasch illustrates that the public's
interest in news and respect for news organizations is waning.
Unfortunately, Brasch offers precious little in the way of
solutions to this problem. He even shies away from stating point blank that
there is a problem; his satire does the work for him, which is simultaneously
admirable and disappointing.
For those seeking an insider's look at the media with the
irreverence of the public, this is, above all, a book to enjoy. Its title is
far from the only quirky and entertaining thing about it; satire is a dying art
Brasch has rekindled some and directed it at a common scapegoat: the media.