The heirs of populist journalism

Every miracle lasts three days – and so does mourning. Then, all hell breaks loose and Greece goes back to doing what it does best, which is shifting responsibilities.

It’s the opposition against the government, the government against the opposition, railway network owner OSE against Hellenic Train, the company that operates the trains, and vice-versa, station masters against station masters, main opposition SYRIZA against everyone – and stuck in the middle are the journalists, who are criticized by everyone.

We have written before that journalism shares part of the responsibility for Greece’s mess. If anything, it missed the biggest news since the restoration of democracy, which was the country’s bankruptcy. At a time in 2008 when the country’s government was talking about a “shielded economy,” no one wondered what the country could endure fiscally when state-run OSE alone was losing 2 million euros a day and flag carrier airline Olympic Airways (which ceased operations in 2009) 1.5 million euros in 24 hours.

We did not ask how a social security system that absorbs 16% of our national income can be sustainable. On the contrary, various TV personalities had become stars by complaining every morning about the 50-year-old who could not retire after 25 years of service, about “starvation wages” of 2,000 euros or the milk allowance, which even today is paid in OSE.

The market dictates morals. The applause, the glory, the high salaries of the worst among us, created examples to be followed

But those who had the lion’s share of visibility in television were various “angry” citizens, who didn’t just talk about the woes of the people, but blasted the mainstream “system”: politicians, businesspeople, foreigners, the CIA, capitalism, etc. Late publisher and TV journalist Giorgos Trangas had the highest (known) salary among journalists. As a “warrior against the system” he was in high demand by the public and TV station owners.

The market, however, dictates morals. The applause, the glory, the high salaries of the worst among us, created examples to be followed. Today, even in the meager news section of television, many journalists do not want to convey information but to express the “anger of the people.”

Even the rudimentary norms set by Greece’s hapless broadcast watchdog, ESR, are being violated. Banned expletives are unleashed on prime-time under the mantle of satire. Woe betide the ESR if it dares do its job. SYRIZA will be the first to talk about censorship; it even discovered censorship in a statement by its president, which called for television channels “to avoid contributing to further panic among the public (especially minors) and further suffering to the victims and the bereaved” of the train tragedy.

The anger of the people trumps everything else…