The metastasis of the press. Elon Musk’s case in Bran demonstrates un unprecedented vulnerability for Romania

The metastasis of the press. Elon Musk’s case in Bran demonstrates un unprecedented vulnerability for Romania

 

The press is considered the watchdog of society. It barks when it smells illegality, chases thieves, and digs for evidence. In Romania, however, most of the Romanian press looks like a fangless creature that is mocked by its de facto masters, that is, the media tycoons attached to politicians or to the secret services. The case of Elon Musk’s fake unveiling in Bran adds to the long line of errors and/or distortions of reality that indicate the widespread deprofessionalization of the press. It’s a process started under pressure from the same bosses who have turned the press into a club and many journalists into obedient robots with news targets by the acre.

 

False information emerges daily in the online news or local TV, not to mention social media. But what happened last weekend proved a failure on a grand scale for the press, an abdication of the primary rules of the trade. The fake news published by the unidentified obscure mediaflux.ro about Elon Musk coming to Romania was picked up by almost all the Romanian press, even if there was no confirmation. And that’s not all. The worst thing is that they persisted in their error, refused to accept the mistake and correct the original information, with one exception.

 

Only a few media outlets, including G4Media, resisted the pressure, the pack instinct, and did not publish the fake news. Only someone who has been through a newsroom knows how sweat beads burn down your spine when you make the decision not to publish a piece of information that only seems truthful when repeated over and over by the rest of the newsrooms. It takes nerves, courage and professionalism to make the right decision.

 

Almost everything else in the mainstream press – websites, TV, newspapers – has taken the information and flourished it according to inspiration, creativity and lack of discernment. Only Libertatea has so far apologized to its readers, a form of normality that we at G4Media have practiced every time on the rare occasions when we have published erroneous information. The rest of the press, however, has passed over the event as if the falsehood they broadcast did not exist. From the „premium” Digi24 to Antena 3 freshly signed up with CNN, from the sleazy Romania TV to dozens of websites, no one admitted to their audience that they were wrong.

 

The initial lie is covered by an equally guilty silence.

 

The effect of this twice-wrong behaviour on the credibility of the press as a whole is incalculable. In theory, millions of Romanians have discovered that their sources of information are in fact sources of disinformation. Of manipulation. Of lies. Instead of brave journalists fighting for the truth, they have discovered an amorphous mass of sci-fi writers with no accountability for what comes out of their mouths or their keyboards.

 

What information can citizens rely on when making their voting decision? Who else serves the public interest? Who else fights for them, the citizens, with the injustices, the illegalities, the crooked laws? Who can explain to them the differences, the nuances of the parties’ electoral programmes? What confidence can citizens have in a press that behaves thuggishly?

 

In fact, the Elon Musk fake news is just a symptom of a much more serious disease. Much of the Romanian press is in metastasis. The press owners have willingly entered the mechanism that is killing journalism quickly and without fail: they receive tens of millions of euros from the government, PSD, PNL, and UDMR.

 

We have written extensively about the buying of the press by the pound by politicians who want to ensure their peace of mind, a phenomenon documented by journalist Cristian Andrei from Europa Liberă.

 

The immediate effects of this barter are deprofessionalization and self-censorship. Hundreds of journalists have learned to keep quiet to avoid jeopardising their jobs. They no longer ask questions at conferences, do not propose investigative stories in the newsroom, do not contradict their corrupt bosses. They have learned to live in compromise, in lies. Not all of them, of course, a handful of people even in these bribed newsrooms stubbornly stick to doing their jobs.

 

The big TV stations and trusts have been mystifying the truth every day for two years. They ignore the stories that could harm President Iohannis, the PSD and the PNL. They pretend not to see the scandal of the BMWs purchased by the police from the President’s friend, they cloak the disaster in justice in smoke, they don’t say a word about the critical situation in education, they neglect the scandal of PSD money distributed by firms close to the PSD itself.

 

The quasi-collective failure in the Elon Musk case is the logical, expected effect of this widespread cancer in the media. Much of the press has lost its banal reflex to thoroughly verify a piece of information, to dig until exhaustion for confirmation. When the press has the daily political purse strings attached, what is the point of chasing a bone?

 

The business model of the online press, almost 100% dependent on quantity rather than quality, is an aggravating factor. But that’s another topic worth dealing with separately.

 

The amorphous state that much of the central press has fallen into is perfect for politicians. But it’s an existential threat to society. A country without journalists is as sick as an organism without antibodies. With the war at the border, Romania is a sure victim for any sophisticated media manipulation campaign by any actor who wants to destabilize the region.

 

And the prospect of four rounds of elections in 2024 is a terrifying one. Most of the public will simply be deprived of essential information on which to make their voting decision.

 

The degradation of democracy in Russia or Hungary started exactly this way: with the press. The weaker the press, the weaker the democracy. And the fake news about Elon Musk being in Romania shows a critical situation. There is only one chance left. At least in the 13th hour, a bill must be passed quickly through Parliament to limit party media spending to a maximum of 30% of the subsidies received by parties from the budget. The Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP) bill, backed by PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu, is a small step forward, but all contracts between parties and the press need to be made transparent so that we know exactly who is buying what.

 

Every wasted day quickly brings us closer to the failure of society as a whole.

Translated article