Dear Bono....

The phrase, “if they only used their talent for good instead of evil,” has always referred to unbridled potential utilized for less favourable measures. But this figure of speech rings true in relation to our society more than we know. We can revisit the metaphor of the disgruntled fool complaining about a meal at a restaurant. Whether the pasta is cold, the fish too fishy or the service slow – human beings have no misgivings in prioritizing food over good company and conversation; complaining as true fools do. Instead of being at a restaurant on a night out with people we care for, fate could have us enduring many other unfortunate events we seldom imagine.

Every person has problems tied with sorrow. Some have troubles bigger than others and some feel equally burdened with lesser concerns. Some concerns are so dire they include having nothing for themselves and their children to eat. However, we continue to be disappointed by trivial circumstances such as bad food, bad service or bad entertainment. When we complain we lose all sense of humour and all understanding of perspective. When we complain we have made a decision to take everything we have (enter cliché) for granted.

So how do we take our materialistic disappointment and ungrateful arrogance we express so vehemently at the bistro and turn it positive? How can these ineffectual and pointless inclinations to whinge and whine about every single insignificant event in our lives be channelled into something worthwhile? The answer is through the notion of the formal complaint. We threaten the formal complaint many a time when we ring up to question the phone bill or come across those ever so rude waitresses and taxi drivers. “I want to speak to the manager,” we say. But rarely do we put anything in writing. More often than not, the forewarning of a formal complaint (opposed to a regular complaint, whatever that means) is seldom executed. More often than not, the threat of making a formal complaint is more often announced to intimidate rather than employ, in addition to letting off a little steam.

An individual complaint to our local press council illustrating the gist that, “Someone at the water cooler at work told me 25,000 people died yesterday from having nothing to eat and apparently most of them were kids and I never read about it in your newspaper – what the frig?” is enough for a media accountability system to be obligated to respond to. But there is no gimmick in the grievance. It isn’t like letting off a stink bomb at the supermarket. The media’s neglect for the third world is a serious issue to be truly angry about. We pay up to a couple of bucks for our newspapers – we need to ask ourselves why aren’t we being informed about the biggest humanitarian crisis taking place in our world today in thick Times New Roman letters on the front page. Or the very least in our World News section? This omission is an even bigger rip-off than paying too much money for bad food.

Climate change is an easy issue to become angry about because it affects us all. Planet earth is our home so we are directly affected. A billion people we never see who don’t bother us when we don’t bother them are easy to feel indifferent over because their continual demise does us no harm. Plus, they are weak and powerless which is even more a reason they can do us no harm. We can be selfish, human beings. Yet news omission on extreme poverty is the issue taking place in our lives when it is, in fact, warranted to say “I want to speak to the manager,” or “Hey, I’m paying for a service here.” Every person on this planet who has read a newspaper or tuned into a news bulletin has the right to say they were absolutely, totally and positively ripped off by what they were provided in their news service.

As far as press councils go, the Australian Press Council isn’t necessarily a bad one. But saying this is like saying Chlamydia is one of the better STDs. Unlike the UK’s Press Complaints Commission that requires a complaint to be made within two months of publication along with the section, clause and paragraph of its code the believed-breach has occurred, our humble media accountability system in the Land of Oz allows complaints to be a touch more generic. Not that news omission on extreme poverty deaths is generic in any way – but even the Australian Press Council agrees more leeway should be given for grievances purporting to non-publication. But before our eyes start tearing up in admiration, this is the same organisation happy to condone extreme poverty news omission on the grounds that it has become a boring story, not as interesting, and therefore not as newsworthy, as other news items.

Nevertheless, our role as media consumers is to communicate the position that we want news agenda to be reevaluated. Traditionally we have been content with leaving the handpicking of news items to the discretion of the news mediums in good faith that we are being provided important, current and relevant information of the day. Any dictating of what we do and don’t want to read would indeed be a gross intrusion of the freedom of the press. However, the common sense expected to prevail when publications and broadcasters make the decision whether or not to prioritize important stories is not happening. Individual complaints in writing, addressed to our press councils, can change the culture and shaping of news agenda and, in turn, save lives.

Unlike the disorganized reputation of every journalist I know, the Australian Press Council documents its complaints each year better than Melvil Dewey, even going to the point of uploading the adjudications and statistics on its website for the world to see. It also neatly divvies up the complaints into 22 categories as do many other international councils. In alphabetical order, these categories of complaints comprise the following subheadings: abuse of press freedom; advertising; bad taste; bias; censorship or suppression of facts; distortion; ethical standards breached; false reporting; freedom of the press threatened; headline false or misleading; imbalance or inadequate coverage; invasion of privacy; irresponsibility; letters’ non-publication or editing; offensive cartoons; offensive coverage; racism or religious disparagement; sensationalism; sexism; unfair treatment; and last but not least, the token miscellaneous category. Now…is anyone thinking what I’m thinking? News omission on extreme poverty could probably be filed into half of these groupings. Extreme poverty can fit into 11 out of the 22 categories – 12 if we assume the stance of the media’s role in “preserving genocide” which can then be filed under miscellaneous. Our role in ending extreme poverty is to pick a category, get angry about it and start writing a formal complaint.

The Australian Press Council states that it likes its complaints to be pithy and no longer than 400 words. This is solely because it means they don’t have to read as much, so that they can make it home in time for Grey’s Anatomy after meetings. My advice would be the same to a person being held up at a bank – just do as they say. But on the reverse side, it can be hard to be angry about a billion people’s neglect and express that anger vividly in 400 words. So a further recommendation would be to do whatever it is that makes your argument clear and succinct.

Below are some pointers or ideas on the bare minimum of what to write about in a complaint in relation to the category one might choose. You should also choose an angle that may be personal to you. For example, anyone who has encountered any such racial slurs might be more passionate towards the issue of racism, while parents of victims of bullying might find themselves more responsive to the ‘unfair treatment’ aspect. Again, if you choose an angle that best interests you, it will, in turn, be more interesting to the reader ─ which basically is exactly the same as what a news reporter tries to do.

ABUSE OF PRESS FREEDOM

An easy one. The power of the press is considered the fourth estate and it is no secret the media is as powerful (or in my opinion, even more powerful) than politicians. Think the Spiderman dogma riddled throughout this text, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. The media is abusing its defence of obtaining the ‘freedom of the press’ by refraining to report on extreme poverty. This abuse results to the more literal sense where millions of people die.

BAD TASTE

It is in extremely poor taste for the media to pick and choose illustrative, sexy and colourful world news stories from overseas in order to sell newspapers and abandon news stories that could influence political decisions that can save lives. Again, the phrase ‘that can save lives’ is important because the media merely influencing political decisions is (rightfully so) an abuse of press freedom and therefore, irresponsible. The point to make is that trivial gossip and entertainment news certainly has its place, but it should not take priority in news editorial space over any daily tragedy of epic proportion.

BIAS

What gives countries we trade with precedence over the third world nations in relation to news coverage? Just because our economy does not depend on certain countries should not mean they deserve little to no public concern. Is it coincidence conflict in the Middle East receives, perhaps, proportionate coverage when they are also home to much of our crude oil reserves? But it is paramount to be specific with this argument. Individual stories must be used as examples and questioned why it was given priority over the event of some 25,000 deaths.

CENSORSHIP/SUPRESSION OF FACTS

Why are we told more frequently the number of people killed in Iraq but not the number of people killed through famine? Does the novel event of a suicide bomber’s actions override the interest of deaths through global neglect? Famine casualties are always going to be higher than any war or natural disaster yet we are told nothing about it. Where is it in the World News pages?

DISTORTION

Why are we not informed more on the poverty myths that influence our beliefs that eliminating extreme poverty is a hopeless battle? Perhaps read economist Jeffrey Sachs’ The End of Poverty and refer to an expert opinion proposing neglect as the primary cause of extreme poverty’s continuance. Refer to his theory of the poverty myth that proves how much we are uneducated on the crisis. Promiscuous women; colossal birth rates; civil wars; corrupt governments; endless debt ─ are all core elements that make up the generic conviction that the ever so perishing developing world is here to stay whether we like it or not. Experts like Sachs tell us these myths make up a general conception that there is no hope when this is not the case. Surely the conception that there is hope needs to be conveyed through advocacy journalism.

ETHICAL STANDARDS BREACHED

According to the Australian Press Council’s Constitution, one of the ways the council upholds responsible journalism is by ‘keeping under review, and where appropriate, challenging political, legislative, commercial or other developments which may adversely affect the dissemination of information of public interest, and may consequently threaten the public’s right to know.’ The public’s right to know is breached every day when vital news is omitted. It is unethical to omit a news story on the basis that it has already occurred the previous day and the previous day before etc. Millennium Development Goals are not being met each year because governments are not being held accountable. Therefore, audiences are not being given high doses of information that will persuade policy change within administrations with the power to meet these life-saving goals. Hence, the failure to acknowledge this omission is also unethical.

IMBALANCE/INADEQUATE COVERAGE

Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson – are all names containing a presumed level of knowledge from its audience. Therefore, no introduction is necessary. We are updated on every new occurrence of nutty behaviour whether we like it or not. While it is a subjective statement, it isn’t too bold to say that this barrage of stories is not as important as extreme poverty. We continually know every move Keith and Nicole are making but nothing about the progress of the Millennium Development Goals. Also, feature articles do not suffice as hard news stories.

IRRESPONSIBILITY

Where do I start? Here we need to address the consequences of news omission. Query when the last time a publication reported on the 300 million children dying each day from severe malnutrition in the third world. You could touch on the media relying on celebrities like Bono and Geldof or LIVE 8 to make extreme poverty newsworthy. The media is irresponsible because it is complacent. Again, specific examples of actual reported news stories needs to be included. Mention something you would have done, had you heard a news story on extreme poverty rather than saw a clip of Britney Spears' latest bout of craziness. How would the world be different if you were informed?

OFFENSIVE COVERAGE

In Australia when news broke of actor Heath Ledger’s death, the Nine Network’s Today Show decided to air footage of a scene from the movie The Patriot where Ledger is being stabbed to death with the words HEATH LEDGER DEAD spilling on the bottom of the screen. What does this have to do with extreme poverty? Vast emphasis is placed on the celebrity story. One human being’s death is being exploited for the purposes of entertainment while a billion deaths are not being told at all for the purposes of actual change. The same can be said of the emphasis on sex with Page 3 girls, and the prominent stories of sex and violence pulling rank over advocacy journalism stories.

RACISM

Why do we not let extreme poverty infiltrate our own nations but we let it writhe in others? Why isn’t it common knowledge that America spent $450 billion on the war in Iraq in one year and only $15 billion in foreign aid? Why isn’t it common knowledge that the birth rate in Africa is so high because of the child mortality rate being so high? Why do news mediums implement advocacy journalism on some issues but not others? While the word racism is a fairly hefty accusation to throw around these days, the stakes are too high to be coy. The media should not incite outrage for some regions’ injustices but not Africa and Asia.

UNFAIR TREATMENT

The key here is children. Six million children younger than 5 die each year from hunger. Three quarters of famine deaths are children. The hundreds of thousands of child soldiers who become ruthless killers do so as an avenue away from living in extreme poverty. However, these statistics are merely facts. Therefore, a strong connection must be linked between these issues and the media. While it is not the media who is responsible for committing to foreign aid, it is their responsibility to question why it isn’t happening. The key ingredient to the formal complaint is, “why wasn’t I told?” And once again, the key ingredient to the anticipated response is, “the world would be different in this particular way, had I been told.”

As explained previously, nothing makes a press council happier than preserving its anonymity. The less people know of a press council’s existence and what its role in society is, the happier a press council will be. Media accountability systems are there as a service for the public in the same way we have police and libraries in our respective communities. While press councils might be independently run with little powers, their absence would evoke much more trouble for our media industry if they did not exist. Like the famous Russian socialist joke “I pretend to work and they pretend to pay me” ─ the press councils carry out the role of pretending to reprimand the press while the press pretend to comply. And the consequences have resulted in what has become a poorly-governed, irresponsibly-run and unethical-based loose cannon straight out of the fiery depths of Hades. The word ‘media’ in itself has become quite the cliché of late – treated as the scapegoat by every minority group deeming it the industry responsible for upholding the stigma of their respective stereotypes.

While this is true to a point, unfortunately the media is far worse than this annoying body of journalists and producers informing the rest of the world that a black man robbed a bank yesterday or a Jewish man chose jail-time over paying a speeding fine. The world’s metropolitan media are soulless, bigoted killers – privy to their own power but doing nothing to save the lives of so many men, women and children. They are responsible for millions and millions and millions of deaths and their profession supersedes the reputation of lawyers, parking inspectors and serial killers alike, sheerly by the quantity by which they are killing. Below are the contact details of what should be most of the national press councils throughout the world today. I suggest you find the one closest to you, pick up a pen and paper, and start complaining about something worth complaining about.