The Role of the Press in the Political Structure of the U.S.

2008! United States of America! Only two competing teams: Nr.1 “Republicans”; Nr.2 “Democrats”. Competition started to warm up already on late 2007 with the fights for the presidential nominations and CNN bought the main rights to cover both teams’ debates. But are they really just two teams competing to represent distinct aspects of public opinion, or do they actually represent the interests of numerous competing and cooperating groups within a complex “pressure group” society?
In The New Yorker, Nicholas Lemann wrote a critic “Conflict of Interest. Does the wrangling of interest groups corrupt politics – or constitute it?” Lemann started his article: “In a year saturated with political conversation, can there be any topic that has not yet been discussed? Well, here’s one: 2008 is the centenary of a curious and mesmerizing book that was long considered the most important study of politics and society ever produced by an American – “The Process of Government: A Study of Social Pressure”, by Arthur Fisher Bentley.”
newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2008/08/11/
The book is about US Interest Groups and probably there will be always an unanswered question as to how strongly these groups impact the US political structure, and which groups are most influential at a particular time in history?
Bentley expressed that there is no “Public Interest”; there are only various groups of individuals with specific interests. According to Bentley, there are two main categories of Interest Group: those that organize and act and those that “talk”/publish/discuss, the former having a far more powerful influence on politics and society than the latter. From this perspective, the press plays a relatively minor role in society compared with, let’s say, the National Rifle Association or the American Association of Retired Persons who ‘employ’ numerous lobbyists in Washington, who are constantly meeting with our elected representatives, and who donate large sums of money to these representatives’ political campaigns, If by “press” we only mean newspapers and magazines, perhaps its impact on political structure is indeed relatively weak, but if the wider media is considered (television, internet, blogsphere, etc.) then Bentley’s argument would seem to underrate its impact and is probably outdated. Certainly, much of the press is and has always been the mouthpiece of specific interest groups, but the voices of more and more interest groups are being heard through internet groups and the blogsphere, and the line between the media and active pressure groups is becoming less clear. For example an interest group can emerge on the internet among people who start by simply voicing a common interest or opinion and end up by actively engaging lobbyists in Washington to represent them.

Lemann also mentioned Thomas Frank’s books, “The Wrecking Crew. How Conservatives Rule.” In a previous book, “What’s the matter with Kansas?” Frank argues that, if you are not rich, there is no reason to vote Republican, and expresses bewilderment at why so many blue collar workers from, for example Kansas, vote Republican. In the Wrecking Crew, he focuses on the strength of Republican lobbyist groups that pervert or “wreck” democracy by their political pressure tactics. However, Lehman supports the notion that we are intrinsically a pressure group society, that this is not altogether a bad form of democracy in itself, and that the only way to defeat one set of interests is by promoting and pressuring for another set of interests. To me, the broader media, especially in its newer electronic forms, is playing an ever increasing role in the impact of pressure groups on society, especially as these media increasingly represent pressure groups themselves.

Personal Anecdote

Finally, anecdote from my life! Somewhere around 2003, almost every day, I heard in the American media that since there is a high possibility of another terrorist attack against the US, it is very important to buy duct-tape. So, I went to the shop and bought enough duct-tape to cover the windows and doors of my two storey house! I am now wondering what kind of commercial interest group was behind the duct-tape campaign, or how duct-tape manufacturers managed to get the unquestioning cooperation of so much of the media.