This Is How We Will Lie to You

by the editorial staff at the big dailies

The World Trade Organization is a complicated topic, and both the talks being held and the variety of protests confronting it are far too complicated for the feeble minds of our readers to fully comprehend. We would never want to inconvenience our readers by giving them information that is complex or contrary to the opinions we've already fed you. Therefore, we're going to lie our fool tushies off during our WTO coverage. Here's how:

On the WTO Itself:

* We will repeatedly tell you, as WTO proponents do, that world trade means jobs, and that Washington state in particular depends on world trade. The implication, sometimes explicit, is that anti-WTO activists oppose world trade, which is untrue. They generally oppose the specific mechanisms--i.e., unfettered capitalism--by which the WTO governs world trade. There are many other possible ways to arrange for world trade and a globalized economy, but we won't tell you that. We also won't tell you that while trade creates jobs, the neoliberal policies of the WTO, on average, force down the wages and standards of jobs in both developed couuntries and developing ones. Behemoths like Microsoft and Boeing can outsource work to India or Mexico (respectively), where workers are paid far less than in Seattle. Eventually, wages and benefits in Seattle will have to drop to "compete."

* We'll tell you that the primary beneficiaries of unfettered trade are regular folks like you and me. Not hardly. Workers at Boeing may owe their jobs to trade, and family farms may export their wares. But Boeing itself, or huge agribusiness concerns, benefit far more from free trade. In fact, policies of the WTO are part of what's driving small farmers out of business; and as mentioned above, Boeing workers can lose their jobs to cheaper overseas help. Free trade is designed to help the huge transnational corporations that can move resources around the globe at the drop of a hat. Whether it helps, or, more likely, hurts the average citizen is strictly incidental.

* The Clinton Adminisstration cares about jobs, the environment, and labor. This is a lie told by government officials, which we will repeat uncritically. In fact, Clinton is a prime architect of the WTO, and his administration has overseen one of the greatest Wall Street booms in history- -and one of the greatest increases in the gap between incomes of the wealthy and those of average citizens. The donations of these huge corporations are what keep Clinton and Gore or Bush in office. Their policies have been a relentless sellout of the environment to huge corporations, and favoritism to those corporations over the interests of labor. They don't care about you. They think you're just so many sheep to be manipulated. We help.

* In discussing the WTO, we will focus solely on how it helps or hurts America, and ignore the rest of the world, especially developing countries. If developing countries are mentioned, we will equate the interests of a few elites with those of the country as a whole. This gives an incredibly distorted view of the true damage caused by WTO policies. We will uncritically repeat the myth that these countries are better off with the jobs provided by transnational corporations, ignoring other means of developing economies that might not remove so many resources and so much capital from these countries, and might promote greater democracy and better standards of living.

* We will repeat the accusations that WTO critics have not done their homework, without giving them any forums to display their understanding of the issues; that WTO critics are solely oppositional, without airing any of their positive proposals for promoting fairer trade; and that WTO critics are marginal members of society, without listing their mainstream supporters.

On the Protests:

* You can safely take any estimate we publish of demonstration crowd sizes and multiply them by ten to arrive at a truer estimate of size. Actually, the exact multiplier is nine: first, police will reduce their estimate by a factor of three, and then we will reduce the police estimate by a further factor of three. This is to make you feel safer. It's for your own good.

* We won't lie about student walk-outs, worker sick-ins, or other efforts by ordinary workers and students to shut down Seattle as part of this protest. We'll just ignore them. They're just too difficult to quantify.

* Any "violence" that erupts will be the responsibility of the demonstators. We will ignore the "nonviolent" horses, batons, mace, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and guns brought by security forces. That's crowd control, not violence.

* We will rely almost exclusively on "official" sources--WTO organizers, the police, elected officials, and other government employees. This isn't a lie, exactly. We'll simply report their spin on the facts as the objective truth, and not report any other spin or try to synthesize competing versions of events. This will give WTO advocates the most positive possible light.

* We will marginalize demonstators wherever possible. Photos will show the most outrageous costumes, emphasizing that these are not normal people. Organizers are "paid organizers," although the Seattle Host Organization paid people, too. Foreign demonstrators will become "outside agitators." If necessary, we will redbait.

* We will emphasize conflict, property destruction, violence, and hostility. The 99% of peaceful, nonviolent demonstrator are boring. They are also much too responsible.

* Wherever possible we will refer to anti-WTO activists as anti-trade rather than "fair trade" proponents. This makes them seem less reasonable.

* We will focus a lot on the inconvenience of demonstrations to commuters and other "ordinary citizens," as though the protesters were not ordinary and as though Seattle gridlock was not ordinary, either. This also implies that traffic reports are of equal importance to global trade issues.

* Conversely, we will not report the impact on Seattle's homeless of WTO organizing--namely, loss of motel and shelter space, street sweeps, and crackdowns on tent cities and other attempts at visibility.

We would never ignore these demonstrations. It's too big and too exciting a story. But we will make a point wherever possible to lie so as to deny their credibility. After all, if protesters are correct and free trade is a threat to the world's environment, standard of living, and democracy, then we must be called upon to act. Now go check out the comics. How 'bout those Seahawks?