I was watching the news yesterday, and I couldn’t help noticing how Al-Assad defended himself in an interview by attacking mainstream media, just as western cultural outsiders, e.g. Right wing bloggers, talk show hosts and conspiracy theorists do. It has as if ”the mainstream” has became something they all want to discredit. They all seek to cast it as something which only the unaware cling to or believe in. There is an overt attempt, by some, to give ‘the mainstream’, as a concept, connotations of conformity and subservience. They, on the other hand, cast themselves as purveyors of ”forbidden knowledge”, according themselves and what they say a form of cultural cache. They have all taken advantage of how, in the internet age, our knowledge sources have been opened up and are now vastly more varied. ”The truth” is no longer the province of a few big media companies.

Instead, such cultural outsiders are starting to actually take aim at the liberal consensus and those who articulate it as something oppressive. they would have us believe that the information reported by the mainstream is, to some extent, bogus, and to believe it is to mindlessly accept what one is supposed to believe. thus they set themselves up as custodians of the truth; they imply that to believe them is to be independent and to think independently. Depicting mainstream sources of information as tainted, and to portray listening to the mainstream as succumbing to a form of mindless conformity, is the only way such outside voices can claim parity with it. Mainstream media has vastly more resources than individual writers: it is therefore more likely to be seen by others as objective. But by casting listening to the mainstream as a form of negative conformity, and it’s claims as the output of a powerful, oppressive force, outside voices can cast themselves as equal to it. Relative objectivity can be cast as subject and flawed; and those who portray the mainstream in this way can cast their voices as being in equal if not superior opposition to it.

The problem is, more often than not, those who adopt this position are fairly Right-Wing. they see the mainstream as pursuing a leftist agenda, and therefore attempt to discredit it in the eyes of others. By and large I think they’re right, in a way: mainstream broadcast media has to cater for a vast audience; it does not want to offend anyone, so it tries to be as broad-minded, tolerant and as accommodating if individual difference as possible. I know there are a few notable exceptions, and it doesn’t always get this right, but by and large this is the stance taken. To some, this is anathema: they see this as ”ramming multiculturalism down people’s throats”, and pedalling a leftist worldview. They therefore seek to nullify it.

Such voices know they cannot compete with the mainstream in terms of resources, so they set about spreading the notion that ”the mainstream”, as a general concept, is negative. This also accords with their right-wing, individualist, anti-communitarian worldview. Individual voices are good, they say; anything spouted by the big corporations is mainstream and tainted – don’t trust it. Thus we are seeing more and more such bloggers and talk show hosts talking of the mainstream as if it was taboo or tainted; as if it was something only those not in ”the know” take seriously. In turn they present themselves as custodians of an illicit, hidden truth not reported by the mainstream. It is all a ploy to get their voices onto an equal footing with it.

While I think there should always be room for alternative points of view and value the rise of the blogsphere as a cultural phenomenon – I am, after all, a blogger – I for one prefer to get my news from mainstream organisations like the BBC. As I said, it has vastly more resources than any individual, and is far more likely to be unbiassed and objective. I wanted to note this ploy, though: this trend in some of trying to discredit ”the mainstream” as an idea; speaking of it as an oppressive entity only the uninitiated take seriously. The danger is, if we were all to take this stance and abandon the mainstream – if we were all to ignore the evening news bulletin in favour of reading the blogs of a few right-wing crackpots – then they could tell us whatever they wanted and we’d be none the wiser. Unsubstantiated opinion would seep more and more into the discourse; the unqualified, unchecked views of a few individuals would be valued as much as, if not more than, big mainstream corporations. As much as I support blogging and value independent voices, I think that way danger lies.