HOW WE ARE INFORMED
Krzysztof Czabański
Regrettable Stanisław Lem used to say that the world is governed by chaos and accident, because nobody is able to understand a stream, ocean of information which is constantly attacking our eyes, ears and brain. That is true. Even computers contribute to production of next information than to selecting the previous one.
In this situation many people rely on media and on their common sense. Certainly, the common sense suggests us treating mass media with a grain of salt and choose carefully those which we can use with trust. But as we know, the widest range is owned by the three television stations: TVP, TVN and Polsat. The last two stations developed thanks to people connected with the current establishment and people of special services of the People's Polish Republic and USSR. So, it is not worth having any illusions about these television stations. But the TVP is a public station that is, it was established and developed by fees of citizens, so it belongs to them and should serve them. And how it serves we see every day. It popularizes the German film 'Our mothers, our fathers', falsifying history and patronizes the reward Prix Europe for this serial! It restricts the public debate for the sake of the authority of the Third Polish Republic, and, speaking more precisely - it does not allow for a debate on important issues. When the opposition (the Law and Justice Party) organized a cycle of public discussions of experts about unemployment, health protection, about agriculture, economic development, etc., it was TVP which quickly retreated from broadcasting them, because opposition results went up in electoral surveys, and evaluations of the government - went down.
Luckily, in people's minds related to TVP by the force of habit, something rebellious appeared. 'The news' is watched by less and less people, in November by 300 thousand less than last year. However, because competitors are losing their viewers quicker ('Facts' in TVN is watched by over 800 thousand people less than last year!), it was TVP which took a higher place. And how you think, what do we find out from 'The news'? Well, but the TVP has a better position in ranking - the decrease in number of viewers is not mentioned at all.
So, TVP, boasting about the success, and also concealing the factual state of things, that is, the decline in number of viewers, behaves like an agency TASS in the Soviet Union. The joke popular at that time described it in the following way: Breżniew and Reagan were in a race with each other for a hundred metres. Reagan won. Tass published the message: The comrade Breżniew took the excellent second place in the race for 100 metres, the president Reagan was penultimate.
(AA)
"Niedziela" 50/2013