The Seattle Times printed a provocative headline across the top of the front page Monday: "HOW CLINTON WILL USE PROTESTS IN TALKS." But the story underneath provided more fog than illumination.

"Instead of ignoring the protesters outside, Clinton will try to use them as leverage in the talks going on inside the meeting halls," the newspaper reported. And so, "by pointing to the demonstrations," Clinton and other negotiators "may be able to promote strategic positions on such issues as worker rights and environmental standards among trading partners."

Clinton Feels Protesters’ Pain?

Like many drumbeats that reverberate inside the national media’s echo chamber, this one is in sync with a simple fable: the notion that President Clinton is eager to get his hands on "leverage" against corporate power. Such media coverage has been encouraged by the White House. Back in mid-October, Clinton told a news conference that he welcomed the protests at the WTO summit in Seattle because he shares the concerns motivating them.

The plot line that has Clinton looking for ways to put people over profits in the global economy may sound vaguely reassuring. The only trouble is, it’s a fairy tale that inverts the overwhelming record of his presidency on a wide range of trade policies.

A half-dozen years ago, the White House pulled out all the stops to gain congressional approval of NAFTA. Later on, it did the same on behalf of the GATT pact that set up the World Trade Organization. But President Clinton has never bothered to expend much political capital to fight for economic justice, environmental protection or human rights.

In fact, his energies continue to tilt in the opposite direction. This fall, after getting the AFL-CIO to endorse Al Gore for president, Clinton quickly announced his administration’s support for admitting China into the WTO. Yet many news accounts in recent days have been telling us that Clinton yearns to fight the good fight for progressive causes.

Props in an Amorality Play

When the champion "triangulator" arrives in Seattle, all indications are that he will strive to treat the tens of thousands of anti-WTO activists in the streets as mere props in his amorality play.

According to the script, Bill Clinton is eager to navigate the jagged shores of domestic politics as he pushes to advance the prospects of humanity for the new millennium. Such theatrics tend to enthrall the huge numbers of supposedly political reporters doubling as drama critics — who, in turn, give the public a nonstop supply of pseudo-journalistic fairy tales that bear little resemblance to global realities.

With oft-requited adoration, President Clinton has consistently put the interests of Wall Street first — while, with the encouragement of White House spinmeisters, the news media routinely portray him as one conflicted individual. The story often goes that Clinton wrestles with thorny dilemmas as he (in the words of yesterday’s page-one Seattle Times piece) "tries to satisfy core left-leaning constituencies and embrace free trade at the same time."

Media Wary of Social Movements

In a wide range of communities, millions of progressive people do not realistically expect to be satisfied by the actions of a president who has proven his faithful fidelity to corporate interests. Meanwhile, overall, the U.S. news media remain wary — at best — about social movements that mobilize mass protests for economic justice. When those movements grow stronger, disquiet is evident among elites and the news media they own, advertise in, and "underwrite."

Throughout our lifetimes, mainstream media have made a habit of disparaging protesters while historic battles for social change were underway. Later on, with convenient revision, the struggles are sanitized, watered down and mythologized.

From Radical to Wistful Dreamer

If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, there’s no doubt he would be protesting in Seattle. But modern news media have done much to transform him into a wistful dreamer, a martyr on a postage stamp.

Along with countless other politicians, Clinton is fond of paying tribute to King — while selectively praising his legacy. You can bet that Clinton won’t step off Air Force One and proceed to quote some of King’s less palatable statements.

For instance, in a speech exactly one year before he was assassinated, King denounced "capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries." And he said: "A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth."

That revolution of values is taking big steps this week in the streets of Seattle.

Norman Solomon is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

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