POSNER PHENOMENON

PROSPECT MEDIA

Vladimir POZNER: “... Is this journalism or propaganda? I'm not even ready to qualify. Because propaganda is a task that is given from above.” “No, each of us understands, perfectly understands what is possible and what is not. It's sitting inside." "I...

Vladimir POZNER:

“…Is this journalism or propaganda? I'm not even ready to qualify. <…> Because propaganda is a task given from above.”

“No, each of us understands, perfectly understands what is possible and what is not. It sits inside."

“I understand that there are topics that cannot be touched. Yes, I understand that".

“And I understand that I need to turn to Uncle Vasya and Aunt Masha.”

That is, propaganda “at the call of the heart” is not propaganda?

"Echo of Moscow", April 3, 2006

List of forbidden topics

On March 19, completing the program “The Times”, V. Pozner informed the audience about the doubts about his own profession that George Clooney’s film “Good Night and Good Luck” gave rise to in him: “... I, a political journalist working on television, had quite a lot questions. In particular, what do we do, for whom do we work, for whom do we work? For yourself, for your career, to earn money, to please your boss, to please the authorities, to express your personal point of view? In general, how much do we think about the very viewer who actually expects balanced, objective, honest and timely information from us? .. There are many questions that you could ask and which we, of course, should ask ourselves ... ".

This statement led to a rather heated discussion for three weeks among the remaining liberal journalists, one way or another connected with television. Evgeny Kiselev, Irina Petrovskaya, Ksenia Larina on Echo of Moscow and others, with the participation of Pozner himself, comprehensively examined the position of the latter and the general state of affairs in political journalism on modern Russian television (more precisely, they essentially stated its absence).

The result of the discussion: somewhat stung by the suspicions of colleagues in the excessive flexibility of the spine, V. Pozner confirmed and affirmed his freedom and independence from the opinion of his superiors. Not absolute. And he does not know the absolute anywhere in the world.

My cynical namesake on "Echo of Moscow" Elena Afanasyeva, with an obvious hint, nevertheless remembered the poems of E. Yevtushenko:

Neighbor scientist Galileo

Galileo was no more stupid

He knew that the earth was spinning

But he had a family.

Posner has long and adamantly rejected such suspicions, pointing to his economic self-sufficiency, and I have no reason not to believe him.

The most interesting (and saddest) thing in this whole story is that Posner announced the presence of a certain list of topics that are not prohibited (he “never saw such a list”), but forbidden for him, which are impossible on his air.

The list of banned books from the Roman Catholic Church is called: Index librorum prohibitorum. It is quite official, officially distributed and known to all interested.

There is no censorship in modern Russia. There are no formally forbidden topics. Federal TV channels at the best of times (prime time - in professional jargon) almost with voluptuousness tell about serial killers, pedophiles, pederasts and supporters of polygamy. To show fresh corpses in the news is to beautify the news.

But there is something completely obscene that Posner cannot talk about, and he calls these topics:

• the destruction of the Constitution (in particular, the abolition of gubernatorial elections);

• war in Chechnya;

• Khodorkovsky

• and something else (among other things - but this is my opinion - for example, blown up houses in Moscow, Beslan ...).

Recognizing before the “city and the world” (if we continue the analogies with the Vatican) the existence of such problems unacceptable for the air, V.V. Posner, firstly, openly admits his readiness not to speak to the television audience about the most important thing, about things that exist. Indeed, why not munch with experts in front of astonished TV viewers, say, inflation? Anyway, after his transfer, the mentioned “Uncle Vasya and Aunt Masha” will no longer understand the problem, but at least they will remain mentally consoled. Respected people spoke to them.

And secondly, both in questions to himself after the Times, and in the discussion of the professional community about these issues, Pozner - a political journalist, by his own definition - did not dare (or could not) not only touch on, but even name the main political theme of today's life in Russia.

He - almost completely voluntarily - does not want or cannot notice the country's 180-degree turn. Also, maybe not absolute (there are no such things in life), but a turn as a change in the vector of movement.

Only once in all these unpleasant discussions - at the suggestion of the same Pozner, by the way, proving the impossibility of absolute freedom for a journalist on the same Ekho Moskvy - did the topic of Gazprom arise and then immediately disappear.

A turn into a bright past

At one time, at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, it seemed that Russia had moved away from communism, from “sobornost” to democracy, a market economy, and political freedom.

In essence, it is true, even then little was done. There has been no real turning point, no genuine movement in this direction in the country. But still worthy laws were adopted, for a moment we saw the democratic nature of the electoral system and fully felt the independence of the media. Serious talk was also about the independence of the courts, about the rule of law and the need to establish democratic institutions in all spheres of life. But the main thing was the conviction (including the conviction of the ruling circles) that the main structural transformations were ahead: we are striving for this, we want this. Now it has become obvious that we did not want what we came to, and we are not heading where we should be.

Having rushed from communism to democracy, to a market economy, to civil society, Russia has now turned back to the worst times of the sticky Soviet stagnation with all its charms: “The convoy considers a step to the right, a step to the left as an escape ...”. And the milestone of this reversal was the end of the trial of M. Khodorkovsky and the takeover of Sibneft by Gazprom.

Vladimir Pozner is free, of course, to discuss and interpret such a change in the vector of movement towards unfreedom with those invited at least according to the “permitted” list in his own way. But not noticing and not discussing the fact that, as the most important problem, has already become the property of the whole world, is not even silence. Not even disinformation. This is service. And it is no coincidence that the definition of “servility” was heard more than once in the above discussion.

The country's turn towards the era of the CPSU goes in several directions at once: economy, federation, politics.

In the economy, the “party and the government”, without verbally speaking openly against national development based on military-oriented industries and related sectors of science (that is, the remnants of the scientific and economic potential of the Soviet Union), as it was quite recently, in practice implement, first of all, colossal projects for the export of energy resources. The mining industry is declared the backbone of economic development. Words about structural transformations in the economy, about the free market and competition as the basis for the modernization of the national economy have disappeared from the lexicon of the Russian "elite". There are no entities behind the words either.

The President of Russia has already proclaimed to the whole world the trade in hydrocarbon raw materials as the basis for the new transformation of the country into a world power - that is, in essence, the restoration of the Soviet economic model that led to the collapse of the USSR. At the G8 meeting, Putin intends first of all to present Russia as the guarantor of international energy security. However, he does not seem to care that European Union ministers are discussing energy security in a very different way: they are looking for alternatives to protect themselves from Russian political blackmail and the corresponding unpredictable movements of the Russian oil and gas valves.

The Putin administration has decided, and controlled television confirms daily and hourly: housing and communal services, the army, education, science, medicine, pensions, etc. have almost been reformed in our country - and there is nothing more to talk about. All that remains is to prevent the theft of four national projects. The problem of modernizing the country for the Kremlin, in the words of one of the former prime ministers, simply resolved. In the meantime, the Russian economy with a newly declared backbone, according to the harsh statement of the RSPP, has found itself in a state of stagnation (if in Russian - the same stagnation): the outflow of capital from Russia has reached $ 100 billion a year.

In society and the state, the Kremlin continues to cultivate dummies of European civilization: separation of powers, a bicameral parliament, political parties, an independent judiciary. And as an original Russian super-model, the Public Chamber was invented, which is designed to crown the outrages that are available to the authorities.

Not yet fully formed, the Public Chamber, languidly objecting, actually swallowed the law, including about itself - on non-profit organizations (since it itself does not fit very well into the framework of the constitutional structure, except for it is the same non-profit organization).

The Constitutional Court, on the second run, agreed that the appointment of governors at the suggestion of the president is an election in line with the Constitution, although it had previously had a different opinion on the same issue.

According to the law on terrorism freshly baked by the Duma, the authorities directly intrude on the territory of human rights guaranteed by the Constitution, infringing on them. The Constitutional Court is silent in this case too.

Topics that Posner knows about but prefers not to talk about on Channel One TV are sometimes outgoing, more often already gone, and sometimes never came to Russia: democratic elections, independent mass media, including major television channels, independent public organizations as a horizontal basis of civil society, local self-government. These are the realities that determine the foundations of our way of life. Democratic elections and independent television, for example, are already gone; free elections, political parties and non-profit public organizations are disappearing before our eyes; and independent courts, separation of powers, and the rule of law never made it to Russia.

Dragon teeth camouflage

As an observant and intelligent person, Pozner cannot but see originality in the mentality of the majority of the population of today's Russia. Being in a state of oppression and spiritual slavery for centuries, it once (if you do not go deeper than the 20th century) rebelled, and in 1917 some oppressors were replaced by others. These others tormented the population more than ever before and destroyed it by the tens of millions. Then, at the very end of the same century, it again either woke up, or aroused. The result is a short-term, even lightning-fast flash of hope by historical standards, and not even a vector, but rather a hint, a certain outline of movement towards freedom. And then - the oligarchs, corruption, the vertical, the dictatorship of the law ... And again silence. Thanks to the avalanche of petrodollars, this population, as befits those born in captivity, who got used to it, again plunged into a state of silent obedience.

Again, one can look at this national identity of ours in different ways, sad and really not very encouraging, woven from centuries of oppression and long-suffering.

Can be arrogant, snobbish. On one of the programs of V. Pozner, Andron Konchalovsky argued that the Russian population in general is unworthy of freedom.

You can simply ignore this phenomenon and blame all the troubles on the "anti-people regime", as the remaining communists, led by Zyuganov, do.

And what about Vladimir Vladimirovich Pozner? Posner's phenomenon is that, considering himself free, he sows illusions with his "forbidden" topics and "permissible" lists and, remaining on Channel One, repeatedly multiplies the lack of freedom of our long-suffering population.

Posner cannot but see that most of the Russian population has been going wild lately (xenophobia, skinheads, robberies, murders of foreigners); and he is a political journalist, turning away from the question "why", he contributes to this brutality. Many of the tens of millions of spiritual slaves raised in the Soviet (and now post-Soviet) era are beginning to shift from silent obedience to protest aggression. Does anyone else see the prospects for strengthening this trend?

Talented, sincere and sometimes convincing, having a well-deserved reputation as a democrat and liberal, he acts as a "showcase model" of the current Russian government. Camouflage mesh.

As a worker and collective farmer of the brilliant Vera Mukhina.

All enlightened humanity should not accept at all the “beacon” that V. V.’s colleagues invent (“do not look at these stupid things that I do in “Vremena”, but listen to the “farewell”), but completely different: if on Channel One Pozner serves as state television, which means that not everything is still so lousy in the Russian Federation, she is on the right track. Be patient, everything will be all right.

Posner has lived long enough and difficult. He must, it would seem, remember with what sincere (semi-sincere, insincere) enthusiasm the engineers of human souls and other representatives of the creative professions composed odes to Comrade Stalin and Stalinist socialism.

I cannot understand why Posner needs to close his eyes to what is happening in public, not to talk, as they did not say then, about the most important thing in this and that mode.

He stated more than once that (as he says, in English) he provided a financial “cushion” for himself and his neighbors.

And then what?

Vanity? The desire to forever remain an icon of Russian liberalism? Authority for all time?

Not new, of course.

But at what cost?

Perhaps the saddest thing in this whole story - if we ignore the "saving of Rus'" - is the obvious professional degradation of Posner as an outstanding television journalist. When he does not want or cannot talk about what is really important, he is already ready to agree that his programs are made “tedious” and “boring”.

It is impossible to keep both the honor and the capital (in any sense of the word) to acquire.

After that, you can talk about reputation and reputation for an arbitrarily long time. About how indecent to frame Ernst and his team.

So the glory of the world.

The main thing in the ongoing "cold" nightmare, which V. Pozner cannot say, is the nature of the available power and the vector of the country's development.

If we take the end of Soviet power as a starting point, then we can say quite definitely: we have not left it, and in some respects a regression is also obvious.

No matter how we formally characterize today's regime - gangster, oligarchic, KGB capitalism - its meaning is obvious. Russia is moving not towards democracy, but away from it; not to the market, but to some unimaginable corporatism; not to modernization, but to the status of an energy colony. We are already on the other side: the country has already crossed the line between partial freedom and lack of freedom.

Of course, movement is life. But is such a movement life?

We are returning to some kind of gloomy obscurantism. And Posner is the fig leaf of this movement. It's annoying.

Having received the material of Yuri Nikolaevich Afanasyev, the editors turned to Vladimir Vladimirovich Pozner with a request to express his point of view. We publish the answer of V. Pozner:

Good afternoon

Professor Afanasiev, like any person, has the right to his own opinion, even if he is not very versed in the subject. Of course, I won't argue with him. Moreover, I am flattered by his attention: such an eminent author dedicates an entire article to me!

On a more serious note, I would like to confine myself to the words of my beloved President Abraham Lincoln:

“I will do my best for as long as I can. And if the outcome is in my favor, then the words of all my critics and detractors will not be worth a damn. If the result is different, then even the choir of angels singing glory to me will not change anything.”

Time will tell who is right, Professor Afanasiev or me.

Sincerely,

Vladimir POZNER