Does Films For Action Have Bias? - a Statement About Neutrality and Our Values

It's hard to believe Films For Action has been around since 2006. From our early years focusing on local film screenings in Lawrence, Kansas to our more recent years, focusing on raising awareness globally via our website and social media, our mission has been to provide a DIY alternative to the corporate mass media, which censors, sanitizes, attacks and ignores the diverse voices of humanity in favor of a narrow spectrum of elite, faux left-right consensus that favors the status quo and puts the interests of profit over people and planet.

The mass media claims to be neutral and strives to be objective, but it has always been anything but. This problem has been extensively documented. Chris Hedges called it "The Disease of Objectivity." Noam Chomsky is famous for outlining "the propaganda model of news." Meanwhile, FOX News is famous for claiming they're "fair and balanced" - a line of propaganda so transparent it's been mocked for years. But the deeper truth is that all media has some form of bias. The major news networks and newspapers of the old media - ABC, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, to name a few, all mask their bias for elite perspectives (both corporate and state) behind a guise of "objectivity." To present oneself as unbiased, while having bias is, of course, one of the hallmarks of any good, persuasive propaganda.

But the old media is lying to itself for another reason. As one of our heroes, Howard Zinn, once famously said, "You can't be neutral on a moving train." Neutrality in the face of injustice, in the face of environmental destruction, corruption, racism, colonialism, empire, and plutocracy, cannot and will never be neutral.

Media cannot be neutral on this moving train. Too much is at stake when we are quite literally facing a planetary emergency that is reaching its major turning point. We must pick a side.

Does this mean Films For Action has bias? Yes it does. But it is a bias rooted in universal humanitarian principles. Our bias is rooted in our love for Pachamama, our Mother Earth, and all living beings. Our bias is rooted in our desire for a society that's just, compassionate, egalitarian, peaceful, healing and truly participatory in ways that the present system will never offer. Our bias is rooted in a disdain for the logic of war, violent extremism and nationalism, and the hypocrisy of opposing some war crimes while supporting others. 

To put it simply, our bias is rooted in our values, which we share openly and honestly.  That is the big difference between the old media and the new media. Whereas the old media feigns neutrality and objectivity while promoting a spectrum of thought that benefits their bottom line, the new media is transparent about its values and who it stands for.

The problem with the media isn't bias itself - it's the values, interests, and funding sources that shape and inform that bias. 

Accuracy, however, is another story. Accuracy is of the utmost importance and something we treat with the greatest responsibility, as all journalists and media outlets should. With the rise of "fake news," discussion over which media outlets we can trust has become a central concern.  While profit-driven alternative media exploded during the 2016 US election, and a vast array of sketchy sites sprung up to take advantage of heightened political concern, we haven't forgotten that the corporate mass media has been responsible for some of the most dangerous and consequential "fake news" stories of our time, including most notably the false story of Weapons of Mass Destruction, which successfully helped take the US to war at a time when alternative media was critical of these "facts" and knew them to be false.  Fake news by the "credible, respectable" mainstream press, which often originates by simply repeating government claims uncritically, has been far more disastrous for the planet overall than anything that unethical bloggers have managed to accomplish. 

That said, inaccurate and false information is harmful regardless of whether it comes from corporate or alternative sources, and there is plenty of bad information coming from the entire spectrum of media, from the far left to the far right, and from corporate outlets to the smallest indie operations. 

While our values and the diversity of perspectives we share naturally put us somewhere left of center, we're committed to always putting accuracy first, and holding ourselves accountable to the 5 principles of journalism.