Smoke and Mirrors: TV Watcher’s Testimony
All the TV talk shows have returned after the August holidays, which means that the Georgian media is in full swing to cover (and craft) the unprecedented drama of pre-election politics and reality(ies).
Opposition politicians have wrapped up the hot summer days that many did not spend on the beach. For its part, the government has rushed into the new season with a pre-ordained campaign scenario that is already hammering at our TV screens and will do so in the coming weeks.
Since the majority name TV as their primary source of information (albeit the TV watchers proportion goes down proportionally to age), we thought it would be interesting to provide you the flavor of TV talk shows.
In our first Talk on Air series, Gigi tells of the first week back from summer vacation as it was discussed in – and by – the Georgian media.
How was your summer?
The very first homework I was given at the beginning of every new school year was to write about “How did you spend your summer holidays?” Some opposition media talk-show hosts, along with their opposition politicians as guests, have discussed their summer stories for their viewers (who also happen to be mostly opposition voters).
In her first “Different Accents” of the season, Eka Kvesitadze, host at the largest opposition-leaning Mtavari TV, invited two opposition leaders, Gia Japaridze of Unity-UNM and Giga Lemonjava of the Coalition for Change, to share reports of their busy summer in Georgia’s regions where the ruling party is believed to have stronger support than in the capital. The TV host was curious to get the opposition’s first-hand view of people’s needs and the election atmosphere outside Tbilisi.
Poverty, unemployment, high prices, low wages, and emigration – Gia Japaridze said these are the most pressing problems among citizens in all regions. He argued the locals he met also recognize the government’s responsibility for their plight. And this is where the EU comes in: the desire to overcome socio-economic hardship is what really drives the Georgians’ dream of a prosperous Europe – something the ruling “Georgian Dream” no longer aspires to.
“These people had more arguments than I had to convince you why you should not vote for Georgian Dream,” Japaridze said, beaming. “The dissatisfaction is universal,” he argued, adding that rarely did he meet people poisoned by government propaganda.
Listening to him for five minutes, you might want to sit, do nothing, and just hear the watch countdown to October 26th, since the GD seems to be over and done with… But wait: if the government goes, someone has to change it. Many people around know who NOT to vote for but are struggling to figure out who to vote FOR. Japaridze said citizens want to see a united, solid opposition capable of making changes. Yet, he reiterated that there is no luxury of voting according to purely one’s political tastes. Sorry, dear voters (not sorry).
The second guest, Giga Lemonjava, could only add a few points to his colleague’s insights. From the regions, he said he felt that change is imminent and that the election turnout should be great. To him, the only challenge for the opposition is to prove to the citizens that it can lead the change.
And the opposition, still lacking trust, is mostly busy showing the evil of their opponent GD and pledging to be better under the worst.
In line with this strategy, no matter what the opposition media is discussing these days, opposition TV hosts who have just returned from their summer holidays are tempted to parade the fact that Bidzina Ivanishvili is addressing his supporters from what they delectably call “the bulletproof aquarium.” How paranoid the oligarch is has become the sweetest icing on the cake of every roast of GD by the opposition; and Mtavari TVs host, in her first show of the season, could not resist indulging herself and asked her guests the question that had been asked many times already: “What does this bulletproof aquarium mean to you?”
The guests were more than eager to indulge in the Freudian and political symbolism of the said contraption, bashing Ivanishvili for being such a desperate coward. Maybe the opposition tries to shatter Ivanishvili’s bulletproof glass with words. After all, as the Georgian Dream’s mouthpiece channels would have you believe, the opposition’s evil voodoo spells have already killed the baobabs.
Ready for the fall race?
And with a click of the remote button, welcome to the Imedi TV and the dominant blue of the Georgian Dream. While “radicals” were “worrying” about the bulletproof glass shielding Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s “main guarantor of peace,” Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze was busy sketching out pre- and post-election scenarios. He did so with Magda Anikashvili and Giorgi Putkaradze, hosts of Imedi Live, the late-night talk show on TV Imedi, the government’s inflexible media backbone.
Kobakhidze’s evening performance on Imedi Live offered no new insights into his morning speech, for the message that GD has crafted is not for improvisation, but for the Chinese torture-like incessant drip-drip-dripping for maximum reach (and agonizing pain that urges you to surrender reason).
We have all learned at school that repetition is the mother of learning. So, yet again: Kobakhidze insisted that the GD will get a solid 60 percent of the vote, and claimed the opposition knows it, so (being evil and scheming) it is planning to disrupt the elections. Kobakhidze even referred to some unspecified insider sources and pointed to the opposition’s preemptive claims that the government will rig the elections.
More ominously, PM warned that opposition leaders will be targeted with violence, but in a clear attempt to preemptively absolve GD of any responsibility, he claimed that the opposition will try to pin the blame on the government to discredit it.
Kobakhidze was also sure, that GD’s current bête noire, President Salome Zurabishvili would reject the election results, playing into opposition’s hands.
As for the election outcomes, PM Kobakhidze expects only UNM to pass the 5 percent threshold from the opposition, fulfilling the Dream’s (wet) dream scenario – the epic showdown between good (blue corner) and evil (red corner). Other opposition groups, he suggested, might come close but will ultimately fall short.
Onto NGOs, another current target: Kobakhidze portrayed them as little more than political parties in disguise. For their part, he expects NGOs to influence the pre-election environment over the issue of fines that the Public Registry will impose on them. But worry not, their machinations are doomed to failure, Kobakhidze reassured Imedi TV viewers.
This is the whole script that GD has written for the elections. All future narratives are expected to build up on the base. But for those who are constantly eyeing GD strategies, Kobakhidze said nothing new. His interview rather served as a repetition of the propaganda to cement it in the minds of voters. And Imedi, bears noting, is one of the most watched TV channels on the market, for which it offers numerous soap operas that captivate the older generation and the most optimistic portrayal, no matter the truthfulness, of Georgian reality.
Let’s go back to Kobakhidze’s interview in the season opener Imedi Live. PM Kobakhidze’s statements were habitually laced with usual disdain for the opposition and government critics, as well as justifications for the GD’s promised policies. To the latter, the hosts gently presented the diluted versions of the opposition counter-arguments, only to let Kobakhidze crush them swiftly and decisively.
The viewers were left reminded that the “radicals” are united in their lack of principles and morals. According to Kobakhidze, they have no legitimacy in the eyes of the people, as they are merely agents of foreign powers whose goal is to drag Georgia into war. He drew an analogy between the United National Movement founded by Saakashvili and Adolf Hitler’s NSDAP, claiming that it is not a legitimate opposition but rather a criminal gang that must be put on trial, especially for the “loss of 20 percent of the country’s territory.” And banning such forces – which GD presents as its campaign promise – PM insisted, is not a mark of authoritarianism, but mirrors common practices in Ukraine and Moldova, and Europe.
PM also accused the opposition of disrespecting the people’s mandate by boycotting parliamentary work, simply because, they don’t want to support legislation that “protects family values and minors”, using the opportunity to portray himself as a traditional man.
While accepting that the GD is not flawless (we are aghast at this admission), he insisted that no other party is decent enough to compete with it. Once the country is rid of these forces, he promised, they will ensure that a respectable opposition emerges. Thousands of people watch it and supposedly trust it. And you, dear readers, may have already forgotten what the mood of the opposition was like…
Foucault would be proud…
To watch Mtavari and Imedi is to subscribe to the postmodern maxim that there is no single truth. The party-controlled media deviate too radically from reality, push their agenda too hard, and end up feeding only their supporters. The tropes of “Ivanishvili’s aquarium” and “opposition without a homeland” dominate. And while the ruling propaganda is undoubtedly more brazen and openly harmful to democracy, the TV media landscape in general leaves little room for critical thinking: all you have to do is pick your channel, pick your reality… and then vote.
