In 356 B.C., Aerostat burned down the temple of Artemis so that he could reach fame and go down in history. It seems as though he was able to do that.
In 1980 A.C., American Mark Chapman killed a famous member of the Beatles John Lennon. Chapman explained why he did that simply as his obsession of taking Lennon’s fame away and becoming more famous than him. Knowing about the reason why he killed Lennon, the press decided not to write anything or even speak about Chapman. He was soon forgotten. Later on, the “conceited” criminal confessed:
“I became more worthless than I was before.”
There was a time when female journalists, who confused freedom of speech with having the right to say anything and getting the right to receive information with Brazilian soap operas, tried to host serious interviews with the father of Nairi and Karen Hunanyan, not even thinking about the fact that there are many murderers at the reformatories of Armenia, who don’t care about the opinion of the father or the uncle.
Of course, we may feel that we are not fully exercising our right to get information when we don’t have enough information, but at times that right is violated when we get too much information. From time to time, we see some Marxist appear in the press or on our television screens, whose thoughts and opinions may sound interesting for once, but just the fact that he is in the press and on screen is more than enough than actually seeing him there and listening to what he has to say. It’s not clear as to what the Marxist has to do with Armenian politics. What’s also not clear is what influence he has and on what group of people. What we do know is that that Marxist is a “comic figure” for journalists and the heads of presses. Most importantly, he never says anything that will displease the authorities.
There used to be a place called Komaygi (“Communist Park) for these kinds of people, in particular near the statue of Pepo, where the non-influential people of society used to gather day and night and talk (don’t mix this with soccer lovers) about everything-starting from whether or not St. Grigor Lusavorich was Armenian all the way to Stas Namine being Armenian. There was something charming amongst the entire marginal rumor going on. I used to stop and listen on my way home from work: “Andranik said to Dro, ‘hey you…” or the objection of Dro’s “lawyer”, claiming that Andranik couldn’t have said “hey you” to Dro.
At the time, it was impossible to take interviews or write an article about the people gathered at Komaygi. That was bad, of course. A journalist must have the right to write about anything, but at the same time, must also have the feeling of responsibility and choose what to say and write about. Otherwise, journalism simply turns into a PR instrument for a person with political intentions.
Politicians know very well that journalists are inclined to this. They know that they can rest assured and enter the political arena. It’s enough for a political figure to enter the political field, mention the name of his newly founded political party and the presses will open the doors in front of the “missionary”.
Some guy who considers himself as progressive and has already decided that there is nobody else who can fawn on the present-day authorities, better yet the president, enters the political field and starts his “creative” work. If he were to decide to, for example, produce lemonade, in other words, really do creative work instead of entering politics, there was no hope for him that the presses would let him advertise his product free of charge. He would be forced to have a public relations correspondent, some money for advertisement and, of course, a plan for marketing-something which we Armenians like to call “spreading products”.
This young man’s product is the fawn, which he wants to sell to the authorities. When Raffi Hovhannisyan directs 21 questions to the president, he suddenly remembers the Armenian national hero Hunan Avetisyan and defends him with all his might. The presses “sell” this product in a way that it presents itself and at the same time use the marketing/PR factors.
But by giving one to the president, the young MP with a promising future wants to keep one for him. He promises a reward for the person who kills Ramil Safarov (Populism also has to include morality and reasoning). Armenian presses immediately spread the word about “Reward for murder”, without even thinking about the fact that the request for murder is already a crime and they form part of the crime.
It’s not surprising to see the independent yet responsible presses of the president’s administration breed these Aerostats. Which leader wouldn’t want to have similar money-lenders, whose existence once again proves that nothing compares to being on top? What’s amazing is the courtesy of independent journalists, not just towards Marxists or Progressives. Every other day the press prints cheap interviews with political figures, who bore you after talking for five minutes.
PR is the well-paid job in the West. If you are not paid for it, then it’s not worth doing. If they do pay you, then you must demand a high salary. But it’s better to just forget about Aerostat.