How do you do something that should be impossible and turn your own war crimes into a political victory? How do you sell a massacre? What’s the key to getting the public to celebrate an atrocity? You do what the Empire did in Andor‘s second season and get the media to do it for you. A big reason the show’s stunning third arc felt so painfully real is the Empire knew an uncritical media is the greatest weapon against truth itself.
Lucasfilm/Disney+
The annihilation of Ghorman and its people on Andor is among the best, most horrifying sequences ever filmed. But it wasn’t just stellar writing, performances, and production that made that possible. The brutality and evil of the Empire’s genocide worked on such a visceral level because of how they pulled it off. That years long plan was only possible because the media made it possible.
Krennic and his top-secret team of monsters knew the Empire couldn’t just destroy a planet as prestigious, powerful, and politically connected as Ghorman without anyone noticing or responding. From the first day those Imperial officers begun planning the planet’s extermination they knew they value of propaganda. They wouldn’t be able to make the public accept an unimaginable horror. They had to make the public believe the opposite was true, that fiction was fact, that oppression was liberation. And no entity is better at turning even the most heinous and obvious lies into accepted wisdom than a credulous journalist unwilling to question authority.
Lucasfilm
In BBY 2, the bitter fruits of the Empire’s covert labor bloomed on screens across the galaxy far, far away. Respected, well-attired, smooth sounding reporters delivered shocking reports from Ghorman itself. All of them delivered the same exact message of fear and worry about terrorists causing problems on the planet. They spoke of insurrectionist refusing the Empire’s offers of peaceful negotiations.
They all, without question, reported on a bombing—without any facts, only innuendo—in such a biased way it clearly indicated Ghormans had committed the crime. A false flag operation was presented to the entire galaxy as the murder of brave Imperial heroes who only wanted to maintain order on an unruly planet. Even the gathering of an oppressed people in a public square for a general strike, regular people singing their anthem, was reported as a violent uprising before anyone even got hurt.
Most chilling was that the media went out to the streets of Ghorman and spoke the exact same words as the Empire. Those journalists delivered verbatim, to everyone, Partagaz’s line about the “inexplicable resistance to imperial norms” supposedly responsible for Ghorman’s problems.
Lucasfilm
Those reporters had no interest in the truth, only in the story. And the easiest, most sensational story was the one the Empire sold them. It manipulated the media into selling a lie, but that was only possible because the media allowed it to happen. They allowed themselves to become tools of oppression. Even though it was all but impossible for anyone to know the true reason the Empire had come to Ghorman, the Empire’s cover story made no sense. It showed up one day and illegally built an armory, then cut off the planet from others, arrested its citizens for made up crimes, and put its boot on the neck of every Ghor.
Even in the final moments, when there was one last chance to tell the truth about Ghorman—when mining equipment had inexplicably arrived, when no one could find a single shred of truth rebels had committed the previous night’s bombing, and the Empire wasn’t even trying to sell its lie anymore—the media didn’t care. It kept reporting what the Empire wanted. Then, even after a massacre those reporters saw with their own eyes, the media defended its fascists overlords. The Empire moved in so quickly, it was clear that was always the plan. But the media never blinked. It blamed the Rebellion for what happened. The official, supposedly independent media spoke of “the price we’ll pay for our own safety.” It was a chilling reminder to all watching that they could be the next Ghorman.
It was all so horrifying because it all felt so authentic. Intentional or not, far too many members of the media succumb to the same failures in our galaxy. That is especially true of those in prominent positions who speak with authority bestowed by their outlet. They allow themselves to easily become de facto mouthpieces for evil. And when they do, they fail us all. None of us are safe when those we entrust to hold the powerful accountable instead sell lies on fascist behalf. What hope does the truth have when journalists becomes tools of tyranny? When, instead of reporting, they do the dirtiest of work for the most vile among us?
The truth is the greatest weapon we have against injustice, which is why evil empire’s fight so hard to keep it hidden. And if the media won’t tell the truth, who will? That’s what Dreena wanted to know during Ghorman’s dying breath. Her desperate emotional plea to the galaxy was for others to report what truly happened. Her message was one the media needed to hear more than anyone. “If you can hear me, if you believe in truth, if you have faith left in truth, please, please mark this message and pass it forward.” May her message carry to the corner of every galaxy everywhere.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He thinks Andor’s BBY 2 arc is maybe the greatest thing to ever appear on TV. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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