A review by misspalah
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky

challenging informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

"The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It is their function to amuse, entertain, and inform, and to inculcate individuals with the values, beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfil this role requires systematic propaganda."
  • Manufacturing Consent : The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky
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A required reading to to both US citizens and non US citizens. I cant help but to ponder how it is exactly stays the same 30 years plus after this book was published. We are seeing the same exact pattern how USA stifling public opinion on ISRAEL and kept on muting whoever wanted to protest against them. They are aiding and abetting ISNOREAL on Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians while kept on using the same lame excuse that ISNOTREAL has the right to defend themselves. The funny thing is the book revealed so many infos and provide detailed analysis on how evil the US government - (I am
pretty sure it’s nothing new and you have heard of this before) USA basically interfering other nation’s political situation with an ulterior motives just like what they did in Central American Countries (El-Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala) in 1980s and Countries in Indochina region (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) in 1960s. They used the propaganda model to win the support of their citizens on why they have to be the one who will ‘help’ these countries , ‘dismantle’ dictatorship or even go to the war on behalf of them. This might work back then and i am glad social media is here to prove that younger generation aint taking 100% of what they have put out in the news outlet. The age of misinformation is not going anywhere, its here as long as the elite control the media - none of your news is impartial and true. Most of the time, it has been skewered to serve the interest of government. The book did well to demonstrate how media played a big role in brainwashing the viewers into thinking which victims is worthy and which victims deserved it. Again, look how US-based media outlet portrayed Israelis and Palestinians in the past 100 days. The contrast was so huge that you cant make this shit up. The book revealed how US government nitpicking on Central American Political Circumstances depending on their interests on the area. Since they are sort of allies with El-Salvador and Guatemala after installing their puppeteers, they have no issue with how the country ran the election. However, since Nicargua is not choosing the one that US wanted to use as their puppets, suddenly news about how democracy is in dire state and communism is there to take over the country. US government needs holy water to wash blood on their hands - so many massacres they have fueled to achive their objective ; just read about Massacre at El Mozote in El-Salvadore, The Guatemalan Genocide and US support for Contra Death Squads in Nicaragua. On the other hands, 2 final chapters on Indochina is so eye-opening. Many of us are under the impression that USA came to ‘help’ and ‘liberate’ these countries from communism but it is just another sick redemption story after the embarrassing defeat in Vietnam War. USA and their role in genocide is pretty much inseparable at this point - they are the one basically paving the way for khmer rouge.  From the end of 1960s to the early 1970s , these countries has been the target of carpet bombing just so they could have ‘forced’ these terrorist out or ‘terminated’ them. I am pretty sure this sounds familiar as they are the one who supported ISNOTREAL in carpet bombing hospitals in Gaza and Refugee camps. The chapter on The KGB- Bulgarian plot to kill the pope is simply USA is trying too hard to make something that its not and ended up creating a boogeyman out of some evidence that was not coherent at all. A pretty laughable chapter TBH. Overall, if you enjoy confessions of an economic hitman, you will enjoy this one. This one is more academically inclined with the stats, figures and notes but you will see why it was written in such manner. I think this need to be re-read at least twice to truly understand how mainstream media is not really an independent entity that society thought of and questioning their narratives should have been priority in order to get fair and genuince reporting. 
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Here are the quotes worth sharing from each chapter in the book. 
  1. "The public must be put in its place, so that each of us may live free of the trampling and the roar of a bewildered herd."
  2. "The more powerful the government, the more it is able to control thought and discussion."
  3. "The media serve, and propagandize on behalf of, the powerful societal interests that control and finance them." - 
  4. "Thus the media serve, and propagandize on behalf of, the powerful societal interests that control and finance them—their true role and function."
  5. "The consequence of the workings of this system is that small groups do indeed secure sufficient privilege to dominate and direct social life." 
  6. "Anti-Communism provides the ideological framework within which the media operate, whether discussing superpower conflict or any other aspect of foreign policy."
  7. "The state calls upon the media to create a political consensus at home, to support its current policies, and to attack its adversaries."
  8. "The indoctrination is so deep that educated people think they are quite independent in their judgment and quite free of propaganda."