Who the media really works for and how it screws with our heads

speaking of buying into myths, we continually berate the media for being a mouthpiece for the bush administration... what we DON'T talk about is that being a mouthpiece is their JOB and they do it for EVERY administration...

NOAM CHOMSKY: When you talk about the government propaganda system we have to recognize that that includes the media. It includes the media, the journalists and so on. That's all part of the propaganda system, very closely linked.

all you have to do is turn on your tv and there it is, in all its glory...

NOAM CHOMSKY: [A]dvertising is designed to undermine free markets . . . According to what you're taught in economics courses, our system is based on free markets with entrepreneurial initiative and rational choices by informed consumers. Well, the reality is radically different.

As far as consumers are concerned, I mean, when you look at a television ad, it is not trying to create an informed consumer who's going to make a rational choice. We all know that. If they were going to do that, General Motors would just list the characteristics of its models and, you know, you're over, you're done. The purpose is to delude and deceive by imagery -- it's transparent -- meaning to ensure that uninformed consumers will make irrational choices.

And that goes straight to the democratic deficit. The U.S. does not have elections in a serious sense. It has advertising campaigns, run by the same industries that sell toothpaste: public relations industry. When they're selling candidates, they don't tell you -- provide you with information about them, any more than they do about lifestyle drugs or cars. What they do is create imagery to delude and deceive. That's what's called an electoral campaign. The result is that people are just unaware of the stands of candidates on issues.

so how come such subterfuge isn't visible...? simple... we are very cleverly misled... case in point - iraq...

NOAM CHOMSKY: There is virtually no criticism of the war in Iraq. Now, that will surprise journalists, I suppose. They think they're being very critical, but they're not. I mean, the kinds of criticism of the war in Iraq that are allowed in the doctrinal system, media and so on, are the kind of criticisms you heard about, say, in the German general staff after Stalingrad: it's not working; it's costing too much; we made a mistake, we should get a different general; something like that. In fact, it's about at the level of a high school newspaper cheering the local football team. You don't ask, "Should they win?" You ask, "How are we doing?" You know, "Did the coaches make a mistake? Should we try something else?" That's called criticism.

But there's a critical question: What right does the U.S. have to invade another country, in gross violation of international law, understanding that it's probably going to increase the threat of terror and nuclear proliferation? [...] The issue isn't how they are going to win, it's "What are they doing there in the first place?"

it's very difficult to change your frame of reference when the very air you breathe is telling you something else... that's why chomsky is such an important global asset... every time i read him, more scales fall from my eyes...

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