Because They Said So!

Welcome to politics, sweet land of hidden agendas and reassuring smiles. Noam Chomsky, in Manufacturing Consent, isn’t afraid to clear the cluttered air that is choking us all. The role of mass media, he says, is to keep people from knowing. When the United States is at war, it is critical that newspapers and radios insist that the war is necessary, the war is security, the war is good. Why, Noam persists, why? In relation to Cambodia, it keeps people from knowing the truth: we don’t need this war.

Why is this so critical? See this: the general public discovers that the war in Cambodia isn’t necessary, that there is no possibility of peaceful settlement. The uprising it would cause! Can you imagine? A country’s people would turn against its leaders, accusing it of being imperialist, violent, profligate and wrong. Politicians hate being told they are wrong. The media’s job is to keep the general public, both the 80% of ‘leaders’ and 20% of ‘followers’, in a placid state of ignorance. The media acts as anesthesia to an unknown surgery. While knives and scalpels tear away, American society is free to float in some other dimension. They are only given the background (you will be having your appendix removed, ma’am,) and not the gruesome details (and here’s how we’re going to do it!).

How true, that the whole process is like making sausage: the less you know how it’s done, the better for your appetite. When picked apart, the capital agenda really can ruin your appetite.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/07/31/AR2009073103929.html

This article in the Washington Post from last year takes the sausage-metaphor a step further. It applies it specifically to the remaking of the Health Care Bill. Here, a perfect example! The article itself is an example of a biased media. True, it is giving objective facts. X, Y and Z happened. But this article fails to mention why, and stays vague. ‘Almost every provision’…but which? “We’re making progress”…but how? The only definite thing mentioned: the vote is going to be postponed. So society is getting the picture, just not the whole picture.

This short parody shows just how ridiculous the media’s assertions can be. Of course, as a parody, this is a gross exaggeration, but the point still holds: the media can sensationalize anything it wants, and on the other side, underplay certain facts and stories that the government or corporations need psst…on the DL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh-tLWdz2Ps

[watch at your own risk]

The media is an unchecked power. With support from big corporations and government motivation, it can insert any idea into the average US citizen. Simply play a few ads, run a few stories in the paper, and there you have it. Once enough people are convinced, it becomes truth. Thus: instructions on how to manufacture consent. Serves: 300 million. Oven temp: 375°. Eat it up, folks.