Manufacturing Consent:
The Political Economy of the Mass Media
by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky
Pantheon Books, 1988; ISBN 0-679-72034-0

Contrary to the commonly believed image of the press as cantankerous, obstinate and thorough in its search for truth, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky show that, in fact, a highly prejudiced elite consensus creates the state propaganda that is presented daily as "news."

They skillfully dissect the way in which the marketplace and the economics of publishing significantly shape the news. They reveal how issues are framed and topics are chosen. As a prime example, they reveal the fact that totally dishonest double standards are used by the corporate media when "reporting" about countries which are puppets of the U.S., and countries which attempt to be free of the U.S.

In the corporate mass-media's propagandistic accounts of so-called "free elections," a "free press," and governmental repression, Herman and Chomsky contrast the double standards which were used between Nicaragua and El Salvador; between the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the American invasion of Vietnam; between the genocide in Cambodia under a pro-American government and genocide under Pol Pot (which was later supported by the U.S. government).

They explore how Watergate and the Iran-Contra hearings manifested not an excess but a lack of investigative zeal into the accumulating illegalities of the executive branch.

What emerges from this pathbreaking work is the fact that the mainstream mass media are nothing more than highly sophisticated propaganda organs of the corporate state, and that a knowledge of their methods allows us to see them for what they are.

Reviews

"[A] compelling indictment of the news media's role in covering up errors and deceptions in American foreign policy of the past quarter century."

— Walter LaFeber
The New York Times Book Review

"An intellectual dissection of the modern media to show how an underlying economics of publishing warps the news."

— Book Description

"A tour de force, co-authored by one of the world's leading experts on language and meaning. In this book, Herman and Chomsky put forward a 'propaganda model' to explain the bias in Western (mostly US) media on international affairs. Their thesis is that, although the US is not a dictatorship where a single leader can censor the press, the very market forces that lead people to believe in the freedom of their press actually work to create a self-imposed censorship which creates a biased media, more intent on delivering audiences to their advertisers and vital corporate sponsors than in providing their readers with balanced and informed news.

"The authors back up their theory with a large number of examples, and focus on 3 main topics: Latin America, Vietnam and the attempt on the life of the Pope in 1981. Using extensive quotations from US contemporary media reports, and comparing them with official sources such as government documents, White House memos, State Department press releases, as well as reports in non-US-based media, Herman and Chomsky are able to bolster their thesis of a propaganda model, and show that US media reports are nearly always skewed to show the US and its allies as the 'good guys', and other (enemy) states as the 'bad guys'.

"When 'they' do it, it's called 'terrorism', when 'we' do it, it's called 'fighting for democracy and freedom.'"

— sheffi
Amazon.com reviewer
from Nara, Japan

About the Authors

Edward S. Herman is Professor Emeritus of Finance, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. At the Wharton School his specialties were corporate control and power, financial regulation, and issues relating to conflict of interest. He also taught for years in the Annenberg School of Communication at Penn. He is a regular columnist for Z magazine and a frequent contributor to Dollars & Sense as well as Extra!.

He is the author of over 20 books and numerous articles on the corporate system, the media and American foreign policy. His books include:

• Degraded Capability: The Media & the Kosovo Crisis
  Pluto Press, 2000
  
  
• The Myth of the Liberal Media: An Edward Herman Reader
  Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 1999
  
  
• The Global Media: The Missionaries of Global Capitalism
  (with Robert McChesney)
  Cassell, 1997
  
  
• Triumph of the Market: Essays on Economics, Politics, & the Media
  South End Press, 1995
  
  
• Beyond National Sovereignty: International Communications in the 1990s
  Greenwood Publishing Group Inc, 1993
  
  
• Beyond Hypocrisy: Decoding the News in an Age of Propaganda
  South End Press, 1992
  
  
• The Terrorism Industry
  (with Gerry O'Sullivan)
  Pantheon, 1990
  
  
• Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
  (with Noam Chomsky)
  Pantheon, 1988
  
  
• New Ways of Knowing The Sciences, Society & Reconstructive Knowledge
  Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 1987
  
  
• Demonstration Elections
  (with Frank Brodhead)
  South End Press, 1984
  
  
• The Real Terror Network
  South End Press, 1982
  
  
• Corporate Control, Corporate Power
  Cambridge University Press, 1981
  
  
• The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism
  (with Noam Chomsky)
  South End Press, 1980
  
  
• After the Cataclysm: Postwar Indochina and the Reconstruction of Imperial Ideology
  (with Noam Chomsky)
  South End Press, 1979

Noam Chomsky is a major figure in twentieth-century linguistics. Born in Philadelphia in 1928, he's taught since 1955 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he became a full professor at the age of 32. Currently he is the Ferrari P. Ward Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics, and Institute Professor at MIT.

In addition to his work as a linguist, Chomsky has written many books on contemporary issues and is an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy and corporate power. His political talks have been heard, typically by standing-room only audiences, all over the country and the globe.

In a saner world, the tireless efforts of people like Chomsky and Herman to promote justice would have long since won them the Nobel Peace Prize. But no, the committee prefers to give it to sleazy war criminals like Henry Kissinger.

Chomsky's books include:

• Acts of Aggression:
  Policing "Rogue States"
  (with Ramsey Clark and Edward W. Said)
  
  
• After the Cataclysm: Postwar Indochina and the Reconstruction of Imperial Ideology
  (with Edward S. Herman)
  South End Press, 1980
  
  
• Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
  
  
• At War with Asia
  Pantheon, 1970
  
  
• The Chomsky Trilogy
  
  
• The Chomsky Reader
  
  
• Chronicles of Dissent
  
  
• Class Warfare
  
  
• The Cold War and the University
  
  
• The Common Good
  
  
• The Culture of Terrorism
  South End Press, 1988
  
  
• Deterring Democracy
  Routledge, Chapman & Hall, 1991; Verso 1991
  
  
• Fateful Triangle:
  The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians
  South End Press, 1983; Noontide, 1986
  
  
• For Reasons of State
  Pantheon, 1973
  
  
• Keeping the Rabble in Line
  
  
• Language and Mind
  
  
• Language and Problems of Knowledge
  
  
• Latin America
  
  
• Letters from Lexington
  
  
• Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
  (with Edward S. Herman)
  Pantheon, 1988
  
  
• Media Control:
  The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda
  
  
• Mobilizing Democracy: Changing the U.S. Role in the Middle East
  (edited by Greg Bates)
  Common Courage Press, 1991
  
  
• Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies
  South End Press, 1989
  
  
• The New Military Humanism
  
  
• The New World Order
  (speech)
  Open Magazine Pamphlet Series, 1991
  
  
• On Power and Ideology: the Managua Lectures
  South End Press, 1987
  
  
• Paths to Peace in the Middle East
  
  
• Pirates and Emperors: International Terrorism in the Real World
  Black Rose Books, 1987
  
  
• Powers and Prospects
  
  
• Profit Over People
  
  
• The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many
  
  
• Radical Priorities
  Black Rose Books, 1981
  
  
• Rethinking Camelot
  
  
• Secrets, Lies and Democracy
  
  
• Syntactic Structures
  
  
• Terrorizing the Neighborhood: American Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Era
  (speech)
  Pressure Drop Press, 1991
  
  
• Towards a New Cold War: Essays on the Current Crisis and How We Got There
  Pantheon, 1982
  
  
• Turning the Tide: U.S. Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace
  South End Press, 1985
  
  
• The Umbrella of U.S. Power:
  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Contradictions of U.S. Policy
  
  
• U.S. Gulf Policy
  (speech)
  Open Magazine Pamphlet Series, 1990
  
  
• The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism
  South End Press, 1979
  
  
• World Orders; Old and New
  
  
• What Uncle Sam Really Wants
  Odonian Press, 1992
  
  
• Year 501

Audio books:

• The New Military Humanism
  
  
• Paths to Peace in the Middle East

Other works:

• Introduction to Censored 2001
  
  
• Introduction to Colombia: the Genocidal Democracy
  
  
• Introduction to Bridge of Courage
  
  
• Contributor to Corporations Are Gonna Get Your Mama
  
  
• Introduction to East Timor

Related sites

The Pacifica Counterrevolution Hits WBAI:
Another Call for Action
by Edward S. Herman
http://www.radio4all.org/fp/endgame/herman_counterrev.html

"Given the importance of the media in hegemonic processes, and in contesting those processes, what is happening to Pacifica, and now WBAI, should be first order business for the left. This was our only radio network, and it is being destroyed!"

Extra! Articles by Edward S. Herman
http://www.fair.org/extra/writers/herman.html

Related books

Inventing Reality:
The Politics of News Media
by Michael Parenti, Ph.D.

The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media:
Decoding Spin and Lies in Mainstream News
by Norman Solomon

The Real Terror Network:
Terrorism in Fact and Propaganda
by Edward S. Herman

The Culture of Terrorism
by Noam Chomsky

Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy
by Robert W. McChesney

Censored 2000:
The Year's Top 25 Censored Stories
by Peter Phillips & Project Censored

War, Lies & Videotape:
How media monopoly stifles truth
edited by Lenora Foerstel; multiple authors

Deadly Deceits:
My 25 years in the CIA
by Ralph W. McGehee

The Hidden Persuaders:
What makes us buy, believe — and even vote — the way we do?
by Vance Packard

Derailing Democracy:
The America the Media Don't Want You to See
by David McGowan

Toxic Sludge is Good for You!:
Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry
by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire
by Gore Vidal

Rogue State:
A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
by William Blum

Killing Hope:
U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since WWII
by William Blum

Blackshirts and Reds:
Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism
by Michael Parenti

The Beast Reawakens
by Martin A. Lee

To Kill A Nation:
The Attack on Yugoslavia
by Michael Parenti, Ph.D.

Against Empire
by Michael Parenti, Ph.D.

The Sword and the Dollar:
Imperialism, Revolution and the Arms Race
by Michael Parenti, Ph.D.

A People's History of the United States:
1492 — Present
by Howard Zinn

Bloody Hell:
The Price Soldiers Pay
by Daniel Hallock

NATO in the Balkans:
Voices of Opposition
by Ramsey Clark, Sean Gervasi, Sara Flounders, Thomas Deichmann, Gary Wilson, Richard Becker and Nadja Tesich

Colombia:
The Genocidal Democracy
by Javier Giraldo

Corporate Predators:
The Hunt for Mega-Profits and the Attack on Democracy
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

Saving Private Power:
The Hidden History of "The Good War"
by Michael Zezima

The Continuing Terror Against Libya
by Fan Yew Teng

The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
by Gar Alperovitz