n Topic 34 Chomsky Film: Manufacturing Consent Response 1 of 5 harelb Noam Chomsky (Activ-L, MAP, PeaceNet) 11:28 pm Apr 2, 1993 (at math.cornell.edu) From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (Harel Barzilai - Grad - Brown) Subject: Chomsky Film: Manufacturing Consent ################################################################## Topic 251 Chomsky on Media hrcoord media.issues 2:56 pm Dec 21, 1992 ################################################################## From: Human Rights Coordinator Subject: Chomsky on Media ################################################################## /* Written 8:43 pm Dec 20, 1992 by ihandler@igc.apc.org in igc:nfd.ifeatures */ ################################################################## Film Review / 700 Words A New Documentary On Noam Chomsky and the Media By David Peterson Insight Features "They who have put out the people's eyes reproach them for their blindness." --John Milton Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonock use this line from the great English poet as the inscription to their new documentary, `Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media.' The same quote was also used to inscribe the 1988 book by Chomsky and Edward Herman, `Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media.' The quote captures one of Chomsky's basic themes: in the relatively freer, formally democratic societies, particularly the more powerful ones, the role of the media is to blind people to their real interests in truth, freedom, authenticity, fellowship and justice. As a component of an ideological system, the role of media is to "manufacture the consent" (the phrase penned by Walter Lippmann in his 1922 book `Public Opinion') of these same people to policies and to a way of life that is typically not in their best interest and often self-destructive as well. This unhappy fact of life also has a more optimistic concomitant: the native capacity of people to escape from these doctrinal constraints. We all feel the need to move in the direction of something more truly human, providing we are willing and able to make the effort. Hence ruling elites of every stripe have always found themselves forced to resort to forms of thought control and deception. They have done so more or less to the same extent that their social structures were unjust or their governments behaved unjustly, whether against their own citizens or other countries. In Chomsky's perspective, the human species is not without its emancipatory potential. Thus, as opposed to the political insider, the activist's ideal is to help people discover their decent instincts, as well as to provide them with the moral, intellectual and political tools they need to act on these instincts in a positive and constructive fashion. The film's general approach is to portray Chomsky's legendary and uncompromising labors toward this end. More important, it succeeds--impressively. Achbar and Wintonock have managed to match many of Chomsky's theoretical points with helpful footage concretely representing the point he's making. One good example: Chomsky is shown quoting Reinhold Neibuhr's infamous line about the need for "necessary illusions," i.e., "emotionally potent over-simplifications" to keep the great mass of people in check and on the proper course. The filmmakers then cut in with a Reaganesque PR film on the glories of the Strategic Defense Initiative, complete with space-based lasers zapping incoming Soviet ICBMs. It's a riot--you'll love it. The film also has some excellent vintage footage of Chomsky appearing on Dutch TV, in a 1971 debate with the French historian Michel Foucault. There are clips of a debate with William Buckley on `Firing Line' and of Chomsky speaking outside MIT, denouncing the technocrats who created the Indochina wars. There is a powerful treatment of the comparative U.S. media coverage of the Cambodian and East Timorese bloodbaths, which serves as a classic example of the media's subservience to power. There are also interviews with people who think the Chomsky- Herman Propaganda Model is a lot of crap. From my seat in the balcony, the film does have one boring lapse. The work is in two parts; first is "Thought Control" (95 minutes), second is "Activating Dissent (72 minutes). About two-thirds of the way through part one, the filmmakers travel to Media, Pa. Who knows why the footage is there, except maybe they invested a lot of time and couldn't bring themselves to cut it? Most average, everyday people know little or nothing about Noam Chomsky. Yet I think they are the people who would most enjoy and have their eyes opened by this film. As Chomsky puts it toward the end of part two: "The question is whether privileged elites should dominate mass communication, and should use this power as they tell us they must--namely, to impose `necessary illusions'....Either the general population will take control of its own destiny and will concern itself will community interests, guided by values of solidarity, and sympathy, and concern for others. Or alternatively, there will be no destiny for anyone to control. -- 30 -- David Peterson is a free lance writer living in Chicago. Conf?