On Manufacturing Consent

UPDATE: 6 October 2020

Today, I received an email from the magazine, Foreign Affairs. In it, the editors revealed that the topic of the November-December issue will be “Rogue Superpower: Why This Could Be an Illiberal American Century.” I don’t think that this will be an illiberal century per sé, any more than last century was an “illiberal” century for the United States, but I do think that we are experiencing an illiberal moment. That being said, it brought my mind back to this book.

Herman and Chomsky spend a lot of time talking about the way that the news media justifies American actions overseas, turning an aggressor into a victim and whatnot. For instance, they hone in on their criticism in the American media’s approach towards the Vietnam War, where Vietnam was maddeningly depicted as the aggressor, with South Vietnam as the most legitimate state, despite the overwhelming majority of Vietnamese supporting Ho Chi Minh. Now, obviously we aren’t living through the Vietnam War, but I do find the issue of Foreign Affairs interesting, because it appears that the news media has taken a big step back from siding with the American government.

Obviously, this is because Trump is in the White House, and he’s reprehensible to the vast majority of mainstream outlets. Naturally, he’s reprehensible to me as well. Yet, it makes me wonder what it is about Trump that makes the news media take such a large step back. Surely he would argue that it’s because he’s an outsider elected to the presidency to “drain the swamp” of elitism and globalism. Yet, I don’t think this is it. The reality is that Trump is just as much a “coastal elite” and “globalist” as anyone in Washington or any of the numerous mainstream news organizations.

I do agree that Trump is fundamentally different than many of our past presidents, but there are still too many continuities to make sense of. For example, Trump’s Middle East policy is pretty much just a continuation of American policy, going back to Reagan with his response to the Iranian Revolution, Lebanese Civil War, and Libya’s loose-cannon. There is nothing different there. Moreover, Trump’s immigration policy is not new per sé, but rather an escalation of the Bush and Obama presidencies.

I don’t want this to be taken as a defense of Trump, because it is isn’t, at all, whatsoever. But I do wonder what Herman and Chomsky would say about this. Perhaps they would argue that it’s just partisanism, but Foreign Affairs isn’t really “partisan” in a Democratic Party vs. Republican Party sense, nor liberal vs. conservative, but it’s generally pro-American with foreign policy.

I know that this space doesn’t have any answers, but rather raises more questions. Nevertheless, I do think these issues are worth thinking about.

Argument: The mass media is gaslighting all of us to protect the interests of America’s elite.

Thanks Noam, that was insightful. This book is a good study of the actual process, but it’s all received wisdom now so it isn’t really worth spending much time on it.