Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent revisited | The Listening Post

There is an exquisite and oft-quoted moment in an interview between BBC journalist Andrew Marr and Noam Chomsky in which Marr asks: "How can you know that I'm self-censoring?".

"I'm not saying you're self censoring. I'm sure you believe everything you're saying. But what I'm saying is that if you believed something different, you wouldn't be sitting where you're sitting."

Wry as ever, Chomsky exposed the slightly delusional pretensions of the journalistic establishment - and not far behind, the complicities of the media industry with political power.

Harsh? Perhaps. True? All too often.

For many of us who work at The Listening Post, Chomsky's ideas on the media in Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media have provided us with a guide, full of cautionary tales and ideas that are still controversial to this day.

The book was published in 1988 - a year before the end of the Cold War when it was announced that western liberal democracy had triumphed, heralding the end of ideology, authoritarianism, and propaganda.

In the past 30 years, we have seen the mass communications industry multiply, providing an illusion of choice, echoing the rhetorics of freedom - of press, of expression - but not necessarily yielding the pluralism liberal democracies had promised.

In that way, the book continues to resonate.

But like all revered texts, Manufacturing Consent also calls upon us as active readers, journalists, citizens to interrogate its premises. Does the book's denunciatory tone risk overstate the power of the media establishment? Does it underestimate the critical faculties of the public? Is the media so homogenous an entity that power can be wielded top-down? Where are the lapses, the blind spots? Where do journalists find pockets of power that serve to disrupt?

We spoke to three journalists who have their careers being disruptive and asked them about the ideas that had influenced them in Chomsky and Herman's book: Matt Taibbi, whose reporting for Rolling Stone has provided one of the most critical accounts of US political history in recent years; Indian editor-in-chief Aman Sethi who questions the premises of Chomsky's book and Amira Hass, the Haaretz correspondent for the Occupied Territories.

The first thing we asked Hass was what she thought about Chomsky's statement: "the general population doesn't know what's happening, and it doesn't even know that it doesn't know".

"This is a very humanist and optimistic statement," she responded. "The belief that when people are informed they may act, things may change. In Hebrew, the words knowledge and awareness are all made of the same root. Yedda and Mudaoot. And so awareness is connected to Mudaoot in Hebrew. And this is how I started working in Gaza, aware that the Israeli public knows nothing about the occupation and what it means. But the people do not pick up this information. They have access to it but they choose not to access it."

Hass has been covering Palestine for the best part of 30 years - in that time, sources of information have multiplied, but public outrage?

"Today we have so much access to information in other ways that we are on a collision with the fact that people are not interested in what does not serve immediately their interest," she said, with resignation, "and this is a very sad realisation."

Aman Sethi put it like this:

"It's easy to say that people believe what they believe because their consent has been manufactured. But what if people know exactly what's going on and still believe what they believe, right? Then that's terrifying."

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[Behemoth]

Noam Chomsky is a living legend. Manufacturing Consent was a pivotal moment in my understanding of geopolitics and media coverage.

[webdesign]

BBC Guy:
- How can you know that I am self-censoring?

Chomsky:- I am not saying that you are self-censoring.- I am sure that you believe everything you are saying.- But, what I am saying is that, if you believed something different you wouldn't be sitting where you are sitting.

[CyndiLH]

The last few minutes of this piece offer some of the most sage advice...the idea of not simply dismissing the media as so many may assume he is saying, but to read and listen critically, to seek multiple sources and to engage in a thoughtful same holds true for government. When people disengage, these institutions become even more powerful.

[arashkborzoo]

The HuffPo guy answered the exact way I expected, by rejecting Chomsky and pretty much saying; no we work real hard, were not corporate tools, exactly the same arrogance both Chomsky and even John Stewart have warned about.

[BillNepill]

The Huffpost guy is a perfect example of someone who gets the corporate media gig for his 'correct' views.

[TheAsdsdswww]

I'm amazed at the naivete of Aman Sethi, and this is the editor in chief of a mainstream news outlet. If anything, he proves Noam's points.

[KTMGUNNER]

Chomsky doesn't search Google, Google searches Chomsky.

[peaceworld]

Gratitude to you Prof. Chomsky for your gifts of knowledge to humankind. One day, hopefully, the values you stand for might come true in the world.

[AmateurSpaceman]

For some reason, having YouTube ads pop up during this video is rather fitting.

[Matamick]

"One of the most effective devices is to encourage debate, but within a system of unspoken presuppositions that incorporate the basic principles of the doctrinal systems. These principles are therefore removed from inspection; they become the framework for thinkable thought, not objects of rationale consideration." Noam Chomsky

[michaelhenshaw-vetmedengli]

Excellent piece. I commend AJ and Richard Gizbert. It is clearly a difficult topic to cover, and I'm grateful for this channel's earnestness. It's hard to find this kind of stuff without it containing polemics (RT) or being overly focused on the US (Democracy Now!).

[alsammon]

Fabulous interview with one of the most gifted minds today. I found compelling the introduction animation video, it breaks it down to simplicity. Bravo Aljezzera.

[ziggyarbani]

if half the population of the US knows who chomsky is the world would be a much better place.

[bundleofperceptions]

Even if you were able to convince a majority of the people their consent was being manufactured, it wouldn't do any good, because most people are too ignorant to know why they should care whether their consent is their own or manufactured by someone else.

[strangelove]

Thank you for your brain, your humanity and humility Mr. Chomsky.
I emailed the same thing to him, to thank him, to show my gratitude, he wrote back "Many thanks. Appreciated."

[andrewvalenski]

Lmao, surprise surprise that the HuffPost editor is as blind as we’d all expect. Seems like someone who didn’t take down their defenses before approaching the material and buried their head in their own world. Huffpost doing huffpost things — thanks for sharing this AJ!

[benjaminmichael]

16:58 Look at host's facial inclination when chomsky mentions about "read what the big brother told you to read otherwise you lose your job"🙊

[professor]

I believe it was Virgil who was standing at the entrance to Dante's "Inferno" & read a sign that said; "The Master of those who know" or something to that effect? Well in my opinion, Chomsky is the living master of all those who know in today's world.

[danmaftei]

Very interesting. I appreciate the different view points with the three journalists.

[bpisdjh]

That animation at the start is creepy af