Edward S. Herman (1925–2017)

An absolutely brilliant analysis of the ways in which individuals and organizations of the media are influenced to shape the social agendas of knowledge and, therefore, belief. Contrary to the popular conception of members of the press as hard-bitten realists doggedly pursuing unpopular truths, Herman and Chomsky prove conclusively that the free-market economics model of media leads inevitably to normative and narrow reporting. Whether or not you've seen the eye-opening movie, buy this book, show more and you will be a far more knowledgeable person and much less prone to having your beliefs manipulated as easily as the press. show less

The material in this book is a little dated focusing as is does mostly on Central America and Southeast Asia. I couldn't help substituting current events and groups while reading the historical ones. For instance Vietnam=Iraq, Cambodia=Syria, Khmer Rouge=Al Qaeda, and most recently, Nicaragua=Venezuela. Herman and Chomsky even touch on the disaster that was East Timor which is right now being played out again in Yemen.

A long and exhaustive read that was terribly fascinating, and definitely worth looking into if you’re interested in how contemporary mainstream media upholds existing hegemonies (in like, the leftist way, not the weird infowars “chemicals turning the frogs gay” way). To be honest I'd only really known about Chomsky's linguistic work, so finding out about his radical political beliefs kind of blindsided me. I'm eager to look into his other works sometime in the future

Let me make it clear that my three and a half star rating reflects my reading of this book in 2023: some 35 years after it was written. Unsurprisingly, things have moved on since then and, whilst there is much to take from this work, there are two provisos; the first is that I think we are a little more aware of cultural bias than we were, the second is that there has been a liberalisation of the media through on line blogs, etc. We now all have the ability to express our views. Corporate show more media and our political masters are much less likely to be believed in their ravings.

An updated version of this work would be a definite five star offeing. show less