Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media Page #7

It just goes to show that we're a mighty nation,

and we'll be there no matter what comes along.

It's the strongest country in the world,

and you got to be glad to live here.

So, tell me what you feel

about media coverage of the war.

It was good. It got to be a bit much ater a while,

but I guess it was good to know everything.

In Vietnam you didn't know a lot

that was going on,

but here you're pretty much

up to the moment on everything,

so... I guess it was good to be informed.

For the first time,

because of technology, we have the ability

to be live from many locations

around the globe,

and because of the format -

an all-news network -

we can spend whatever time is necessary

to bring the viewer

the complete context

of that day's portion of the story.

And by context, I mean the institutional memory

that is critical to understand why and how,

and that's those who are analysts,

and do commentary,

and those who can explain.

Slug that last piece...

...lTN-lsrael Post War.

David Brinkley once said

that you step in front of the camera,

and you get out of news business,

and into show business,

but nonetheless

that should not in any way subtract or obscure

the need for the basic standards

of good journalism.

Hang tight. Let me

give you a lead for Salinger right now, OK?

President Bush

and Prime Minister Major have...

...closed, or have almost rejected...

the Soviet peace talk...

peace efforts in Saudi Arabia.

The door is being let open.

Rick Salinger is standing by live in Riyad.

- All but closed.

- Yeah. All but closed.

Right.

Accuracy, speed, a fair approach,

honesty and integrity within the reporter

to try and bring the truth,

whatever the truth may be.

Going to war is a serious business.

In a totalitarian society, the dictator just says,

"We're going to war", and everybody marches.

And with this weapon

of human brotherhood in our hands

we are seeing the war for men's minds

not as a battle of truth against lies,

but as a lasting alliance pledged in faith

with all those millions driving forward

to create the true new order-

the world order of the people first,

the people before all.

is, if the political leadership is committed to war

they present reasons, and they've got

a very heavy burden of proof to meet.

Because a war is a very catastrophic affair,

as it's been proved to be.

Now, the role of the media at that point is to...

is to present the relevant background.

For example,

the possibilities of peaceful settlement,

such as what they may be,

have to be presented,

and then to offer a forum... in fact encourage

a forum of debate over this very dread decision

to go to war, and in this case

kill hundreds of thousands of people,

and leave two countries wrecked, and so on.

That never happened.

There was never...

Well, you know, when I say never,

I mean 99.9 per cent of the discussion

excluded the option of a peaceful settlement.

To Washington's Office of War Information

falls one of the most vital and constructive tasks

of this war.

This is a people's war,

and to win it, the people ought to

know as much about it as they can.

This office will do its best to tell the truth,

and nothing but the truth,

both at home and abroad.

The first weapon

in this worldwide strategy of proof

is the great machine of information

represented by the free press

with its powers of moulding public thought,

and leading public action,

with all its lifelines

for the exchange of new ideas

between fighting nations

spread across the earth.

Every time Bush would appear

and say, "There will be no negotiations",

there would be a hundred editorials

the next day

lauding him

for going the last mile for diplomacy.

If he said, "You can't reward an aggressor",

instead of cracking up in ridicule

the way people did in civilised sectors

of the world like the whole Third World,

the media still...

"man of fantastic principle", you know.

The invader of Panama, the only head of state

who stands condemned

for aggression in the world,

the guy who was head of the CIA

during the Timor aggression,

he says, "Aggressors can't be rewarded",

the media just applaud it.

The motion picture industry with

its worldwide organisation of newsreel crews,

invaluable for bringing into vivid focus

the background drama

and perspectives of the war.

Mobilised too in this all-out struggle

for men's minds are the radio networks,

with all their experience in the swift reporting

of great occasions and events.

From every strategic centre

and frontline stronghold

their reporters are sending back

the lessons of new tactics,

new ways of war.

The result was it's a media war.

There's tremendous fakery all along the line.

The UN is finally living up to its mission.

"A wondrous sea change",

The New York Times told us.

The only wondrous sea change

was that for once

the United States didn't veto a Security Council

Resolution against aggression.

People don't want a war

unless you have to have one,

and would've known

you don't have to have one.

The media kept people from knowing that,

and that means we went to war

very much in the manner of a totalitarian state,

thanks to the media subservience.

That's the big story.

Now, remember I'm not talking about

a small radio station in Laramie.

I'm talking about

the national agenda-setting media.

If you run a radio news show in Laramie,

chances are very strong that you pick up

what was in The Times that morning,

and you decide that's the news.

In fact, if you follow the AP wires,

you find it in the aternoon.

They send across tomorrow's front page

of The New York Times.

That's so that everybody knows

what the news is.

The perceptions and perspectives

and so on are sort of transmitted down,

not to the precise detail, but the general picture

is pretty much transmitted elsewhere.

The foreign news comes here

to the Foreign News desk.

The editor is Bob Hanley.

Bob, I suppose you get far more foreign news

than you can possibly use in the paper.

Yes, we do. We get a great deal more

than we can accommodate in a day.

Your job is to weed it out, I suppose.

This is the selection centre, as it were,

and when I have selected it

I pass it across the desk

to one or the other of the sub-editors.

It comes back to me,

and on this chart I design the page.

That is page one and page two.

Fine, Bob. Thank you very much.

- Why do you want to make a film about Media?

- Well...

Such a nice, quiet town.

It's a beautiful town.

We're making a film about the mass media,

so we thought what a good place to come.

Want to know where they got the name?

Maybe you could start

by introducing yourself.

Yes, I'm Bodhon Senkow.

I'm the main street manager and executive

director of the Media Business Authority,

and we are in Media, Delaware County,

in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania.

Media is called "Everybody's hometown".

The motto was developed

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