Quotes About Media

Choice of sources can shield extreme bias behind a façade of objectivity.

Well, I'm not sure the New York Times was consciously trying to trivialise me, but the effect of it is to put everything in the same category as the gossip you read in the magazines you pick up at supermarket counters. I was asked, for example, why I thought there were so many euphemisms for genitalia . It's not a serious question. Whatever the purpose of such a tone is, the effect is to make it appear that anyone who departs from orthodox political doctrine is in some ways laughable.

Large corporations have resources to influence media and overwhelm the political process, and do so accordingly.

There's an awful lot you can find in the press. If you do what you really ought to do, start by reading every article from the end, back to the front; most of the lies are up in the front. Turns out there's a lot of stuff back there.

One of the functions that things like professional sports play, in our society and others, is to offer an area to deflect people's attention from things that matter, so that the people in power can do what matters without public interference.

We're supposed to believe that the press is liberal, dangerous, adversarial, out-of-control. That itself is an extremely good example of corporate propaganda.

what are called opinions "on the left" and "on the right" in the media represent only a limited spectrum of debate, which reflects the range of needs of private power—but there's essentially nothing beyond those "acceptable" positions.

the mass media are interested in attracting audiences with buying power, not audiences per se; it is affluent audiences that spark advertiser interest today, as in the nineteenth century. The idea that the drive for large audiences makes the mass media "democratic" thus suffers from the initial weakness that its political analogue is a voting system weighted by income!

W]e have a democracy that uses free elections to put in place known obstructionists, and a media that disproportionately gives a forum to economically driven ideology over sound science.

There is massive propaganda for everyone to consume. Consumption is good for profits and consumption is good for the political establishment.

Reagan sent money to the Contras to spend as they wish. National media remained unperturbed in accordance to the doctrine that the United States stands above any law of international agreement.

an advertising-based system will tend to drive out of existence or into marginality the media companies and types that depend on revenue from sales alone. With advertising, the free market does not yield a neutral system in which final buyer choice decides. The advertisers' choices influence media prosperity and survival.

In a capitalist society the mass media are capitalist institutions. The fact that these institutions reflect the ideology of dominant economic interests is hardly surprising.

The kinds of things that I would say on Nightline, you can't say in one sentence because they depart from standard religion. If you want to repeat the religion, you can get away with it between two commercials. If you want to say something that questions the religion, you're expected to give evidence, and that you can't do between two commercials. So therefore you lack concision, so therefore you can't talk.

The U.S. media do not function in the manner of the propaganda system of a totalitarian state. Rather, they permit indeed encourage spirited debate, criticism, and dissent, as long as these remain faithfully within the system of presuppositions and principles that constitute an elite consensus, a system so powerful as to be internalized largely without awareness

The information sometimes is reported, but the media isn't presenting it.67

Pandangan monolitik media-media besar yang tampil secara konsisten harus dicurigai sebagai upaya untuk mempertahankan status quo yang ada.

Any dictator would admire the obedience and uniformity of the U.S media.

these six corporations, and more precisely, the key decision makers within them, set the boundaries on acceptable debate on what's socially, politically, economically possible. They make their decisions on those things based on profit maximization, both short and long term. If you think they're making their decisions on anything else, you are mistaken.

Hence the elaborate pretense that the press is a critical dissenting force—maybe even too critical for the health of democracy—when in fact it is almost entirely subservient to the basic principles of the ideological system:

media are independent and committed to discovering and reporting the truth, and that they do not merely reflect the world as powerful groups wish it to be perceived.

I gruppi di potere sono in grado di difendersi e secondo gli standard dei media il fatto che la loro posizione e i loro diritti vengano minacciati costituisce scandalo. Al contrario, finché illegalità e violazione dei principi democratici colpiscono gruppi marginali [...] l'opposizione dei media è completamente assente.

Come negli stati totalitari, anche nelle società aperte esiste la censura, anche se assume forme diverse. Le domande offensive o imbarazzanti per il sistema dottrinale sono bloccate. Le informazioni scomode vengono soppresse. Non serve guardare lontano per giungere a questa conclusione; basta analizzare onestamente che cosa viene riportato dai media e cosa viene tralasciato.

La industria de las «las relaciones públicas» consistía en controlar la opinión pública.