Thursday,
October 17, 2013
Manufacturing Consent Noam Chomsky and the Media (1993)
Review/Film; Superimposing Frills On a Provocative Career
By VINCENT
CANBY
Published:
March 17, 1993
For
some time Noam Chomsky, the linguist, author, political activist and outspoken
critic of what he sees to be the American power elite, has survived attacks by
critics of his radically independent thinking. Now he survives, though just
barely, attempts by some friends to make his views more widely known in a film,
"Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media."
Put together by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick, two admiring Canadian film makers, "Manufacturing Consent" nearly smothers the often revivifying Chomsky skepticism under a woolly blanket of fancy graphics, archival material and redundant images. The film, which runs almost three hours, opens today at the Film Forum.
When
presented without frills and allowed to speak for himself, in dozens of
interviews filmed and taped around the world, Mr. Chomsky is a most
provocative, invigorating commentator on American political and social behavior.
Yet Mr. Achbar and Mr. Wintonick never leave well enough alone. They underrate
both Mr. Chomsky and the film audience. Nothing Mr. Chomsky says is too clear
not to require some fuller explanation by the film makers.
When
Jeff Greenfield, the producer of ABC's "Nightline," says he thinks
Mr. Chomsky's ideas are "from Neptune," the film dutifully shows a
clip of Neptune. A hard-hitting Chomsky debate with Fritz Bolkestein, the
Minister of Defense of the Netherlands, is crosscut with stock material of a
prizefight. Take out the visual similes and "Manufacturing Consent"
might be half as long and twice as effective.
Mr.
Chomsky is convinced that American public opinion is being manipulated through
a de facto conspiracy
of big business, big television, newspaper companies (The
New York Times in particular), the government and academe. At one point the
film makers visit the New York Times building in New York and somehow manage to
give the impression that they have cracked the security of the Kremlim.
Whether
or not you agree with Mr. Chomsky's conclusions, his reading of the American
scene is persuasive: that the government is most responsive to the wishes
expressed by the minority of citizens who vote, which is also one of the
principal points made by John Kenneth Galbraith in his recent book "The
Culture of Contentment." As Mr. Chomsky sees it, his mission is to wake up
and activate the electorate.
The
film is best when Mr. Chomsky talks, which he does with ease, clarity and wit.
It's at its worst when it tries to defend him, employing some of the trickier
eye-catching techniques associated with advertising campaigns for products the
public doesn't yet know it needs. The film offers some interesting biographical
material, especially material relating to his anti-war activities during the
Vietnam era.
Also
convincingly presented is Mr. Chomsky's outrage over press and television
inattention to Indonesian atrocities in East Timor, even if these oversights
scarcely seem like a conspiracy. Though the case for The New York Times is well
argued by Karl E. Meyer, an editorial writer for the paper, "Manufacturing
Consent" otherwise presents no Chomsky critics of a caliber to match Mr.
Chomsky. Cheap shots creep in, as in the unflattering way the film makers treat
William F. Buckley Jr., host of "Firing Line," the syndicated
television show.
If
you are prepared to sit through a lot of fancified film making, and starry-eyed
adoration that softens the sharp edge of the Chomsky personality,
"Manufacturing Consent" (also the title of one of his books) is an
invigorating introduction to one of the least soporific of American minds.
Manufacturing Consent Noam Chomsky and the Media Directed by Mark Achbar and
Peter Wintonick; photography by Mr. Achbar and Norbert Bunge; edited by Mr.
Wintonick; produced by Necessary Illusions and the National Film Board of
Canada; released by Zeitgeist Films. Film Forum 3, 209 West Houston Street,
South Village. Running time: 165 minutes. No rating.
ABOUT THE FILM:
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988), by Edward S. Herman and
Noam Chomsky, is an analysis of the news media, arguing that the mass media of
the United States "are effective and powerful ideological institutions
that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function by reliance on market
forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt
coercion".
The
title derives from the phrase "the manufacture of consent" that
essayist–editor Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) employed in the book Public
Opinion (1922).Chomsky has said that Australian social psychologist Alex
Carey, to whom the book was dedicated, was in large part the impetus of his and
Herman's work. The book introduced the propaganda
model of the media. A film, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the
Media, was later released based on the book.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Los autores introducen en -este ensayo el modelo
de propaganda de los medios de comunicación. Según este modelo, la mayor
parte de los medios de comunicación de masas solo transmiten las opiniones de
las élites económicas o de los gobiernos. Los autores aplican su modelo solo a
los medios de comunicación norteamericanos y lo sustancian con numerosos
estudios sobre la cobertura de acontecimientos políticos en Centroamérica, Europa
Oriental, Timor del Este y el Sudeste Asiático.
La validez del modelo obedecería a que los medios
están sometidos a cinco «filtros»:
- La mayor parte de los medios de comunicación están en manos de grandes corporaciones; o sea, pertenecen de hecho a las élites económicas.
- Los medios dependen de la publicidad de las élites económicas para su existencia.
- Los medios deben producir un flujo permanente de nuevas noticias. Los principales proveedores de noticias son los departamentos de prensa de los gobiernos o las grandes corporaciones.
- Los grupos de influencia pueden organizar respuestas sistemáticas ante cualquier desviación sobre las opiniones que sustentan.
- Anticomunismo: las opiniones de izquierda son consideradas como «antipatrióticas».
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