Noam Chomsky had this observation about controlling public opinion by limiting the scope of debate:
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion but allow very lively debate within that spectrum– even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limited put on the range of debate.
With that in mind, check out this recent headline regarding Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent speech at Columbia University.
Michelle Malkin: Ahmadinejad Shouldn’t Even Be Allowed on US Soil
Granted, it is from the Bush administration’s right-wing propaganda machine Fox News, so take it with a grain of salt.
But this one does come as a shock. Republican congressman Duncan Hunter from California has threatened to introduce legislation to cut off federal funding to Columbia for allowing the speech to go forward. WTF?
September 25th, 2007 at 10:20 am
“Granted, it is from the Bush administration’s right-wing propaganda machine Fox News, so take it with a grain of salt.”
Just because something is “right” of “left” doesn’t make it “right-wing”. So much of our media is slanted to the left, it’s easy to consider something “not left” to be “right-wing”. It’s relative thinking. Saying that Fox News is “right-wing” because it tends to lean more “right” than most other media sources doesn’t mean it’s “right-wing”. It simply means it’s not as “left-wing” as the others.
I won’t argue Fox News is 100% balanced as they claim, but I’ll debate all day long that it’s not “right-wing” or “left-wing”.
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:09 am
People are sheep. Chomsky is correct.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:53 pm
People in this country don’t want to see the truth. That’s why it is so easy to mislead them.