Chomsky and Herman, Am I Convinced?

     After reading both an excerpt from the book Manufacturing Consent about the Propaganda Model and the transcript from a follow up interview about this model that was conducted 20 years later. In both of these writings, I was educated on something that Chomsky and Herman called "The five filters." These filters were, according to the two authors, limiters on what content was allowed to be broadcast on a mass media news network according to this Propaganda Model. When going through, the follow up interview piece, Chomsky and Herman verified that these filters within the Propaganda Model are even bigger and more concentrated in the 21st century then they were back in 1988, when Manufacturing Consent was written. I found these readings overall to be interesting and enlightening, however, does this mean that I was convinced by these readings to believe that what these two authors have said is true? For me, this answer is a resounding yes.

     While going through these pieces, I remained unquestioningly critical of them in order to ensure that I would either be genuinely persuaded by Chomsky and Herman, or be able to disprove them through any holes they left in their arguments. At each point they made, or in this case, at each filter they discussed, the two made sure that no question remain unanswered. They did this by applying each filter to historical events that occurred and how specific media companies treated them. In this case, these companies would be large news corporations following the propaganda model such as the New York and Los Angeles Times. An example of this can be found when, in the excerpt from Manufacturing Consent, the two are discussing the fourth filter, flak. Flak is essentially an opposing response to a news article or statement. For this filter, one of the companies they talk about is the flak-oriented, government funded company Freedom House. This company generated flak in whatever way was favorable to the U.S. government. In both 1979 and 1980, Freedom House sent election monitors to the Rhodesian Prime Minister elections. The first election in 1979 was overseen by the politician Ian Smith, it was rated to be "fair" by Freedom house and it's monitors. However, in 1980, when someone else was elected, the elections were overseen by the British. These elections were rated to be "dubious." This caters to the favor of the United States government since it denounces a foreign nation (that isn't the U.S.) stepping in to ensure that the elections went a certain way that the U.S. did not want. This example is only one of many used by Chomsky and Herman to persuade readers that the Propaganda Model is real and has been in effect for almost as long as mass media has existed.

Excerpt from Manufacturing Consent: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Herman%20/Manufac_Consent_Prop_Model.html 

Chomsky and Herman Interview: https://chomsky.info/200911__/