#edwardherman — Public Fediverse posts

@cdarwin

>With Trump soon back in the White House, and people like Orbán cheering him on from the sidelines, can the hard right bring the media to heel?
>
>In the past the answer would have been a speedy no. The United States has major constitutional protections of First Amendment rights, and a strong commitment to freedom of the press.

The "mainstream media" *is* right wing. All of it. Perhaps not as far right wing as Trump would like, but *all* of it is right wing. If I could choose only one book to require every American to read, it would be Inventing Reality by Michael Parenti.

#InventingReality #MichaelParenti #ManufacturingConsent #EdwardHerman #NoamChomsky

@eloquence

>There will be people who say, “Hey, you work for a company and that company has the right to expect employees to adhere to what’s good for the company”. That’s true except we’re talking about news organizations that have public obligations and who are obliged to nurture a free press in a democracy. Owners of such press organizations are responsible for safeguarding that free press— and trying to get in the good graces of an autocrat-in-waiting will only result in undermining that free press.

Under capitalism, news organizations have no such "public obligations" and are absolutely not "obliged to nurture a free press in a democracy." They are doing what they are designed to do: Invent Reality (or, if you prefer, Manufacture Consent).

I honestly think that reading Inventing Reality, by Michael Parenti, should be a prerequisite to working in journalism:

https://archive.org/details/michael-parenti-inventing-reality-the-politics-of-the-mass-media-1986-st.-martins-press_202012

#capitalism #socialism #communism #marxism #MichaelParenti #InventingReality #EdwardHerman #NoamChomsky #ManufacturingConsent #MainstreamMedia #wapo #WashingtonPost #Disney #Bezos #Amazon