[107174] in Cypherpunks
[PNS-List] ARTICLE: Chomsky and the U.S. Media
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Mon Jan 4 22:53:49 1999
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 22:35:04 -0500
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Reply-To: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
--- begin forwarded text
Mailing-List: contact pns-list-owner@egroups.com
Reply-To: pns-list@egroups.com
Delivered-To: listsaver-egroups-PNS-List@eGroups.com
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1999 22:00:14 -0500
From: "Philosophy News Service List Mgr. [richard jones]"
<ListMgr@PhilosophyNews.com>
Organization: http://www.PhilosophyNews.com
To: Philosophy News Service List <PNS-List@egroups.com>
Subject: [PNS-List] ARTICLE: Chomsky and the U.S. Media
CONTROVERSIAL SCHOLAR OFF THE RADAR SCREEN FOR US MEDIA
by NORMAN SOLOMON
Dawn: The Internet Edition
04 January 1999 Monday 15 Ramazan 1419
BALTIMORE: Noam Chomsky has been the world's most important linguist
since he revolutionized the study of language 40 years ago. In the US,
mainstream news outlets acknowledge his enormous stature in the field of
linguistics. But the media response to Chomsky's work in the realm of
politics is a different story.
During this decade, millions of Americans have been drawn to the books
and speeches of Chomsky the political analyst. His vast knowledge,
clarity and strong commitment to humane values make Chomsky an
appreciated speaker - and an energizing catalyst for social activism. At
frequent appearances across the country, overflow audiences of thousands
are routine.
News media in many foreign countries are eager for political discourse
with Chomsky, who is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. It's symbolic that he is often at the studios of WGBH in
Boston - not to be interviewed on that public television station but to
appear via satellite on broadcasts abroad.
For the most part, Chomsky has remained off the radar screen of US mass
media. With typical discretion, the nightly NewsHour programme anchored
by Jim Lehrer, on national PBS television, has interviewed Chomsky just
once in 23 years.
Chomsky often arouses discomfort. That's fitting, says David Barsamian,
an independent radio producer who has interviewed him many times.
"He's on the cutting edge - he's pushing the envelope of permissible
thought," Barsamian said. "He's challenging us to examine and re-examine
our assumptions. He's like an avant-garde musician, exploring and
expanding the boundaries of...the way people think."
Some of America's eminent journalists have derided Chomsky's assertion
that the mass media disseminate propaganda. Asked about Chomsky's
analysis, Jeff Greenfield, who was then with ABC, said: "Some of that
stuff looks to me looks like it's from Neptune." Greenfield added that
Chomsky's "notions about the limits of debate in this country" are
"absolutely wacko". Chomsky is an unwavering foe of authoritarian rule -
whether by governments or corporations. During the past three decades,
dozens of Chomsky's books have exposed the undemocratic - and brutal -
character of institutions revered by the US media.
His books, articles and speeches about the Middle East infuriate those
who believe that the Israeli government can do little wrong. With
meticulous documentation, Chomsky has denounced Israel's treatment of
Palestinians and the touted "peace process". (Chomsky, who is Jewish,
taught Hebrew early in his life. He and his wife Carol - who both lived
on a kibbutz for six weeks in 1953 - had considered moving to Israel.)
Chomsky's approach to civil liberties has rankled people across the
political spectrum. He sees Marxist-Leninist ideology as totalitarian,
and he has been a steadfast foe of constraints on public debate in
American society. His vehement support of absolute freedom of expression
has earned him fierce denunciations - which peaked nearly 20 years ago,
when he defended the free-speech rights of a French denier of the
Holocaust.
"I simply do not agree that the state, or any other system of organized
power and violence, should have the authority to determine what people
think or say," Chomsky explains. "If the state is granted the power to
shut me up, my counter argument is not that what I am saying might be
valuable. That would be a contemptible position, in my view." The best
position, Chomsky says, is the defence of free speech.
Public radio stations in many regions, except the eastern US, air
Chomsky interviews and speeches. But decision-makers at National Public
Radio News - ostensibly devoted to depth an and breadth - have avoided
Chomsky. The number of times that he has been on Morning Edition or and
All Things Considered during the last quarter-century can be counted on
one hand.
In a letter to the public-broadcasting newspaper Current four years ago,
All Things Considered host Robert Siegel was remarkably dismissive -
sniffing that Chomsky "evidently enjoys a small, avid, and largely
academic audience who seem to be persuaded that the tangible world of
politics is all the result of delusion, false consciousness and media
manipulation".
When I asked Siegel for clarification recently, he mentioned that he had
interviewed Chomsky on All Things Considered once in 1988. "I should
assure you that there are people of varied political stripes who believe
they should be on NPR and are unfairly excluded," Siegel added. "The
editor-in-chief of the New Republic, no political bedfellow of Professor
Chomsky, has expressed himself in this regard."
But NPR News programmes routinely present views in line with the
editorial outlook of the New Republic. The airing of political
perspectives akin to Chomsky's, however, is rare indeed. That's a key
point: avoidance of Chomsky is significant because it reflects media
biases that operate across the board.
SOURCE: Dawn/LAT-WP News Service (c) Baltimore Sun,
http://dawn.com/daily/text/int12.htm
© DAWN Group of Newspapers, 1999
------------------------------------------------------------------------
eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/pns-list
Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com
--- end forwarded text
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
