Necessary Illusions
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'A towering intellect ... powerful, always provocative.' Guardian'A superb polemicist who combines fluency of language with a formidable intellect.' Observer'Must be read by everyone concerned with public affairs.' Edward SaidNecessary Illusions explodes the myth of an independent media, intent on uncovering the truth at any cost. Noam Chomsky demonstrates that, in practice, the media in the developed world serve the interests of state and corporate power - despite protestations to the contrary. While individual journalists strive to abide by high standards of professionalism and integrity in their work, their paymasters - the media corporations - ultimately decide what we view, hear and read.Rigorously documented, Necessary Illusions continues Chomsky's celebrated tradition of profoundly insightful indictments of US foreign and domestic institutions and tears away the veneer of propaganda that portrays the media as the servant of free speech and democracy.
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When I started reading this, I was expecting it to not be all that interesting. “After all,” I told myself, “it seems to mostly be based on historical US intervention in places like Vietnam and Nicaragua. How relevant could that be to today?” Sadly, I was very solely mistaken. Chomsky explores, at great detail, how media in “free” Western countries often toe the line for government when it serves their interests, going to the extent of deceiving people when ‘necessary'. Sadly, most of this still seemed relevant, what with the current “war on terror” that the US is waging against many parts of the world.
What a letdown following Manufacturing Consent. This book is no more than a weak addendum to that masterpiece. Where the Herman-Chomsky opus has concise examples, clear argument, and engaging structure, Necessary Illusions has examples that go on too long without reaching a defined point, a stagnant and vague thesis of “media serves power”, and is mystifyingly structured into a short text followed by a series of plotless appendices. This book could be simply formulated as a comparison of the case studies of US media treatment of Nicaragua and Israel. That's all this book is. Instead, Chomsky flits between the two studies without rhyme or reason, alternating information about the case studies in nonsensical sequence.
