The state of the 4th estate

[porkrind]

Quotes to ponder ...

There is of course no reason why the new totalitarian states should resemble the old. Government by clubs and firing squads is not merely inhumane, it is demonstrably inefficient and in an age of advanced technology, inefficiency is a sin against the Holy Ghost. A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to coerced, because they love their servitude...The greatest triumphs of propaganda have been accomplished not by doing something but by refraining from doing. Great is truth but still greater is silence about the truth.
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Foreword to 1946 edition


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 limits put on the range of the debate
- Noam Chomsky, Linguist, foreign policy critic

[burrowowl]

1. The 4th Estate

is in a very sorry state.
True press people are not being heard given the ownership of the 'media' or the way people can get news that matters is CORPARATIZED!

[nofurylike]

2. weep n/t

[cryofan]

3. that statement by chomsky really is....

...one of the most insightful statements of his. As an example, notice how the TV news media tries to define liberal issues. THey prefer to use issues such as affirmative action and gay rights as the defining "liberal" issues, when progressive taxation and the social safety net are really more core issues.