The Spectacular Achievements Of Propaganda

THE OPEN MEDIA PAMPHLET SERIES Copyright © 1991, 1997 by Noam Chomsky A Seven Stories Press First Edition, published in association with Open Media. Open Media Pamphlet Series editors, Greg Ruggiero and Stuart Sahulka. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electric, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chomsky, Noam. Media control: the spectacular achievements of propaganda / Noam Chomsky. p. cm. —(The Open Media Pamphlet Series) ISBN 1-888363-49-5 1. Propaganda. 2. Propaganda—United States. 3. Mass media—Political aspects. 4. Mass media and public opinion. I. Title. II. Series. HM263.C447 1997 303.375—dc21 96-53580 CIP Book design by Cindy LaBreacht 98765 The role of the media in contemporary politics forces us to ask what kind of a world and what kind of a society we want to live in, and in particular in what sense of democracy do we want this to be a democratic society? Let me begin by counter-posing two different conceptions of democracy. One conception of democracy has it that a democratic society is one in which the public has the means to participate in some meaningful way in the management of their own affairs and the means of information are open and free. If you look up democracy in the dictionary you'll get a definition something like that. An alternative conception of democracy is that the public must be barred from managing of their own affairs and the means of information must be kept narrowly and rigidly controlled. That may sound like an odd conception of democracy, but it's important to understand that it is the prevailing conception. In fact, it has long been, not just in operation, but even in theory. There's a long history that goes back to the earliest modern democratic revolutions in seventeenth century England which largely expresses this point of view. I'm just going to keep to the modern period and say a few words about how that notion of democracy develops and why and how the problem of media and disinformation enters within that context. E A R L Y HISTORY OF PROPAGANDA Let's begin with the first modern government propaganda operation. That was under the Woodrow Wilson Administration. Woodrow Wilson was elected President in 1916 on the platform "Peace Without Victory." That was right in the middle of the World War I. The population was extremely pacifistic and saw no reason to become involved in a European war. The Wilson administration was actually committed to war and had to do something about it. They established a government propaganda commission, called the Creel Commission which succeeded, within six months, in turning a pacifist population into a hysterical, war-mongering population which wanted to destroy everything German, tear the Germans limb from limb, go to war and save the world. That was a major achievement, and it led to a further achievement. Right at that time and after the war the same techniques were used to whip up a hysterical Red Scare, as it was called, which succeeded pretty much in destroying unions and eliminating such dangerous problems as freedom of the press and freedom of political thought. There was very strong support from the media, from the business establishment, which in fact organized, pushed much of this work, and it was, in general, a great success. Among those who participated actively and enthusiastically in Wilson's war wer