process” should be implemented immediately or should be delayed,
or w hether Israel is sacrificing too much or just the right amount.
But you’re not allow ed to discuss the fact—and it certainly is a fact
—that this so-called “peace process” w iped out a 25-year,
internationally-supported diplomatic effort recognizing the national
rights of both contending parties, and rammed home the U S position
that denies these rights to the Palestinians.
Let’s clarify w hat it really means to say the media are liberal.
Suppose 80% of all journalists vote Democratic. Does that mean
they’re liberal in any meaningful sense of the w ord, or just that
they’re at the left end of an extremely narrow, centerright
spectrum? (Most of my w riting has been a criticism of the liberal
end of the media, the ones w ho set the leftmost boundary for
acceptable opinion.)
Take it a step further. Suppose it turns out that 80% of all
journalists are flaming radicals w ho’d really rather be w riting for Z.
Would that show that the media themselves are radical? Only if you
assume that the media are open to the free expression of ideas (by
their reporters, in this case).
But that’s exactly the thesis under debate, and you can’t establish
it by presupposing it. T he empirical evidence that this thesis is false
is overw helming, and there has been no serious attempt to address
it. Instead, it’s just assumed that the media are open. It’s possible to
get aw ay w ith that kind of thinking if pow er is sufficiently
concentrated and educated sections of the population are
sufficiently obedient.
T he U niversity of Illinois Press has published a U S edition of Taking
the Risk out of Democracy by the noted Australian scholar Alex
Carey. One of the chapters is entitled Grassroots and Treetops
Propaganda. W hat does Carey mean by that?
T reetops propaganda is the kind of thing that Ed Herman and I are
mostly commenting on. It’s the elite media, aimed at educated
sectors of the population that are more involved in decision-making
and setting a general framew ork and agenda for others to adhere to.
Grassroots propaganda is aimed at the vulgar masses, to keep them
distracted and out of our hair, and to make sure they don’t interfere
in the public arena, w here they don’t belong.