Election 2020: Manufacturing Consent Amid a Global Pandemic

For decades, since at least the early days of the Reagan Administration, conservatives have whined about unfair or biased media coverage by the mainstream media (i.e., broadcast networks such as ABC, CBS, and NBC as well as major newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post). Some have gone so far as to label them the lamestream media (Sarah Palin) and President Trump has referred to cable news channel MSNBC as MSDNC (for Democratic National Committee). Liberals meanwhile have derided Fox news as Faux News or Fake News due to the channel's obvious conservative slant when it comes to commentators such as Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. The truth is that both sides make valid points about the coverage (or lack thereof) of media outlets but the reason for the bias is lost on them. In 1988, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky published a book about the media titled Manufacturing Consent, which at its core made the claim that media bias is actually more conservative (not ideologically) than most observers think it is.  The reason for this has to do with the profit motive of the corporations that own the media outlets. Filters are installed that protect the ability of the corporate owners to make a profit, not from the provision of news, but by selling consumers to the advertisers in the form of market share or audience demographics. Ever wonder why that program you loved so much got canceled? It did not draw a big enough audience for the advertisers or it drew the wrong kind of audience.

When Herman and Chomsky wrote the book in 1988, 50 media companies owned the majority of news outlets in the United States. Today, the majority of media outlets are owned by just six major corporations. In fact, four companies control 90% of the media market in the United States (Comcast/Universal, Disney, ViacomCBS, and AT&T). What effect does that have on the 'news' the public receives? For starters, most major news outlets begin to sound alike. Those considered left of center (MSNBC, CNN, etc.) feature the same critical coverage of politics and the handling of the Coronavirus Pandemic by the Trump Administration without critically considering how a different administration might have handled it. Those outlets considered right of center (Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and Clear Channel radio broadcasters such as Rush Limbaugh) are seen as apologists for the Trump Administration. Both groups fail to serve the interests of the American people through careful, investigative journalism. Moreover, the American public has drifted more and more apart, tending to congregate in 'echo chambers' that reinforce pre-existing beliefs and rarely challenge their worldviews. Kathleen Jamieson Hall wrote about the existence of a conservative echo chamber comprised of Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and The Wall Street Journal in 2010. Similar examples exist on the left between MSNBC, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. The following video commemorating the 30th anniversary of Manufacturing Consent is well worth watching, especially the first five minutes explaining Herman and Chomsky's thesis.



How have things changed in the 32 years since Herman and Chomsky wrote? How has the technological revolution, the advent of the Internet, and the arrival of social media impacted their argument? As Chomsky admits, the effect of social media has been both good and bad. On the one hand, it has broken down the barrier to information erected by the gatekeepers of the old system. On the other, it has enabled the dissemination of disinformation and fake news with relative ease. Russia's meddling in the 2016 Presidential Election could not have occurred apart from social media manipulation, which is all but certain to occur once again in 2020.

It is more necessary than ever to be an astute consumer of information, to question what is presented no matter the source, to seek independent confirmation of information, and to challenge that which confirms our inherent biases. As Fox Mulder said, "Trust No One" and "The Truth is Out There." Our challenge today is to find it and that is no easy task in the (dis)information age.