Videos
Manufacturing
Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992)
Stream/Download Windows Media (Click-through to download)
This film showcases Noam Chomsky, one of America's leading linguists and political dissidents. It also illustrates his message of how government and big media businesses cooperate to produce an effective propaganda machine in order to manipulate the opinions of the United States populous. The key example for this analysis is the simultaneous events of the massive coverage of the communist atrocities of Khmer Rouge regime of Cambodia and the suppression of news of the US supported Indonesian invasion and subjugation of East Timor. Directed by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick.
The
Myth of the Liberal Media: The Propaganda Model of News (1998)
Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky demolish one of the central tenets of our political culture, the idea of the "liberal media." Instead, utilizing a systematic model based on massive empirical research, they reveal the manner in which the news media are so subordinated to corporate and conservative interests that their function can only be described as that of "elite propaganda."
"If you want to understand the way a system works, you look at its institutional structure. How it is organized, how it is controlled, how it is funded." -- Noam Chomsky
"The Mainstream media really represent elite interests, and what the propaganda model tries to do is stipulate a set of institutional variables, reflecting this elite power, that very powerfully influence the media." --Edward Herman
Outfoxed:
Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004)
"Outfoxed" examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know. Directed by Robert Greenwald.
Orwell
Rolls in His Grave (2003)
Director Robert Kane Pappas’ "Orwell Rolls in His Grave" is the consummate critical examination of the Fourth Estate, once the bastion of American democracy. Asking whether America has entered an Orwellian world of doublespeak where outright lies can pass for the truth, Pappas explores what the media doesn’t like to talk about: itself. Support the filmmakers by buying it here.
Hollywood
and the Pentagon: A Dangerous Liason
Documentary about the American army's involvement with Hollywood and filmmaking. The head of the Film Liaison Office makes no secret of his goals: flattering the US Army, winning support for its actions on the battlefield, and encouraging more soldiers to sign up. In short: pure propaganda. Scripts are cut and watered down; characters are changed; the historical truth is fudged.
Telling
Lies in Bosnia
Stream/Download from Internet Archive
Milka Stanisik's powerful short documentary exposes the one-sided coverage of the Bosnian conflict provided by Western journalists.
Blackout
in East Timor
Stream/Download from Internet Archive
Mainstream media claims that international coverage is expensive and difficult to produce. But in the case of East Timor, a country that experienced savage oppression at the hands of US-backed Indonesian military, there was an unacceptable blanket of silence sustained by our major news outlets. Is this simply a matter of budgetary limitations or are corporate-owned media just protecting their own?
Owning
the Peacock
Stream/Download from Internet Archive
When the FCC relaxed their policy on character qualifications in 1985, General Electric immediately bought NBC. What has been the legacy of this seemingly unholy alliance?
The
Art of Democracy
Stream/Download from Internet Archive
In the second part of Channel Zero's Electronic Eye series, we examine the role of polling and focus groups on the shaping of governmental policy and, more specifically, the illusion of citizen impact on those who govern them.
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