User:Ultramarine/Sandbox4

Eli Lehrer, former editor of the The American Enterprise at the American Enterprise Institute, has criticized the theory on several points. According to Lehrer the theory:

• ignores revelations by the media of government and corporate misconduct and that it is this kind of reporting that wins rewards and gives reputation
• neglects that major media such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times sharply disagree on most issues in their editorials. The owners of media also have different political views. Media companies may also be owned by thousands of shareholders. While some CEOs may see their company as a soapbox for their own views, most do not, and a single media company sometimes own newspapers with very different editorials.
• is inconsistent, sometimes arguing that the media only serves to distract people with unimportant entertainment and little real news, but sometimes instead arguing that the media move public opinion on all important issues and current events.
• is incorrect regarding the influence of advertisers. Chomsky and Herman have pointed to two statements from two advertisers who in the 1970s wanted the programming that carried their ads to present a generally positive view of business. Lehrer argues that entertainment programs are in fact anti-business, with one study finding businessmen three times likely than any other profession to be depicted as criminals, and nine times out of ten depicted as being primarily motivated by greed.
• has difficulty explaining the popularity of conservative radio talk shows. Assuming that people want to hear the far left political views that Chomsky advocates, but are being force-feed right-wing views by filtered media, or lulled into compliancy by mindless entertainment, then they should at least not voluntarily tune in to conservative views.
• ignores alternative explanations for differences in media coverage. For example, Chomsky has frequently argued that the greater US media coverage of the murder of the prient Jerzy Popieluszko in Communist Poland, as compared with the US media coverage of the murders of priests in Latin America, as evidence for the theory. Lehrer argues that there are many alternative explanations, like that the very fact that such murders were common in Latin America meant that they were not new news. Or that Popieluszko had played a prominent part in protests which a few years earlier had forced military intervention and that his murder further turned the public opinion in Poland against the Communist regime.
• ignores new media such as the many forms of Internet media. Although the Manufacturing Consent was published before the Internet, Chomsky has continued to almost entirely ignore these media also in recent publications and speeches. When commenting, he seems to have a poor knowledge of the Internet, for example stating that only "sizeable commercial entities" have run successful Internet sites, which Lehrer argues is strange for someone claiming to be a modern media theorist.
• is not new, but only another variant of the Marxist idea of "false consciousness"
• treats with contempt the views and opinions of nearly all people, who are described as the "bewildered herd." People are either too stupid to understand how media manipulates every aspect of their lives, or complicit pawns.