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Manufacturing Consent In this rich study of news reporting on American foreign policy, the dissident scholars argue that, rather than being aggressive watchdogs of the public interest and adversaries of the government, dominant news outlets (New York Times, Washington Post, wire services and major TV networks) are “effective and powerful ideological institutions” (306, Chomsky), that “serve to mobilize support for the special interests (wealthy investors, corporations and the military/industrial complex primarily) that dominate the state and private activity” (xi, Chomsky). To put it another way, the news media serve as propagandists or public relations specialists, for the rich and powerful. And, by doing so, they allow the “special interests” to manage public opinion in much the way prominent newspaper columnist Walter Lippmann and other leading intellectuals described it in the 1920s and 1930s. In fact, Herman and Chomsky’s title is a variation of the term “manufacture of consent” (158) coined by Lippmann in his influential book Public Opinion. To support their arguments, Herman and Chomsky first sketch out a “propaganda model” that describes the political and economic (market) forces that largely,