Letters from Lexington: Reflections on Propaganda

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Pluto Press, 2004 - Business & Economics - 180 pages
The original edition of Letters from Lexington, first published in 1993, solidified Noam Chomsky's position as American's most distinguished critic of the media.In this new, updated edition, a new chapter, 'What makes the Mainstream Media Mainstream', offers Chomsky's latest thinking on the role of the media in a rapidly changing word - especially in justifying US government and corporate actions.Throughout the book, Chomsky's analysis of the politics of the Reagan and earlier Bush administrations offer a striking and surprisingly prescient perspective on the events, key players and policies that shape America's national agenda under the current presidency of George W. Bush and the 'War on Terrorism'.Chomsky explores media coverage of events and issues including the Middle East 'peace process', the US invasion of Panama, the first Gulf War, the UN, the Soviet Union, the coup in Haiti, and democracy and terrorism generally.Letters from Lexington has been called "an indispensable antidote to TV 'news' and the verities found in major daily newspaper such as the New York Times."Perfect as an introduction to Chomsky's thought more generally, it will be of particular interest to students of media studies and anyone who wants an up-to-date account of the relationship of the new US administration with the media and what impact it is having on foreign and domestic US policy.
 

Contents

What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream
1
The Middle East Lie
15
Defensive Aggression
21
The Sunday Times Makes for a Day of No Rest
29
Notes on the Culture of Democracy
33
Third World First Threat
41
Yearning for Democracy
49
Apostles of Nonviolence
55
We the People
87
Bringing Peace
95
The Burdens of Responsibility
105
The Death and Life of Stalinism
113
Toxic Omissions
121
Fiendish Acts
129
The PC Thought Police
137
Rest in Peace
149

UN US
63
Riding Moynihans Hobby Horse
71
Our Sense of Moral Purpose
79
Class Struggle as Usual
161
Index
173
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

Noam Chomsky was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 7, 1928. Son of a Russian emigrant who was a Hebrew scholar, Chomsky was exposed at a young age to the study of language and principles of grammar. During the 1940s, he began developing socialist political leanings through his encounters with the New York Jewish intellectual community. Chomsky received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied linguistics, mathematics, and philosophy. He conducted much of his research at Harvard University. In 1955, he began teaching at MIT, eventually holding the Ferrari P. Ward Chair of Modern Language and Linguistics. Today Chomsky is highly regarded as both one of America's most prominent linguists and most notorious social critics and political activists. His academic reputation began with the publication of Syntactic Structures in 1957. Within a decade, he became known as an outspoken intellectual opponent of the Vietnam War. Chomsky has written many books on the links between language, human creativity, and intelligence, including Language and Mind (1967) and Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use (1985). He also has written dozens of political analyses, including Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988), Chronicles of Dissent (1992), and The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many (1993).

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