Comments on: Noam Chomsky on “Concision” in the US Media http://www.dhafirtrial.net/2008/12/13/noam-chomsky-on-concision-in-the-us-media/ Information about Dr. Rafil Dhafir Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:39:44 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: RITF http://www.dhafirtrial.net/2008/12/13/noam-chomsky-on-concision-in-the-us-media/comment-page-1/#comment-140262 RITF Sat, 27 Dec 2008 15:16:46 +0000 http://www.dhafirtrial.net/2008/12/13/noam-chomsky-on-concision-in-the-us-media/#comment-140262 A half hour TV discussion on something as involved as what Chomsky presents in [i]Manufacturing Consent[/i] would not be particularly useful, given that most viewers would no more have the background to understand what was going on than they'd have the background to understand the actual techniques (climate physics, the mathematical techniques in solving systems of non-linear equations, parametrization in such systems etc) used in climate modeling. There may well be a media conspiracy, but that's an independent issue from the reason highly technical issues - whether of science or political science - are not shown on popular talk shows. General discussions of possible media bias I've seen on TV, but [i]Manufacturing Consent[/i] is, as Chomsky himself admits in the clip you included, is too involved for such a format. I've yet to hear an in depth discussion of any complex subject - neither on topical political issues like media bias and global warming, or on non-political subjects like quantum mechanics or even the thermodynamics of an automobile engine - in the format of a half hour debate. In fact, I don't think I've even seen TV documentaries giving anything but a simple overview of any subject. There may or may not be a media conspiracy, but if your evidence for it includes the lack of TV shows discussing technical analysis, then that conspiracy extends to almost all of science, literature, music and just about every human discipline ... its a conspiracy against all complex, difficult subjects. Which is in fact probably true, but I don't think that's primarily what Chomsky was concerned about. Concision is applied to just about every human field (except maybe sports and movies), its not just targeted at politically sensitive issues. A half hour TV discussion on something as involved as what Chomsky presents in [i]Manufacturing Consent[/i] would not be particularly useful, given that most viewers would no more have the background to understand what was going on than they’d have the background to understand the actual techniques (climate physics, the mathematical techniques in solving systems of non-linear equations, parametrization in such systems etc) used in climate modeling.

There may well be a media conspiracy, but that’s an independent issue from the reason highly technical issues – whether of science or political science – are not shown on popular talk shows. General discussions of possible media bias I’ve seen on TV, but [i]Manufacturing Consent[/i] is, as Chomsky himself admits in the clip you included, is too involved for such a format. I’ve yet to hear an in depth discussion of any complex subject – neither on topical political issues like media bias and global warming, or on non-political subjects like quantum mechanics or even the thermodynamics of an automobile engine – in the format of a half hour debate. In fact, I don’t think I’ve even seen TV documentaries giving anything but a simple overview of any subject. There may or may not be a media conspiracy, but if your evidence for it includes the lack of TV shows discussing technical analysis, then that conspiracy extends to almost all of science, literature, music and just about every human discipline … its a conspiracy against all complex, difficult subjects. Which is in fact probably true, but I don’t think that’s primarily what Chomsky was concerned about.

Concision is applied to just about every human field (except maybe sports and movies), its not just targeted at politically sensitive issues.

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