Editing Noam Chomsky (section)

===Mass media and propaganda===
{{Main|Propaganda model}}
{{external media
 | video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?176809-1/depth-noam-chomskyt Chomsky on propaganda and the manufacturing of consent], June 1, 2003
}}
Chomsky's political writings have largely focused on ideology, [[social and political power]], mass media, and state policy.{{sfn|Rai|1995|p=20}} One of his best-known works, ''[[Manufacturing Consent]]'', dissects the media's role in reinforcing and acquiescing to state policies across the political spectrum while marginalizing contrary perspectives. Chomsky asserts that this version of censorship, by government-guided "free market" forces, is subtler and harder to undermine than was the equivalent propaganda system in the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Rai|1995|pp=37–38}} As he argues, the mainstream press is corporate-owned and thus reflects corporate priorities and interests.{{sfn|McGilvray|2014|p=179}} Acknowledging that many American journalists are dedicated and well-meaning, he argues that the mass media's choices of topics and issues, the unquestioned premises on which that coverage rests, and the range of opinions expressed are all constrained to reinforce the state's ideology:{{sfn|McGilvray|2014|p=178}} although mass media will criticize individual politicians and political parties, it will not undermine the wider state-corporate nexus of which it is a part.{{sfn|McGilvray|2014|p=189}} As evidence, he highlights that the U.S. mass media does not employ any socialist journalists or political commentators.{{sfn|McGilvray|2014|p=177}} He also points to examples of important news stories that the U.S. mainstream media has ignored because reporting on them would reflect badly upon the country, including the murder of Black Panther [[Fred Hampton]] with possible [[FBI]] involvement, the massacres in Nicaragua perpetrated by U.S.-funded [[Contras]], and the constant reporting on Israeli deaths without equivalent coverage of the far larger number of Palestinian deaths in that conflict.{{sfn|McGilvray|2014|pp=179–182}} To remedy this situation, Chomsky calls for grassroots democratic control and involvement of the media.{{sfn|McGilvray|2014|p=184}}

Chomsky considers most [[conspiracy theories]] fruitless, distracting substitutes for thinking about policy formation in an institutional framework, where individual manipulation is secondary to broader social imperatives.{{sfn|Rai|1995|p=70}} He separates his Propaganda Model from conspiracy in that he is describing institutions following their natural imperatives rather than collusive forces with secret controls.{{sfn|Rai|1995|p=[https://archive.org/details/chomskyspolitics00raim/page/42/mode/1up 42]}} Instead of supporting the educational system as an antidote, he believes that most education is counterproductive.{{sfn|Chomsky|1996|p=45}} Chomsky describes [[mass education]] as a system solely intended to turn farmers from independent producers into unthinking industrial employees.{{sfn|Chomsky|1996|p=45}}