This chapter presents the Chomsky and Herman propaganda model for US mass media also covered in Manufacturing Consent. The media are owned and controlled by the elite property owning class of the nation. They manage the media to serve their interests and to manufacture consent in the mass public. The media business has grown to such a degree that independent-minded alternatives to the mainstream press are impossible. Alternative media that once existed were squeezed out, and current financial requirements prohibit start ups.
Advertising is straight jacket on the media.
Advertisers will not support non mainstream programming. A marginal amount of dissent is tolerated. It gives the media some feeling of independence and the public some doubt that it is manipulated. They often go silent when confronted with aberrant evidence. If US policy does go wrong and public support turns, the fundamental terms of debate are never questioned.