Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

Patterns of Intervention
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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corporate media.
Notice that the news reports maintained the objectivity of which they
are so proud: reporters did not state their opinions. Notice further that
since we live in a free country, this devastating exposure of what the
press is really up to is not suppressed and is available to the mass
audience of Covert Action Information Bulletin. So there is plainly no
problem about effective democracy here.
The devices employed to impose the state propaganda system as the
basic framework for discussion are well-illustrated in the contributions of
Shirley Christian of the New York Times, whose opinion pieces appear as
“reporting” on the news pages. Thus she informs us that the Sandinistas
approached the Central American countries—specifically, El Salvador—
with an offer that “would address some of the concerns of each of them,
asking, in turn, that the other country abandon its demand for
democratization in Nicaragua.” Plainly the Sandinistas never said:
“Please abandon your demand for democratization in Nicaragua,” or
anything remotely similar. Rather, this is the paraphrase of what they
said as prescribed by the state disinformation system. Presupposed as
objective fact in this paraphrase is that El Salvador, Guatemala and
Honduras are concerned that Nicaragua move towards democracy, and
that such a concern, if it existed, would be other than comical, given the
character of these states and the traditional attitude toward democracy
of the superpower that backs them. 148
Another device Christian employs is “historical engineering,” to use
the term devised by historian Frederic Paxson, one of the founders of a
National Board for Historical Service established by US historians to
serve the state during World War I: “explaining the issues of the war that
we might better win it,” a concept that has performed useful service
since. 149 Christian observes that “in recent months diplomatic efforts
have encountered many roadblocks”; in particular, “the Central