From Publishers Weekly
This perceptive study by the author of The Sword and the Dollar convincingly argues that TV and film are not popular culture, but marketed mass culture; and that these media do not distort reality, but preempt it. Their scripts, Parenti asserts, support militarism, imperialism, racism, sexism and authoritarianism, and the producer who offers work not supportive of these themes is in trouble. The corporations which control the media use their power to “legitimate the hegemonic ideological system,” for example, they present negative views of working-class people–as boors, buffoons and sometimes lovable slobs–and of labor unions. The book is entertainingly written and rich in instances of the effort to [Read More...]
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Propaganda is basically found in every modern society, so it should come as no surprise to find it in a movie like “Red Dawn,” which Parenti refers to. He brings up such interesting facts as that all the TV networks have a department devoted to censorship, such as CBS’s euphemistically named “Standards and Practices Department”; that companies like Procter & Gamble often have inordinate veto power over broadcast content considered subversive; and that PBS, which is actually anything but a “public” organization, has been dubbed the “Petroleum Broadcast Service” due to the large influence of the oil companies that help fund it. He who pays the piper…, you might say. I highly recommend this book.