The media isn’t good at telling people what to think. The media is good at giving a false impression of what others — the general public — think. This isolates people and allows false consensuses to prevail while true consensuses are functionally suppressed. — This effect, rather than being diminished by the Chomskyian tradition of media-critique, is magnified. We are all aware of the media’s power to brainwash other people. And so when we see them pushing, however ham-fistedly, a particular message, we tend to assume their success, often in its absence.
