SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
Edward S. Herman (image: Real News)
One of the greatest and sweetest media critics ever, Edward S. Herman, has passed away. Ed was the main author of Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, written with Noam Chomsky--the 1980s masterwork that exposed how elite US media typically function as propaganda organs for US empire and militarism.
In 1984, when I was part of a lawyers' delegation monitoring an "election" in death squad-run El Salvador, I remember a gaggle of progressive attorneys at the Salvador Sheraton tussling with each other to get their hands on a shipment of hot-off-the-press copies of Demonstration Elections, Ed's devastating book (with Frank Brodhead) on the US "staging" elections as PR shows to prop up repressive puppet regimes, from the Dominican Republic to Vietnam to Salvador.
He also wrote or co-wrote such classic works of political and media criticism as The Political Economy of Human Rights (with Chomsky); The Real Terror Network; Beyond Hypocrisy: Decoding the News in an Age of Propaganda; and The Global Media (with Robert McChesney).
A longtime friend and supporter of FAIR, he wrote "By Any Means Necessary: The Ultra-Relativism of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page" (9-10/95) and "Good and Bad Genocide: Double Standards in Coverage of Suharto and Pol Pot" (9-10/98) for FAIR's magazine Extra!.
A highpoint of my life was flying with Ed across the Atlantic to Brussels to speak alongside him before the European Parliament on the problem of media conglomeration, a hearing organized by the European Greens.
As happened too often, Ed's name went unmentioned in the 1997 movie Good Will Hunting; when Will (Matt Damon) says to his therapist (Robin Williams) that Howard Zinn's People's History is a book that will "fuckin' knock you on your ass," the therapist responds: "Better than Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent?"
I asked Ed if he felt left out. Not at all--the movie "will bring our book more attention, more readers." Pure Ed.
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
One of the greatest and sweetest media critics ever, Edward S. Herman, has passed away. Ed was the main author of Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, written with Noam Chomsky--the 1980s masterwork that exposed how elite US media typically function as propaganda organs for US empire and militarism.
In 1984, when I was part of a lawyers' delegation monitoring an "election" in death squad-run El Salvador, I remember a gaggle of progressive attorneys at the Salvador Sheraton tussling with each other to get their hands on a shipment of hot-off-the-press copies of Demonstration Elections, Ed's devastating book (with Frank Brodhead) on the US "staging" elections as PR shows to prop up repressive puppet regimes, from the Dominican Republic to Vietnam to Salvador.
He also wrote or co-wrote such classic works of political and media criticism as The Political Economy of Human Rights (with Chomsky); The Real Terror Network; Beyond Hypocrisy: Decoding the News in an Age of Propaganda; and The Global Media (with Robert McChesney).
A longtime friend and supporter of FAIR, he wrote "By Any Means Necessary: The Ultra-Relativism of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page" (9-10/95) and "Good and Bad Genocide: Double Standards in Coverage of Suharto and Pol Pot" (9-10/98) for FAIR's magazine Extra!.
A highpoint of my life was flying with Ed across the Atlantic to Brussels to speak alongside him before the European Parliament on the problem of media conglomeration, a hearing organized by the European Greens.
As happened too often, Ed's name went unmentioned in the 1997 movie Good Will Hunting; when Will (Matt Damon) says to his therapist (Robin Williams) that Howard Zinn's People's History is a book that will "fuckin' knock you on your ass," the therapist responds: "Better than Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent?"
I asked Ed if he felt left out. Not at all--the movie "will bring our book more attention, more readers." Pure Ed.
One of the greatest and sweetest media critics ever, Edward S. Herman, has passed away. Ed was the main author of Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, written with Noam Chomsky--the 1980s masterwork that exposed how elite US media typically function as propaganda organs for US empire and militarism.
In 1984, when I was part of a lawyers' delegation monitoring an "election" in death squad-run El Salvador, I remember a gaggle of progressive attorneys at the Salvador Sheraton tussling with each other to get their hands on a shipment of hot-off-the-press copies of Demonstration Elections, Ed's devastating book (with Frank Brodhead) on the US "staging" elections as PR shows to prop up repressive puppet regimes, from the Dominican Republic to Vietnam to Salvador.
He also wrote or co-wrote such classic works of political and media criticism as The Political Economy of Human Rights (with Chomsky); The Real Terror Network; Beyond Hypocrisy: Decoding the News in an Age of Propaganda; and The Global Media (with Robert McChesney).
A longtime friend and supporter of FAIR, he wrote "By Any Means Necessary: The Ultra-Relativism of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page" (9-10/95) and "Good and Bad Genocide: Double Standards in Coverage of Suharto and Pol Pot" (9-10/98) for FAIR's magazine Extra!.
A highpoint of my life was flying with Ed across the Atlantic to Brussels to speak alongside him before the European Parliament on the problem of media conglomeration, a hearing organized by the European Greens.
As happened too often, Ed's name went unmentioned in the 1997 movie Good Will Hunting; when Will (Matt Damon) says to his therapist (Robin Williams) that Howard Zinn's People's History is a book that will "fuckin' knock you on your ass," the therapist responds: "Better than Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent?"
I asked Ed if he felt left out. Not at all--the movie "will bring our book more attention, more readers." Pure Ed.