I found the work A Propaganda Model by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky to be an insightful piece about the way in which the wealthy and powerful control the media that is the most accessible to the public. Throughout this essay, Herman and Chomsky write about how the most popular news sources generally avoid expressing radical ideas that would drive away their wealthy consumers. In fact, many of these news sources actively produce content that demonizes these radical ideas. For example, Herman and Chomsky write about how those in power perpetuate an ideology of anticommunism as “this ideology helps mobilize the populace against an enemy, and because the concept is fuzzy it can be used against anybody advocating policies that threaten property interests or support accommodation with Communist states and radicalism. It, therefore, helps fragment the left and labor movements and serves as a political-control mechanism. If the triumph of communism, is the worst imaginable result, the support of fascism abroad is justified as a lesser evil” (Durham, Kellner, 2012, p. 219). Many Americans do not fully understand communism, making it easy for political figures to associate any left-wing ideas with communism and that implementing left-wing policies into our society, such as free health care, would bring the United States of America closer to communism. Also, these popular news sources benefit immensely from capitalism because their funding makes the media that they produce more popular with the public than other sources. They also earn their money and continue to stay popular because of advertisers and investors, which make them want to promote the capitalist ideas that keep them in business. This fragments the left because they fear being called a communist in a country with so much anti-communist rhetoric. Since the dominant ideology in media ensures that Americans perceive communism as the greatest form of evil, it keeps them from fearing far-right ideologies, such as fascism.
An example of news sources using anti-communism to promote right-wing ideologies, was the way in which Fox News used terms such as “radical-leftists” to describe the Democratic Party and president Joe Biden during his campaign in 2020. Although the Democratic Party is more left on the political spectrum than the Republican Party, it is certainly not even close to representing radical left-wing ideas. However, many right-wing news sources, such as Fox News, use the fear of communism to promote the idea that the politicians in the Democratic party are radical leftists. For example, the article “Trump Slams Biden over ‘Radical Left’ Riots in New Wisconsin, Minnesota Ads” by Brooke Singman on the Fox News website explains how Trump includes videos of protestors in the Black Lives Matter movement, but calls them rioters, in his advertisement campaigns. He makes his audience fear a Biden presidency by portraying the Democratic party as radical. However, that is not the case as many left-leaning individuals actually do not think that Biden is doing enough to support racial justice. Because of the fear of communism rather than fascism that the media promotes, people seem to fear racial equality more than racism. Ideologies that the media promotes keep this current system in place, rather than promoting “radical” ideas that promote equality for all.
Works Cited:
Kellner, D. M., Durham, M. G., (2012). Media and Cultural Studies Keyworks. Wiley-Blackwell.
Singman, B. (2020). Trump slams Biden over radical left in new Wisconsin Minnesota ads. Fox News. Retrieved from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-ads-wisconsin-minnesota-ads-radical-left-riots
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