Captain PMS, Chomsky

Captain’s Blog Stardate 11/06

I was listening to 540 a.m. the other day, be cause sometimes I just enjoy getting really pissed off while I drive. The radio personality on at the time (I refuse to give them publicity) was discussing CNN, which they kept referring to as The Clinton News Network. CNN apparently aired a video of American soldiers being shot by snipers in Iraq. The radio host kept ranting about how awful CNN was for showing the tape. In the five minutes that I listened to his show, he labeled the newscasters at CNN “animals,” and declared them the culprits behind our failures in Iraq while simultaneously blaming “their obviously Communist leanings” for their lack of support for America’s soldiers. He then went on to announce that on his web site he would be featuring video of Iraqi soldiers being shot by American snipers to “show that it isn’t only the good guys who are being killed.” This immediately brought to mind two people we had read previously in this class: Zizek, who pointed out that the real terror happens outside of our borders, not here, at least as it is presented in the media; and Baudrillard, who noted that “the media are part of the problem, they are part of the terror.” Now after reading Chomsky, I believe that the media are not just part of the problem, they are the problem. The Propaganda Model didn’t surprise me, but it did make me wonder about the people it does surprise. Nothing happened to me when I listened to that radio guy the other day, but it doesn’t escape me that all over the place people were listening and believing, and that tomorrow they will vote somewhat because of the things they hear. But does it matter? If what Chomsky is saying then it doesn’t matter who is in office, it doesn’t matter who we put in power, because the fact is corporations rule the world. Maybe that should be a relief, but I can’t help but wonder how many people went to that radio hosts web site and watched men dying, all the while thinking, at least it wasn’t us, but them.