Noam Chomsky

Justin Lewis, University of Massachusetts: "The role of the news media is central to the modern democratic process. For most people the news media are the dominant source of information about the world. They tell us what matters. They tell us who matters. The way we vote or the way we respond to opinion polls. This is based largely upon media information. So the quality of a democracy now depends upon the information they provide.

Edward Herman

Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: "If you want to understand the way some system works, you look at it's institutional structure. How is it organized? How is it controlled? How is it funded? And so on."

Lewis: "The big question, of course, is what kind of information do we get? Does it come from a diverse range of perspectives? Or are some views dominant and others excluded? The most commonly repeated theory is that the media tilt toward the left or toward the liberal end of the political spectrum. What's curious about this view is that there is almost no evidence to support it. In fact the bulk of evidence suggests that the media tend to be biased the other way. The spectrum of opinion most often represented goes from center to right, while voices of the left are generally absent. This is the essence of Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky's thesis..."