Inventing Reality: The Politics of the Mass Media

Parenti (Power and the Powerless; Democracy for the Few) forcefully presents his contention that the U.S. media are not independent, objective and truthful, but rather ""create a view of reality supportive of existing social and economic class power.'' He demonstrates how the media shape the public's perception of reality not by telling us what to think but by determining what we will think about. Hence, not given news coverage, he argues, are the successes achieved by socialistic or left-leaning regimes, problems of American workers in their workplaces or the just claims of dissenters from ``acceptable'' viewpoints of the ruling elite and the government. Parenti claims that disputations of official positions on Chile and Nicaragua, for example, are not aired, that media creations like Joseph McCarthy are lionized until they begin to cast doubt on ruling circles. A controversial, stinging volume. January 28