The Morning Star Shop - Online now

 

Donate to the Morning Star Fighting Fund

Subscribe to the Morning Star Mailing List

Progressive Web Listings

Read about EDM 1334

 

 

The Morning Star on Twitter Friends of the Morning Star on Facebook

 

Ken Gill Memorial Fund

 

Revolting Europe - London-based writer, journalist and regular Morning Star contributor Tom Gill focuses on developments in the European left, trade union and social movements

 



 

Why we must defend creative education

Education Secretary Michael Gove may have abandoned his EBacc plans but the threat to creative education - a benefit to all - has not disappeared

Resolution 2013

Round up of an outstanding season of new work at a leading national dance centre

Why Are We The Good Guys? Reclaiming Your Mind From The Delusions Of Propaganda

by David Cromwell (Zero Books, £15.99)
Sunday 25 November 2012

A telling critique of corporate propaganda techniques

In his essential 1995 book Taking the Risk Out Of Democracy, Australian social psychologist Alex Carey notes that it is "an axiom of conventional wisdom that the use of propaganda as a means of social and ideological control is distinctive of totalitarian regimes."

However, disconcertingly, Carey explains that propaganda is "likely to play at least as important a part in democratic societies - where the existing distribution of power and privilege is vulnerable to quite limited changes in popular opinion - as in authoritarian societies, where it is not."

In an attempt to address this dangerously ignored issue, in 2001 David Cromwell and David Edwards set up the influential internet-based media watchdog Media Lens.

Endorsed by John Pilger, Why Are We The Good Guys? continues this focus on thought control in democratic societies.

Ranging widely across topics such as Western foreign policy, climate change, the dropping of the atomic bomb and the financial crisis, Cromwell debunks the insidious propaganda that is continuously pumped out by the corporate media.

Each chapter makes excellent use of revealing correspondence between the writer and corporate journalists, with the writer comparing the latter's predictably elite-friendly coverage with credible expert sources.

These exchanges often have an Alice In Wonderland feel, with journalists cringingly unable to comprehend basic truths and arguments - truly frightening if you are concerned about the future of the planet.

Refreshingly, Cromwell weaves in lots of stories from his own life, from growing up in a family where the Morning Star was read, to the importance of a serious illness in rekindling his own enthusiasm for life.

Accessibly written, Why Are We The Good Guys? is chock-full of superb quotes and clear and carefully made arguments.

Reading the book reminded me of The Nation's comment about Noam Chomsky, a key influence on Cromwell: "Not to have read him is to court genuine ignorance."

Along with his ongoing work with Media Lens, Why Are We The Good Guys? is proof Cromwell is one of the most incisive and humane radical writers working today.

Essential reading.

If you have enjoyed this article then please consider donating to the Morning Star's Fighting Fund to ensure we can keep publishing your paper.

Donate to the Fighting Fund here