“Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the [U.S.] media.”

I think this is BS. Although I know there are some who would prefer to hear the news about what four year old fell with their bicycle and skinned their knee or who in town got saved yesterday, the news in our country and its analysis by demented talk show hosts of all persuasions is legion. The cacophony of news and analysis is something to behold. I recall how surprised a Soviet leader was to learn in the '80s sometime "You mean to tell me that Time Magazine is not controlled by the US government'.

This must be "Far Left" day as Noam is one of the far-est lefties. It is true, however, that the major newspapers and NBC, CBS, CNN, and ABC are in the tank for Obama. It's obvious to anyone paying attention.

Come out of the well of darkness and read "1984," "The People's History of the U. S.," "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," "Sorrows of Empire," "Imperial Ambitions," read some of Steinbeck, Sinclair, Kevin Philips, and many other writers from a viewpoint you may not be familiar.

I'm with Dick on this one. Great books. I wouldn't automatically assume Chomsky is speaking of government causing the uniformity. The Council on Foreign Relations comes to mind. The press is spoonfed most of the time -- their job is as 'opinion-makers' as their advertisers can attest. Turn off the g-d TV if you want to break free from this 'programming.' It is mind control, pure and simple. Ask any adult about the Constitution and they will stutter, but ask them to sing a McDonald's jingle, and they will remember every word right down to the sesame seed bun. Excuse me while I get a Coke.

Who's that McDonald fellow you speak of, Archer? I can't count the years since I've stepped into one of those, or for that matter, watched a network news broadcast. I just can't take either type of junk food and the indigestion they cause. I would ask Chomsky, however, "Obedience to whom?" It is obviously not obedience to our current government, but the unified voice with which they speak seems to suggest there's an obedience to someone.

I would imagine half the despots around the world use our political arena as part of their own edification - the last eight years has given them some great tips.

Stop for a minute and think about what we are served up as news. I read NY newspapers and see the fluff that is in there, as well as NJ and Pa papers. Headlines like a house fire in Idaho, suspension of alternate side of the street parking, a robbery in Jersey City, as well as all that I need to know about Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan. Is there any doubt that we are being blinded of the important issues. Do any of you think that we choose to be left in the dark like this, or do you suspect that someone wants us to be ignorant.

Ken, I respectfully recommend your reading some of Chomsky's work. He is recognized as the greatest intellectual mind on the globe today. And to answer your question about obedience he is talking about the few billionaires in the world who control both governments and media.

Yep, thats why we get fluff and not news. I am in agreement.

Keep in mind that it isn't 'the billionaires' that we need to 'take down,' for being rich in and of itself is not oppression -- it is the SYSTEM! Examine the systems of power, money 'creation,' the justice 'system,' the party 'system,' and more. We can topple the tyrants, but without taking down the system from which they get their rivers of money, another despot soon takes their place. Start with returning to honest money, and there will be no way for these 'rulers' to come to power. The computer revolution was started by 'distributing' computing power across many people's desks instead of one central system. Beware of the centralization of power, information, money, control -- it only makes these guys richer and more powerful at the expense of our own independence and responsibilities. Some of the richest men in the world now are Russian communists, so for all you guys who keep harping about the evils of capitalism, keep in mind that socialism merely is the monopoly of capitalism into even fewer hands.

True statement.

The obedience is to the likes of Saul Alinsky and his political philosophy.

An astute in the obvious statement. If it is not fluff it is extreme proselyting.

The dictator we have in Washington now surely admires the press we have today.