Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media
by Michael Parenti
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael ParentiEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1992-11-15
ISBN: 0312020139
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing
Book Reviews of Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media
Book Review: The Hobo Philosopher
Summary: 5 Stars
Inventing Reality
By Michael Parenti
Book Review
By Richard E. Noble
This book was published in 1993. There have been a few changes in recent years but the basic premise of this book is that the press favors the right or conservative point of view as opposed to the left and the liberal point of view.
Mr. Parenti is very good at attacking the obvious - rich people own newspapers and news media outlets and consequently they are most often supportive of the establishment. Having worked as a reporter and a columnist myself, I support his point of view. [The Eastpointer: Life In A Sleepy, Little Fishing Village...]
I personally have never considered newspapers as reliable sources of information. I read books. But I've learned over the years that nothing is simple and simple answers are usually wrong answers. But making things more complicated for the reader will not endear a reporter to his audience or his bosses. To make the complicated simple is the goal.
But for Mr. Parenti it is much worse than that. He sees the media as turning truth into lies by manipulative writing techniques. And he gives page after page of details and examples.
He is a wealth of information on the shenanigans that have been going on in South America. This area is a hotbed of misinformation and political slanting. Mr. Parenti presents to the reader numerous examples and an explanation of events not found in any media outlets that I have ever read. He's not bad on Asia either. He also has an insightful historical perspective.
Right thinking folk will find that even their most hated left wing reporters like Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather are too far right for Mr. Parenti - and he sites examples.
My problem as a reader has always been trying to find what is the truth amidst a never ending volume of information - most of the information slanted by individual preferences to the right and to the left. History books are no less of a challenge than politics, religion and foreign affairs.
On foreign affairs you will read things in Mr. Parenti's books that you will usually be hard pressed to find elsewhere and certainly not in the popular media outlets.
Some people write off Mr. Parenti as just a lesser version of Noam Chomsky or Howard Zinn but this is not the case as I see it. Of the three, I like Parenti the best. Chomsky can be very confusing and too focused on Israel. Zinn seems focused on history and social activism. Parenti covers a wider range of interests. He paints a broader picture with more understandable insights and basic arguments. Parenti is as clear as a bell. You will not walk away from a Parenti book or lecture wondering what he said. He is bluntly to the point.
Another jab at what should be obvious is that newspapers are for-profit organizations that depend on ads from the conservative business community for their support. This is a fact and has always been a problem when it come to objective reporting.
Mr. Parenti's ideas come from the radical, extreme far left. He points out that the communist view is never heard and when it is mentioned the reporting is negative. This certainly can not be denied but anyone in the U.S. from the right or the extreme right would think that is exactly the way it should be reported. The right is so extreme here in America that when they hear something centrist they think it is leftist propaganda, Mr. Parenti points out. He makes the same case for socialist ideas and unions and the labor points of view.
Up until this president (Obama) and the new team at MSNBC (Schultz/Maddow/Olbermann), to hear a positive phrase supporting a union in a dispute was anathema in any media outlet. The last president to say something positive about a union was FDR. And before FDR it was even worse for unions than it has been after FDR. We are still arguing over the right to collective bargaining for god's sake. (See, "America on Strike [...]
America on Strike: A survey of labor strikes in America
Having worked for a newspaper as a reporter and a columnist, I quickly discovered many of the slanting and reporting "tricks" that Mr. Parenti points out in this volume. They are all true. The story selection, the positive or negative phrasing, the diminishing of a point of view, the choice of words, the anonymous sources, the omissions, the graying and embellishing, the placement, the misquoting, the false facts etc., these are all used and regularly.
But politics aside the best reason I can give for reading this particular book is that it is a primer for learning to read critically. Mr. Parenti was a teacher/professor and it is always clear when reading his books that he is teaching. Whatever your political point of view, benefiting from the lessons in this book is bipartisan. Of course the book will be much easier to read and swallow if you are a lefty.
Books written by Richard Noble - The Hobo Philosopher:
"Hobo-ing America: A Workingman's Tour of the U.S.A.."
"A Summer with Charlie" Salisbury Beach, Lawrence YMCA
"A Little Something: Poetry and Prose
"Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother" Novel - Lawrence, Ma.
"The Eastpointer" Selections from award winning column.
"Noble Notes on Famous Folks" Humor - satire - facts.
"America on Strike" American Labor - History
"A Baker's Dozen" Short Stories.
"Just Hangin' Out, Ma" Anecdotes - Lawrence, Mass
Summary of Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media
Taking a critical perspective on the economics and politics of "presenting" the news, this topical supplement argues that the media systematically distorts news coverage.Psychology & Counseling Books
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