01-12-2008, 10:49 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-12-2008, 11:01 PM by Jan Klimkowski.)
Paul - I find the concept of "left-gatekeepers" very interesting. I'm sure there are some.
However, with the likes of Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein, I have a different interpretation. I may be wrong, but here's my tuppence worth.
As a thinker, imo Chomsky is more interested in "structural" analyses than the vagaries of human emotions such as greed and cowardice. Thus, for all its strengths, his book Manufacturing Consent is an argument about mass media from its structure, rather than considering its actors - be they megalomaniac newspaper tycoons or blackmailable hacks.
I believe Chomsky is less interested in JFK as a man than the power structures he came from - hence his rejection of Camelot. Imo he dismisses "conspiracies" because they aren't part of his particular, highly intellectual and idiosyncratic view of the world.
In other words, I don't believe Chomsky is a left gatekeeper, nor that They own him. Rather, Chomsky has a unique perspective on the world, and his analysis permits certain types of worldly events, and does not permit others.
As for Naomi Klein, I still find her The Shock Doctrine very compelling. It's not faultless. But it is a very powerful, very wide-ranging, deconstruction of both the horrific human consequences of Chicago School economics, and the identities of those powerful elites who have used such economic "theories" in the furtherance of their own selfish ends.
Klein is occasionally allowed on MSM political discussion shows - both in the States and the UK. She often manages to say things that are routinely excluded from MSM discourse. As such, she is a small force for good.
If Klein endorsed a MIHOP or LIHOP analysis, every time she appeared on MSM she would be introduced as "Naomi Klein, 9/11 conspiracy theorist". Faux News could tick their "fair and balanced" boxes by inviting her on, and then getting one of their neocon loons to shout at her for 10 minutes for her "insane, unpatriotic, conspiratorial views of 9/11".
I have no idea what Klein genuinely thinks about 9/11. However, I'm always quite pleased when she turns up on MSM TV taking on the likes of Irwin Stelzer (aka "Rupert Murdoch's representative on Earth"). I'd much rather Naomi Klein than, say, Will Hutton.
Indeed, come to think of it, Hutton is an archetypal left gatekeeper...
However, with the likes of Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein, I have a different interpretation. I may be wrong, but here's my tuppence worth.
As a thinker, imo Chomsky is more interested in "structural" analyses than the vagaries of human emotions such as greed and cowardice. Thus, for all its strengths, his book Manufacturing Consent is an argument about mass media from its structure, rather than considering its actors - be they megalomaniac newspaper tycoons or blackmailable hacks.
I believe Chomsky is less interested in JFK as a man than the power structures he came from - hence his rejection of Camelot. Imo he dismisses "conspiracies" because they aren't part of his particular, highly intellectual and idiosyncratic view of the world.
In other words, I don't believe Chomsky is a left gatekeeper, nor that They own him. Rather, Chomsky has a unique perspective on the world, and his analysis permits certain types of worldly events, and does not permit others.
As for Naomi Klein, I still find her The Shock Doctrine very compelling. It's not faultless. But it is a very powerful, very wide-ranging, deconstruction of both the horrific human consequences of Chicago School economics, and the identities of those powerful elites who have used such economic "theories" in the furtherance of their own selfish ends.
Klein is occasionally allowed on MSM political discussion shows - both in the States and the UK. She often manages to say things that are routinely excluded from MSM discourse. As such, she is a small force for good.
If Klein endorsed a MIHOP or LIHOP analysis, every time she appeared on MSM she would be introduced as "Naomi Klein, 9/11 conspiracy theorist". Faux News could tick their "fair and balanced" boxes by inviting her on, and then getting one of their neocon loons to shout at her for 10 minutes for her "insane, unpatriotic, conspiratorial views of 9/11".
I have no idea what Klein genuinely thinks about 9/11. However, I'm always quite pleased when she turns up on MSM TV taking on the likes of Irwin Stelzer (aka "Rupert Murdoch's representative on Earth"). I'd much rather Naomi Klein than, say, Will Hutton.
Indeed, come to think of it, Hutton is an archetypal left gatekeeper...
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war