Letters from Lexington: Reflections on Propaganda

An Illuminating Companion for any Serious Student of Journalism.

In this collection of letters written to "Lies of Our Times Magazine," Noam Chomsky outlines the role of the media in justifying U.S. government and corporate actions.

About the "New York Times" coverage of the Middle East peace process, Chomsky states:

"'Times' history follows the official line throughout... the major Arab initiatives are down the memory hole, apart from that of Sadat in 1977.... The 'peace process' is defined as whatever the U.S. proposes: blocking the peace process for 20 years, in the present case. The 'Times' regularly refused to report Arafat's offers; even letters referring to them were banned. The articles of Jerusalem correspondent Thomas Friedman were a particularly noteworthy contribution to this remarkable record of historical engineering in the service of power."

LETTERS covers many aspects of propaganda, including Defensive Aggression; Our "Sense of Moral Purpose;" Notes on the Culture of Democracy; U.N.=U.S., Toxic Omissions; and much more. AUTHORBIO: Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is the author of many books on U.S. foreign policy.