Noam Chomsky on SBS

By Norm Dixon

Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick's fascinating Manufacturing Consent, a documentary on the ideas of noted US linguist and political dissident Noam Chomsky, has made a remarkable impact in its all too brief cinema run in Australia. In Sydney, night after night, the Glebe Valhalla cinema was packed. People left the cinema angry and convinced that something must be done to challenge the thought-control practices of big business media. Patrons snapped up copies of Green Left Weekly on sale outside, recognising the need to support the alternative press.

In many smaller Australian cities, the only opportunity for people to see this insightful film was in screenings organised in collaboration with Green Left Weekly.

SBS Television is giving those who missed the film, and those who want to see it again, a second chance. Manufacturing Consent will screen in three one-hour parts at 8.30 p.m. (8 p.m. in Adelaide) each Tuesday starting on December 15.

Highlighting Chomsky's analysis of the media, Manufacturing Consent focuses on "democratic" societies where populations not disciplined by force are subject to more subtle forms of ideological control.

Chomsky encourages his viewers to extricate themselves from this "web of deceit" by exercising "intellectual self-defence". Travelling with him through Canada, Japan, Europe and across the US, we witness a tireless activist challenging and being confronted by public and the press.

In a scene that sums up the impact of the film on many people, a woman who has just attended a Chomsky lecture tells the film makers that she was so inspired that she has decided to return to political activity after a 30 year period of inactivity.

Nobody should miss this opportunity to see Manufacturing Consent.

From GLW issue 83