Chomsky is quite explicit that this is not due to any big conspiracy, but something that arises from how different interests align. It's sort of an evolutionary

Chomsky is quite explicit that this is not due to any big conspiracy, but something that arises from how different interests align. It's sort of an evolutionary process, but this is (too) often stated as intentional agents behaving with some clear "conspiratory" goal. E.g. on journalists: "I don't say you're self-censoring - I'm sure you believe everything you're saying; but what I'm saying is, if you believed something different, you wouldn't be sitting where you're sitting." Isn't it quite an extraordinary claim that e.g. ad-funded media would be independent from their customers (the buyers of the ads)? Ad-funded media that doesn't please the ad buyers doesn't stay in business for long. This is discussed in Manufactuing Consent at length and the discussion doesn't resort to any conspiracies.