I like what he has to say, but it's older than bread, wine and circus. Very few tyrants have the nerve to say what they think of most people, but every now and then you get a Napoleon.
I'm reading Lessing's Free Culture now. He's a little polemic, but knows what he's talking about and writes well. I just finished reading his chapter on how each branch of modern media is "pirating" content in one way or another and managed to make laws that let them do it. Cable companies don't have to negotiate with broadcasters for content and did not have to pay them for a long time (they still might not). Radio stations don't have to pay singers but do have to pay composers prices set by congress. Recording studios have set prices they pay composers. All of which reduces the "rights" of recording artists and composers relative to book writers and live in a world of government price controls. Aarrr! How's that for Pirates? On Thursday 14 October 2004 08:37, John Hebert wrote: > > I didn't mean to imply that Chomsky pioneered > propaganda analysis. I do think that Chomsky has made > the biggest contribution in modern times in the > critical analysis of media. >
