Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media

by Michael Parenti

Taking a critical perspective on the economics and politics of "presenting" the news, this topical supplement argues that the media systematically distorts news coverage.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, Theory, Sociology, Philosophy, Journalism

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

American political scientist, historian and culture critic.
Parenti is most known for his criticism of capitalism and American foreign policy. He holds a doctorate from Yale University.

Reviews

[Jana · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you‘re thinking about reading Chomsky‘s ‚Manufacturing Consent‘, read this instead - it‘s written on the same subject, 2 years earlier, and by someone far more knowledgeable.
Honestly, Parentis writing style ist phenomenal. He argues really concisely, anticipating every counterargument, and exposing the reader to a radical new world view, but he never loses himself in technical jargon. He engages the reader with his wit and humour and I‘ve honestly never read a non-fiction book as quickly as I do Parenti‘s.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm only half way through this book and already it's one of the most concise and penetrating critiques of the Mass Media in America that I've ever read. As someone who works in the business, Parenti's analysis of distortions, ideology, omissions and power of the Media in our lives is an essential read. Be prepared to cancel your cable...

[Strathclyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive breakdown of how and why American media organizations submit to the ~general~ aims of the American state (particularly concerning foreign policy), how overt censorship is rarely necessary because journalists have grown accustomed to self-censorship, and how a superwealthy class of media owners have used information as a tool to increase their personal wealth.

Early on I was a bit annoyed by Parenti's much-repeated claim that American media companies are controlled by a deeply conservative class of people who use their positions of power to give news media a markedly conservative slant. It took me a while to realize that he is completely correct, even in our era of blatant corporate progressive shilling (#BLM Nike shirts, #TRANSISBEAUTIFUL Adidas coder socks, #LOVEISLOVE gay mug at shartmart). These corporations "championing" progressivism are the same corporations whipping Bangladeshi children in sweatshops, polluting the crick, and spending billions on lobbying schemes. Their "progressive" slant is all misdirection. It doesn't hurt shareholders when millions of Yass Kweens buy gay rainbow headbands at $45 a pop. The same is true for media organizations. Major news giants are happy to wax lyrical about the benefits of [insert widely-held progressive opinion] so long as it doesn't hurt profits. It doesn't hurt media moguls when, by beating their chests and crusading for progressive causes, they develop a fanatically loyal viewer base numbering in the hundreds of millions spread out across the globe.

Parenti basically aruges that OF COURSE privately owned media companies controlled by disgustingly wealthy people (with names and addresses) will ultimately choose profits over fair and measured reporting. He put it well at the end of the book: "Can it really be argued that elites have no power over the news organizations they own or finance? Or that if they do have power, they never use it"? I think not.

[Foppe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent discussion of how the media function as institutions that push the interests of their stakeholders -- their owners, their advertisers, the political and business elites that their employees look up to, and the government, on which they rely for access to much of the information they need to be seen as Serious Outlets. Last in this line comes the public.

Parenti's writing style is a lot livelier than Chomsky's, which makes it a far quicker and more enjoyable read. And note that although the book predates Manufacturing Consent by two years, and the themes overlap a lot, Chomsky and Herman never reference the book.

[Possum P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parenti is a fantastic writer. The conclusion of the book was powerful. I just wish there were a 30 year anniversary edition that was updated with developments in the media since then. Things are very similar but have also changed a lot.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book that goes beyond a structural analysis of the news media's faults but gets directly into their political and societal function as both a public information service and "its irreducible responsibility... to continually recreate a view of reality supportive of existing social and economic class power."

It explores how the mass media is an essential part of the ideological structure that socialises the population into an ideological framework to accept things like the two-party system as the pinnacle of democracy.

It is an obvious parallel to Chomsky and Herman's 'Manufactuing Consent' and despite being its senior, this is much better. It doesn't stop short of political analysis as MC does, and more notably its written in a much more fluid and snappy style.

Some favourite quotes:
- "Freedom of the Press belongs to the man who owns one"
- "Even if the press does not mold our every opinion, it does mold opinion visibility; it can frame the perceptual limits around which our opinions take shape."
- Power is always more secure when co-optive, covert, and manipulative than when nakedly brutish. The support elicited through the control of minds is more durable than the support extracted at the point of a bayonet."
- "The media are not merely close to corporate America, they are an integral part of it."
- "Daily censorship is made unnecessary by anticipatory self-censorship." because "An editor who has to be reined in every day by the publisher will not last long as editor."
- "Subjective judgements and biases are introduced even before the writing begins--at the moment one defines what is to be considered a story."
- "...the news is not what reporters report but what editors, producers, and owners decide to print or broadcast."
- from Charles Clark, "Journalists are just people who write on the back of advertisements."
- "The message was the same as in so many other countries: If democracy picks a leftist leader, then democracy has to go."
- "It is said that cameras don't lie. But we must remember that liars use cameras."

[Public Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. No one does a better job using plain language to describe the larger forces at work that alter our perception of reality. Here Parenti turns his focus on the media.

Going far beyond the typical “liberal complaint” mode of media criticism, Parenti drives full force into a radical class analysis. Does it matter that the establishment press, the major media that get all the accolades and respect in our culture, also happen to be capitalist enterprises? You bet your ass. Does it matter that the media business, known colloquially as the “fourth estate” are made up of top-down tyrannical organizations? Indeed it does.

Parenti takes the time to explain, in plain, easy to understand language, how the establishment press skew their coverage in a way that is almost always favorable to the capitalist system. The examples are clear. The message is plain. I believe this work to be among some of Parenti’s finest. It was, as Parenti’s work so often is, revelatory.

[John Davie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The issue with the Australian media isn't media monopolists it's with the system that ensures a capitalist class monopoly on media ownership . Kev please read this book and take note.

[Lain · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5*

In general I agree with Parenti's analysis of the media. Free media doesn't really exist in the West, self-censorship, cultural orthodoxy and mouthing of official positions is prevalent/systemic, there are strong ideological/class interests active in the background which shape media coverage, and news are distorted and over/under/mis-represented depending on the official acceptability of the angle. Completely baseless but very emotive stories are given huge coverage and then dropped silently as they get refuted. High-intensity coverage is repeated in cycles to foam the waters and influence public perceptions over time. I have paid enough attention to the media to know all of this is true, to have seen it in practice and to have internalized it.

I never experienced any "wow-factor" from reading this, more of a muted "yes- of course, and your point being?". To be honest I found it a struggle from the halfway-point when he came to presenting his case studies. His polemic style is irksome, and from what I remember Chomsky's treatment of US actions and media coverage of Central America and South East Asia is far more detailed and better documented.

My issues:
-Parenti spends a lot of time commenting on how "communist", "marxist" and "leftists" gets used by the media as buzzwords to deprive a movement/nation/story of nuanced treatment, but he does the exact same with his frequent references to (the implied inherent evil of) "fascists" and "rightists".
-Your impression after reading is that there have only ever existed benign leftist movements, being hounded by the US. There is for instance no mention of Pol-Pot or the media coverage he received.
-Parenti writes about media serving us unverified news and expecting them to be accepted at face value, but he makes many factual statements himself without backing them up with proper sources. Most of his references point to editorials and newspaper articles, which you would expect, according to Parenti himself, to have systemic and ideological biases.
-While many things are still current, much has also changed. The book is starting to get quite dated. >listening to radio, reading newspapers, watching television
ok boomer

All in all a perfectly worthwhile read, especially if this is your first time touching upon the subject.

[Alex podge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t trust the lying fake news media kids.

[P.J. Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exposes media bias, how economic power leads to cultural hegemony and ideological monopoly. Michael Parenti is one of the best antidotes to media misinformation.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most nonfiction books about a singular topic lose momentum as they go on; this book got stronger & more impactful as we got closer to the end.

[Reid tries to read · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chomsky could never

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting critique of news/journalism/media companies and how they shape public opinion to fit the interests of the state and big business. The book is 30 years old so the examples may seem a bit dated but IMO they’re still relevant, especially in the chapters “Who Controls the News? The Myths of Independence and Objectivity,” Giving Labor the Business,” and “Doing the Third World.”

I’m seeing a bunch of reviews comparing this to Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent” (and saying this is better) so I’m eager to pick that up next!

[Aidan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fucking towering work. Not only for the work on interpreting news, but also the complexity of inquiry into consumer culture and how it intersects with the news we take in, this book is a very needed guide for properly understanding news of any era.
Like many leftist writers, there was defintiely some hyping up of alternative movements that felt a lil bloviated and meager, but the sheer SOURCES in this book are worth awards. Parenti has happily joined the ranks among some of the best writers I’ve ever read, and I can’t wait to explore his writing more. I will defintiely be coming back to this in coming years for continued inspiration and ideas aboht how news medo controls us.

They create reality! They are selling us a life style. They guide our interests into categories that make us easily marketable and consumed! We consume and are consumed.

[Kinch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Parenti continues to be one of my favourite literary discoveries of recent years. Such clear-eyed political analysis, engaging and readable prose, and healthy dashes of humour that are often missing from political works.

This book has so much to say about how muzzled and manipulated the 'free press' in capitalist countries really is; his focus is on the USA but his insights have global relevanc. Even with the rise of social media, his insights hold up today - even moreso as we see increasing clamping down on dissident views online in the name of fighting 'fake news' and 'fact-checking'.

[Confusion · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inventing Reality is a criticism of the American corporate media that came out two years before Manufacturing Consent. Reading this book you get a very myopic picture of the press, that throughout all of American history benign leftist movements were harassed by the media. I think a case study on how Colonel Gaddafi was portrayed would have been a far better use of paper and would benefit his argument. Parenti writes about 'rightists' as if they are the devil and do nothing but harm, ironically it reminds me of how he claims the press uses 'leftist' and 'communist' to delegitimize movements and people. The book isn't very well sourced, I noticed a few examples where he makes a claim and won't cite anything or use a dubious source. I do agree with the book and think Parenti is by and large correct but I'm not letting this bias get in the way of the fact this book isn't particularly a good work and becomes quite dull about halfway through. If you want criticism of the press you should just read Manufacturing Consent, it has better case studies, is better researched and is easier to apply to countries outside of the USA.

[Kosta · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Inventing Reality, Michael Parenti makes the case that while mass media under capitalism is free of state censorship of the totalitarian variety, that it is nonetheless censored in more subtle but just as profound ways, due to a variety of systemic and economic factors.

It's filled with references to thousands of articles, interviews and testimonies with journalists, other political scientists, media critics, government officials and more. While he draws on and synthesises a bunch of academic and theoretical material (including Marx, Engels and Gramsci among others) with mountains of primary and secondary source material, Parenti writes in his trademark style: down to earth, witty, ruthless and persuasive

Parenti is a great writer and analyst, and this book is 100% required reading for anyone interested in a principled and clear minded leftist critique of mass media's systemic function within modern capitalism. I can't recommend it highly enough. 5/5

[vaisiya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parenti writes as well as he speaks. The only thing that could have made this better is him narrating it. A thorough breakdown of the American media that was written more than 3 decades ago, but is still relevant till this day and not just to America. Even if you don’t agree with his politics (I clearly do), it’s hard to dispute the class analysis and the functions of media in a capitalist state, which is to ultimately protect the interests of the ruling class i.e. the bourgeoisie. Overall, a must-read if you’re interested in the topic. Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent is more popular, though it was released a few years after Inventing Reality, but judging by their lectures alone, I would think Parenti is miles ahead in his analysis. I recently found out he is suffering from dementia and though it saddens me to hear that I won’t be able to experience any more of his works, I’m ever so grateful that he has left his legacy with his rich collection of books and lectures.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've seen people recommend this in place of Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent, and now I understand why. Parenti's arguments are very easy to follow: Premise, litany of supporting evidence, some contemplation of possible counterarguments, and rebuttal, usually wrapped up in under 5 pages. My only complaint is that Parenti tackles these items so succinctly it can appear jarring. Once you round out the books last pages, however, the sum total of all of the arguments raised is a damning critique of privately owned media with a profit motive. What's incredible is that over 3 decades later, the points made in this book still ring true, if not more relevant, given the further consolidation of media to private means.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to make a Goodreads shelf for "Books Everyone Should Read" and this'll be the first entry. Parenti understands how the world works better 99% of all other living political writers. That's his style is more engaging and humorous is just unfair to his competition.

This book is really good at laying out why it's actually those of us living in the capitalist world who are suffering under the most repressive media apparatus to ever exist. It's easy to imagine how capital's misinformation techniques have gotten even more effective with the rise of social media, continued corporate consolidation, and the desert of a local news landscape that remains in the decades since this book was published.

[Christopher Redfern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parenti is much drier here than usual, but the occasional acerbic wit does come through to pierce the Web of academic rigour which would otherwise weigh the book down, were it not for the topic which we all must contend with. Everyone knows that the media (mainstream) is a bald faced liar, but naming the ways is slippery like the veritable eel. Well in this volume Parenti gives us a net with which to catch the capitalist ideology in, which appears to us as objective facts.
We need this to be read now, more than ever

[reema · Rating 4 out of 5]

michael parenti holds such a special place in my heart, and i wanted to read a full work of his for quite some time now. i think this book is a great place for people to start if they're interested in media studies and manipulation and want to learn about the ways in which news media is merely an arm of the ruling class in the united states. he goes in-depth with examples, so that you can cite exact moments of media bias without people thinking you're a crazy conspiracy theorist.

4 stars only because it's kinda repetitive information for me but it has 5 stars in my heart.

[Sebastian Gruson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greatest book I have ever read, and would have given it 6 stars had I been able to. In a thorough and systematic destruction of the mainstream press, Parenti allows us to peek behind the curtains shielding us from the realities of the propagandizing capitalist class. This book should undoubtedly be a mandatory read for every adult.

[Rochelle Blumenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was amazing how relevant this book is now despite its being 30 year old.

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

A case study on how the media narrative is shaped directly and indirectly by capital. Still extremely relevant.

[Braden Domier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read if you’re interested in media bias / media structure

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read! Parenti has a way with words that breaks down the scary parts of media without smacking you with big words.

[Jared Palencia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great piece of work concerning Western capitalist news media spreading pro-business, pro-status quo propaganda to make the masses complicit and brainwashed to support State Department agendas.

[shaww]

unironically one of the most beautiful books of all time, points out all these little details and makes you realize how they all connect. the claim that the media is controlled by a conservative-capitalist group of people seems somewhat dramatic until he points out the class biases, the work environment, the medias connection to outside companies and the government, etc.

one of the coolest experiences i’ve ever had was reading an earlier section of the book where he says something along the lines of this: if a wealthy ceo or owner of a transnational corporation commits a crime (some sort of malpractice, tax dodging, etc) it’s treated very lightly, and all sides in the situation get time to present their situation on the news; it almost turns into a little tv show. even when it’s being discussed on the news, it’s always said with a tinge of hopefulness. “_____ claims that there was malpractice in the workplace…” its said in a much more objective tone. on the other hand, if a poor homeless man robs a gas station, the news anchor will say it with fear, describing the homeless man as “wielding a firearm…” as if they are scared of him as much as the cashier. we do not get to hear the homeless man’s side of the story: he is demonized, made out as violent and irregular. maybe he’s on drugs!

this book slowly starts picking apart every inch of the news in examples like those, informing you completely of how it works as a system. it breaks down every myth about the news’ corruption, journalism, and tactics in politics. not only will reading this inform you of how the news works to oppress you, but you will also become more vigilant in spotting other such details in the rest of the u.s.’ systems.