Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c158IR // #c158Verbatim excerpt
The mass media never explain why Andrei Sakharov is worthy and José Luis Massera, in Uruguay, is unworthy—the attention and general dichotomization occur “naturally” as a result of the working of the filters, but the result is the same as if a commissar had instructed the media: “Concentrate on the victims of enemy powers and forget about the victims of friends.”

— Source: Manufacturing Consent (Noam Chomsky & Edward S. Herman)

[Use when]

When coverage of foreign victims tracks official enemies and friends.

[Why it matters]

The book's most quoted line: dichotomization happens naturally, but lands exactly where a censor's order would.

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