The Republican Noise Machine

"The Republican Noise Machine" is a 2004 book written by David Brock which chronicles the author's opinion of how the American right wing was able to build their media infrastructure. The book was the prelude to Brock's launching of his organization Media Matters for America, an organization whose stated mission is "to comprehensively monitor, analyze, and correct conservative misinformation in the U.S. media."

Author

David Brock authored "The Real Anita Hill" in 1993, and became well liked by other Republicans. He then had a hand in many other political books, including examinations of Bill and Hillary Clinton. He himself has disavowed attacks he calls 'smears'. His book "" was a 2002 best-seller.

ummary

Brock details the development of the conservative media strategy since Barry Goldwater. This strategy, he claims, was predicated on corporate funding of think tanks, like the Heritage Foundation and three kindred institutions. Such think tanks can serve not only as tutors for industry lobbyists, but as propagandists. He writes that they used deceptive sorts of language-frames that, for example, posit "cherry-picked half-facts" suggesting for example that increased educational spending in fact decreases the efficacy of educators’ efforts. Conservative and Republican strategists, he claims, "concoct smears, distortions, and outright lies", and then disseminate the product as 'talking points' to right-wing radio and Fox News. These smears gain a "faux" credibility through endless repetition, and picked up by the mainstream press.

Reception

References

External links

* [http://mediamatters.org/ Media Matters for America]
* [http://www.will.uiuc.edu/willmp3/mediamatters050102.mp3 Media Matters with Bob McChesney Interview of David Brock] (Jan 2, 2005)
* [http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/2002/03/David_Brock_031802.html BuzzFlash Interview of David Brock]
* [http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2001/jul/010702.brock.html David Brock Interview, "All Things Considered," National Public Radio] (July 2, 2001)
* [http://www.nationalreview.com/flashback/flashback-ponnuru051001.shtml Ramesh Ponnuru, "The Real David Brock," National Review] (May 10, 2001)
* [http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/?020311crbo_books Hendrik Hertzberg, "Can you forgive him? A right-wing conspirator comes clean," New Yorker] (March 11, 2002)
* [http://slate.msn.com/id/2063759/ Timothy Noah "David Brock, Liar: A lifelong habit proves hard to break," Slate] (March 27, 2002)
* [http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020527&s=hitchens Christopher Hitchens, "The Real David Brock," The Nation] (May 9, 2002)
* [http://www.salon.com/news/col/horo/2002/04/17/brock/index_np.html David Horowitz, "Believe David Brock at your own risk," Salon] (April 17, 2002)
* [http://www.salon.com/news/letters/2002/04/30/conway "Brock, Horowitz and the anti-gay slur." Chad Conway responds to David Horowitz, Salon] (April 30, 2002)
* [http://slate.msn.com/id/2100712/ Laura Kipnis, "Brock Attack: The formerly right-wing shark behind Media Matters," Slate] (May 18, 2004)