Chomsky's "so-called freedom of expression"

This is taken from Harry's Place. But as ever, it begs the question, why would any intelligent person take anything Chomsky has to say seriously? I mean, this is just the latest example of his light-weight and bizarre witterings that not just simply fail to take account of reality, but actively seek to avoid it. As the post below points out, how can you diss the idea of freedom of expression in the United States when, despite the fact that you as one of not just the most visceral critics of the then president George W Bush and his policies, but also one of the nastiest, are still invited by the military to address students at West Point and deliver to them your critique of the very notion of a just war and of the Iraq war in particular? Really, what planet does this man live on? And I like the acknowledgement of something I have thought for a long time, that is, the insufferable arrogance of people like Chomsky with their 'you are just controlled by the media, but I'm not because I'm clever and somehow special' line. At Lerterland, David Adler makes a good point about something Noam Chomsky said during his recent visit with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. According to a pro-Chavez blog: Chomsky… addressed the media and freedom of expression in the U.S. “In the United States the socio-economic system is designed so that the control over the media is in the hands of a minority who own large corporations… and the result is that the financial interests of those groups are always behind the so-called freedom of expression,” he said. As Marc Cooper responded: “Yawn.” This is tired stuff, especially in the age of the Internet, which I assume Chomsky has heard of. Isn’t it time to update his “corporate media control your (but not my) mind” spiel in light of the past decade or so? As for “so-called freedom of expression” in the US: as David points out, it is so restricted that, um, er, Chomsky was invited to address a class of philosophy students at the US Military Academy in West Point during the Bush administration, to critique the “just war” theory and the invasion of Iraq. But I suppose that was just a charade to make people think there is real freedom of expression. Or something. And just try to imagine a fierce critic of Chavez being invited to address a class of military cadets in Venezuela.

Posted via email from Garth's posterous