“The best relationship with our viewers is no longer one of parent-child but of consenting adults trying to piece together the best picture of the world.” (Roger Mosey, head of BBC TV news)
“A good case can be made that propaganda is a more important means of social control in open societies like the United States than in closed societies like the late Soviet Union… This system of thought control is not centrally managed… It operates mainly by individual and market choices, with the frequent collective service to the national interest arising from common interests and internalised beliefs.” (Edward Herman)
“Much in the way of political theory … depends on the assumptions one makes about the sources of political attitudes … If one assumes that political preferences are simply plugged into the system by leaders (business or other) in order to extract what they want from the system, then the model of plebiscitory democracy is substantially equivalent to the model of totalitarian rule.”
–Prof. Robert Dahl, ‘Business and Politics: A Critical Appraisal of Political Science’, in Social Science Research on Business: Product and Potential; Columbia University Press, New York, 1959, pp. 37-8