I can't believe it. I actually found the damn Chomsky quote. Also - concision is a stupendous word.

Talking With Chomsky

2012/04/30

There was once an interview with Jeff Greenfield in which he was asked why I was never asked onto Nightline. He gave a good answer. He said the main reason was that I lacked concision. I had never heard that word before. You have to have concision. You have to say something brief between two commercials.

What can you say that's brief between two commercials? I can say Iran is a terrible state. I don't need any evidence. I can say Ghaddaffi carries out terror. Suppose I try to say the US carries out terror, in fact it's one of the leading terrorist states in the world. You can't say that between commercials. People rightly want to know what do you mean. They've never heard that before. Then you have to explain. You have to give background. That's exactly what's cut out. Concision is a technique of propaganda. It ensures you cannot do anything except repeat clichés, the standard doctrine, or sound like a lunatic.

I'm not being facile if I say that it's manufacturing consent all the way down. It doesn't matter if Anderson Cooper reads off a teleprompter or he ad libs. The content is the same. It's only the phrasing that's different.

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Ninja edit:

Oh, fuck! I'm having temporary computer memory problems and I can't find a quotation from Chomsky that I like. I may reply again later. "Oh, fuck!"? I really said that? It's just a basically-nothing first-world problem. How very quickly I complain.

Wait a minute. Is that mic on. Um... This is a bit. Of course.