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Propaganda Model

The news isn't censored. It's filtered — and the filters were built into the system from the start.

In 1988, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky described five structural filters that shape what becomes news. Not through conspiracy meetings or secret phone calls, but through ordinary market incentives. Ownership: a handful of corporations own most outlets and won't run stories that hurt their interests. Advertising: the real customers are advertisers, not readers — so content that upsets advertisers gets quietly dropped. Sourcing: journalists depend on official sources (government, corporations) because independent investigation is expensive, which means those sources set the terms. Flak: outlets that publish inconvenient stories face organized pushback — lawsuits, complaints, smear campaigns — so they learn to self-censor. And ideology: a shared worldview among media elites that makes certain questions feel unreasonable to even ask.

None of these filters require anyone to lie. They just make certain truths expensive, uncomfortable, or career-ending to report. The result looks like a free press. It functions like a guided one.

You can test this yourself. Pick a story that threatens a major advertiser or media owner. Watch how it gets covered — or doesn't. The pattern is not hidden. It's just so constant that it becomes invisible.

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