Chomsky not only made, but
substantiated the point that, while
American mass media are not
officially censored as in, say,
China, mechanisms exist that in fact silence
dissent even more effectively.
Chinese students often tell me that "in America, you can criticize the government if you like". To a point, that's true. But who will listen? You may even be able to raise a few paltry thousands of dollars and print a seditious tabloid, but The Man spends hundreds of millions every day to saturate the public sensorium with his version of the truth.
I like to tell my students that if you stand on your bicycle on a busy street corner in a city in China, you will probably be arrested quickly. Your fate then ranges from jail to "mental hospital" to a one-way trip to the football stadium. But in the few moments before arrest, you are very likely to be heard, and it is possible that people will talk about what you said long after you are dead.
In America, if you stand on a soapbox, you may well be able to lecture for hours, if not days, without police intervention of any kind. But unless you are saying what the teevee has already said, few people will listen to you, and nobody will remember you after they get home and eat dinner.
There is probably more well-informed opinion in any three randomly chosen Everything2 noders than in the entire nationwide Six-O'Clock News crew. But who do you think Mr. & Mrs. America are listening to right now?