Editing Propaganda model (section)

===''The New York Times'' review===
Writing for ''The New York Times'', the historian [[Walter LaFeber]] criticized the book ''Manufacturing Consent'' for overstating its case, in particular with regards to reporting on Nicaragua and not adequately explaining how a powerful propaganda system would let military aid to the Contra rebels be blocked.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/06/books/whose-news.html?scp=1&sq=Manufacturing+consent&st=nyt | work=The New York Times | title=Whose News? | first1=Walter | last1=Laferber | date=6 November 1988}}</ref> Herman responded in a letter by stating that the system was not "all powerful" and that LaFeber did not address their main point regarding Nicaragua. LaFeber replied that:
<blockquote>Mr. Herman wants to have it both ways: to claim that leading American journals "mobilize bias" but object when I cite crucial examples that weaken the book's thesis. If the news media are so unqualifiedly bad, the book should at least explain why so many publications (including my own) can cite their stories to attack President Reagan's Central American policy.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/11/books/l-news-and-propaganda-307488.html?scp=2&sq=Manufacturing+consent&st=nyt | work=The New York Times | title=News and Propaganda | date=11 December 1988 | access-date=22 May 2010}}</ref></blockquote>

Chomsky responds to LaFeber's reply in ''[[Necessary Illusions]]'':
<blockquote>What is more, a propaganda model is not weakened by the discovery that with careful and critical reading, material could be unearthed in the media that could be used by those that objected to "President Reagan's Central American policy" on grounds of principle, opposing not its failures but its successes: the near destruction of Nicaragua and the blunting of the popular forces that threatened to bring democracy and social reform to El Salvador, among other achievements.{{sfn|Chomsky|1989|pp=148–151}}</blockquote>