Propaganda in War Made Easy

Herman and Chomsky identified five filters that affect the way information is spread to the general public through propaganda. These filters are present in the documentary War Made Easy, which gives an account of the way propaganda is used by the government and media to essentially "sell" and gain approval for wars; specifically the war in Iraq.
The first filter is the size, ownership, and profit orientation of the mass media, which refers to the few high-tier media outlets which control most of the information that is released in television, magazines, and newspapers. This enforces that all information readily released to the public is on the same page and does not disagree on local or mass levels. The media are looking for profit, and as seen in War Made Easy they will be eager to pass along the information offered by the government to avoid seeming un-American. When Phil Donahue made anti-War statements, the MSNBC network pulled away from him even though they are known to usually be very left-wing.
This desire to air popular opinions is related to the advertising sponsorship of mass media. Most television programs and news websites rely on advertising to fund their operation costs, and profit oriented media outlets will not be acting in their best interest if they express opinions that divert from what the public or, more importantly, government wants to hear. This filter was not directly exemplified in War Made Easy, but it can be gathered that most large media corporations were all airing news that supported the war in order to not lose sponsorship.
The symbiotic relationship between mass media and powerful sources of information was emphasized in the War Made Easy, which stressed that the high tier media corporations relayed information from the government in order to please them and keep all their sponsorships, while the government also relies on media to convince the public to support the war. In the film, many examples are shown of the media asserting that there is a high security risk with the keyword "weapons of mass destruction." There is a clip that says the president said Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, Tony Blair said they do, the United Nations said they do, the "experts" say they do, and Iraq says they don't. This uses the argument of authority to convince the public that they should side with the long list of experts, and gives people the false choice of either agreeing with them or agreeing with terrorism.
Another filter is the "flak," or negative responses, received by those with dissenting views from authority. This can also be applied to the Donahue example in War Made Easy, since MSNBC wants to avoid getting negative feedback from viewers and its parent network. Usually shows that express controversial ideals are dropped due to low viewership. Those who do not "support the troops" and in turn support the war are marked off as siding with the enemy.
The final filter described in Manufacturing Consent by Herman and Chomsky is the use of anticommunism as a control mechanism, which in War Made Easy parallels Islamic fundamentalism. This involves the use of fear to win agreement in the public, appealing to emotion rather than reason. It is exemplified in the documentary in the clips of George Bush comparing Saddam Hussein to Hitler, and the narrator stating that the "pure motives" being described by Bush and government officials imply that we are killing people "for very good reasons."
All five of these filters use and bend information in very selective ways, giving the general public little room to create. opposing conclusions