A devastatingly insightful critique of how the media uses certain well-defined propaganda techniques to play up special victims–to stoke outrage and polarize America. How the “New York Times” and “Washington Post” sensationalize police shootings based on race and gender–and distort coverage of other kinds of crime–to fit a political agenda. It also reveals the press has become one of the biggest threats to free speech in America today, with reporters taking on the role of the Thought Police. The book challenges Noam Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent,” showing how everything has changed since he wrote the book in the 1980s. The work exposes the role that media bias has played in coverage of restorative justice and education debates. It also offers several solid suggestions for reform.
Special Victim Status exposes how the media racializes and genderizes news coverage to fit the its far left “progressive” agenda-with bias baked into every aspect of news organizations these days. This work sets the record straight.
Gregory E Mantell reveals how the New York Times and The Washington Post use certain well-defined propaganda techniques to stir up outrage over police shootings of unarmed black males, while downplaying coverage of shootings of unworthy victims such as white people and police officers.
Surveys show that the majority of Americans think the media is biased, and the American press gets especially low marks among Western nations. But while many know something is wrong, most can’t explain how media bias works. Special Victim Status, The Era Of Woke Journalism goes further and shows how the press distorts all kinds of crime coverage, playing up the danger from the right while downplaying violent crime by the left. It also exposes how the media has become one of the biggest threats to free speech today.
This work refutes Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent, showing how everything has changed since he published his book in the 1980s; it reveals how far-left extremism has taken over the press.
Special Victim Status may be the most damning critique of the American media ever published. It explains how media bias started, how it works, and what to do about it.
“Publishers told me people don’t care about proof. This book is for people who do.” ~ Gregory E. Mantell (Author)
About the Author
Greg Mantell is an author, journalist, media critic, screenwriter, and producer with an interest in philosophy. He has worked as a reporter and anchor for the NBC affiliate in Columbia, Missouri, and worked for Cox Media Group’s Washington Bureau. The host and producer of a popular YouTube channel covering a wide variety of topics, he is a member of the Producers Guild of America. His Substack, Investigative News Service, reports on issues ignored by the “mainstream” press and includes a healthy dose of media criticism. His reporting on the collapse of the World Trade Center was referenced by the Journal of Fire Sciences in 2014. Previously he has written a screenplay and comedy, Xanthippe, about the marriage of Socrates and his wife; the latter he directed at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. He is at work on his next books about the education debates and philosophy of language.
Mantell holds a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Chicago and an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
