Walter Lippmann: How Would You Like Your Consent Manufactured?

At Harper's, Scott Horton uses the reissuing of Liberty and the News to remember journalism great Walter Lippmann, calling him America's Cicero.

Horton says Liberty and the News is a must-read for all good journalists. He's probably right. But Jack Flack recommends with equal vigor that all good flacks should spend some time with Lippman's Public Opinion.

First published in 1922, Public Opinion plowed virgin soil by defining concepts -- most famously, "pseudo-environment," "stereotype" and "manufacturing consent" -- that drive much of today's thinking about the social-psychology of decision-making. While such ground-breakers often don't hold up well over the decades, this one generally feels more relevant than ever. Lippmann, who did wonk/propogandist work for Woodrow Wilson, wages provocative arguments with a thoughtful style that makes a lot of today's discourse about the implications of media seem shrill or superficial.