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performance. 29 Chomsky (1989: 8) remarks that media content naturalizes,
reflecting ‘the perspectives and interests of the sellers, the buyers, and the product’
(see also Herman, 1999).
Herman (2000) contends that the relevance of the first and second filters have
enhanced since Manufacturing Consent was first published:

The dramatic changes in the economy, the communications industries, and
politics over the past dozen years have tended on balance to enhance the
applicability of the propaganda model. The first two filters – ownership and
advertising – have become even more important.

The third filter notes that dominant elites routinely facilitate the news-gathering
process: providing press releases, advance copies of speeches, periodicals, photo
opportunities and ready-for-news analysis (Herman and Chomsky, 1988: 19). Thus,
government and corporate sources are attractive to the media for purely economic
reasons. Such sources are favoured and are routinely endorsed and legitimized by
the media because they are recognizable and viewed as prima facie credible.
Information provided to the media by corporate and state sources does not require
fact checking or costly background research and is typically portrayed as accurate.
In sum, Herman and Chomsky highlight not only the symbiotic nature of the
relationship between journalists and their sources, but the reciprocity of interests
involved in the relationship. The third filter constraint stresses that the opinions
and analyses that are expounded by corporate and state sources are adapted to
dominant class interests and market forces (Herman and Chomsky, 1988: 23; see
also Martin and Knight, 1997: 253–4). Cited by the corporate media as experts
and/or ‘authorized knowers’, their opinions are often accepted without scrutiny.
Dissenting views are frequently excluded from public forums. In this way, core
assumptions that cannot stand up to factual analysis can find widespread support.
Herman and Chomsky stress that the nature of the symbiotic relationship
between media and sources directly influences media performance. [...]
Importantly, the authors contend that preferred meanings are structured into
news discourse as a result of the dominance of official sources who are identi-
fied as ‘experts’. In this way, news discourse ‘may be skewed in the direction
desired by the government and “the market”’ (Herman and Chomsky, 1988: 23).
Concurrently, the ‘preferred’ meanings that are structured into news discourse are
typically ‘those that are functional for elites’ (Herman and Chomsky, 1988: 23). 30
Flak, the fourth filter, means that dominant social institutions (most notably
the state) possess the power and requisite organizational resources to pressure
media to play a propagandistic role in society. Herman and Chomsky (1988: 26)
explain that:

Flak refers to negative responses to a media statement or program. ... It may
be organized centrally or locally, or it may consist of the entirely
independent actions of individuals.

In sum, the authors maintain that there are powerful interests that routinely
encourage right-wing bias in media (Herman and Chomsky, 1988: 27–8).