Norman Lear Center director Marty Kaplan

Director of USC Annenberg's Norman Lear Center Marty Kaplan wrote a Sept. 6 Huffington Post article that asked, “What Happened to America?” Kaplan's piece discusses the way he explained “how the world's greatest nation had become captive to a band of ideologues and fundamentalists” to students in Australia. Kaplan credits an Australian cab driver for giving him the answer: Noam Chomsky's concept of “spectator democracy.” Kaplan explained that spectator democracy is the idea of the U.S. public as a "bewildered herd" that is “manipulated and controlled by elites with the tools of propaganda and disinformation.” As Americans consume content about politics, Kaplan wrote, “people gain the (false) impression that they're actively participating in democracy -- that they're empowered, not bludgeoned, by the media,” which distracts them “from the immensity of corporate power,” Kaplan wrote. Article: "What Happened to America?"