On January 29, 2000, Herbert I. Schiller, the most influential progressive critic of corporate control of media and culture in America, died at the age of 80. Schiller, a powerful and prolific writer for more than 30 years, taught at the University of Illinois, the University of California, and New York University, inspiring generations of students, many of whom went on to follow in his footsteps, now teaching in communications departments throughout the country. As Neil Postman, a colleague at NYU, said, "It is not too much to say that he gave shape and texture to the modern study of communications and culture in America."
Although his early criticism focused on the traditional media—newspapers, television, and film—he soon broadened his sights and scrutinized advertising, bookstore chains, commercials, consumerism, and all the ills attendant on modern mass communications. In more than a dozen books and countless articles in both scholarly and popular publications around the world, he savaged the notion that the mass media did or could operate independently of their ties to political and economic power, and demonstrated that those ties made it virtually impossible for the media to foster democratic ideals or serve as any sort of watchdog against government or corporate misconduct.
An example of the depth of his insight, as well as the sure but subtle radicalness of his thought, can be seen in this passage from perhaps his most famous work, The Mind Managers (Boston: Beacon Press, 1973):
"Manipulation's greatest triumph, most observable in the United States, is to have taken advantage of the special historical circumstances of Western development to perpetrate as truth a definition of freedom cast in individualistic terms. This enables the concept to serve a double function. It protects the ownership of productive private property while simultaneously offering itself as the guardian of the individual's well-being, suggesting, if not insisting, that the latter is unattainable without the existence of the former. Upon this central construct an entire scaffolding of manipulation is erected."
Herb Schiller's presence, his warmth, his wit, and his boundless energy will be greatly missed. He is survived by his wife, Anita, two sons, Dan and Zach, and two grandchildren. We extend to them our deepest sympathy.