This article reflects on the legacy of the American media critic and political economist Edward Herman; his influence on the field of media scholarship, and on the authorâ€™s own work. Its notes that Hermanâ€™s contribution has often been underappreciated due to Chomskyâ€™s enormous stature as a public intellectual, and argues that as the principal author of the â€˜propaganda modelâ€™ Herman made a significant contribution to scholarly and public understanding of the private news media. It notes a number of weaknesses in Manufacturing Consent, some of which are well known and have been addressed by the authors: an overemphasis on â€˜closureâ€™ and homogeneity in media systems, and a related â€˜media centrismâ€™ that may engender a certain political fatalism; an underdeveloped conception of the role of ideology; and a lack of empirical evidence on the operation of the five â€˜filtersâ€™ as casual mechanisms giving rise to media content. It concludes that such weaknesses notwithstanding, Hermanâ€™s model is an exemplary piece of sociological theorising, and is only deterministic or simplistic insofar as it is ambitious and schematic.