Critics of the marketplace model argue that:

a.    The assumption that a marketplace of ideas will produce the truth is false.  Successful appeals to our emotions and basic instincts, the ability of demagogues to condition behavior, our natural tendencies to conformity and habit, etc., all challenge the notion that the masses will accept the “truth.”  Think of Hitler’s Germany with his demagoguery about Jews.

b.    From a democratic theory, it is the idea valued by the majority, false or true (not just the truth), which is the paramount value.

c.    The marketplace is controlled by dominant media and entry to the media is far from free.  The dominant media control not only entry but content, and exclude the participation by the citizenry at large.  Thus, there is a flat-out “failure of the marketplace.”