Editorial Review:

How American media are failing our democracy, by the authors Bill Moyers calls "the Paul Revere and Tom Paine of our time."
"As this book makes clear, the problem is deeper than the administration or the right-wing echo chamber...the very structure of our conglomerated media system conspires against real journalism and, hence, against truth."--Tim Robbins, from the Foreword
Thomas Frank called Tragedy & Farce "an appeal to reason in a dark time. " Including the sharpest analysis of 2004 election coverage yet and the first detailed look at the burgeoning media reform movement, this book is both an exposé and a call to action. In it John Nichols and Robert McChesney--two of the country's leading media analysts--argue that during the 2004 election and throughout the Iraq war and occupation, Americans have been starved of democracy's oxygen: accurate information. More than anything John Kerry, George Bush, or even Karl Rove did, the media's mis-coverage of the campaign and war decided the election. Most disturbingly, the flawed coverage reflects new, structural problems within U.S. journalism.
Tragedy and Farce dissects the media failures of recent years and show how they expose the decline in resources and standards for political journalism--as well as the methodical campaign by the political right to control the news cycle. In our highly concentrated media system it has become commercially and politically irrational to do the kind of journalism a self-governing society requires. 10 b/w illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy:

gooood

A national disgrace:

The war is a tragedy and the media coverage of the 2004 presidential election was a farce. That is part of what Nichols and McChesney are telling us in this very readable and important book. More saliently they warn that unless the media reassumes its responsibility to tell the truth about how our government operates and about what it is doing that it hides from us, there is a danger that our democracy will be destroyed.
I have been hearing the lie about the "liberal bias" of the press for as long as I... more info

Disappointed by Book:

I was disappointed by this book.
While generally sympathetic to its conclusions, I was expecting a systematic examination of exactly what the title purported to promise, namely, "How the American Media Sell Wars..."
Instead what I got was a broad hodge-podge of sweeping statements that oftentimes read like a blog post -- of over two hundred pages.
The authors seem to realize this when at the conclusion of the critical 2nd Chapter titled "The Crisis in Journalism", they write:
"We concede... more info

Biased, Blindly Written Piece of [...]:

I thought this book would be more representative of the sensationalist reporting the media has been shoving down the throats of Americans for the last few years. Instead, this book essentially says there is not enough of this over-sensationalized baloney, and it begs that the media produce more in the name of our founding fathers.
If you dare to go there, check this out from the library. This drivel is not worth your hard earned money.

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