Predictable and Lightweight, But Serves a General Purpose
June 27, 2007
Drew Curtis
I read a lot, and list some related interesting books below that expand on the author's rather predictable and lightweight review. He does serve a general purpose, so I do recommend this book as a fast overview.
Here is an even faster overview of mass (corporate-dominated) media:
1) Fearmongering
2) Unpaid (and paid) placement pretending to be news
3) Headlines contradicted by content
4) Equal time for nut jobs (extreme right and extreme left as well as lunatics)
5) Out of context celebrity commentary
6) Seasonal garbage
7) Media fatigue
8) Lesser media space fillers
All of the above are called the “news hole” around which advertising, op-eds, and other garbage are placed.
Now for other books that I consider somewhat more valuable than this one:
Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin
Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & ‘Project Truth'
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything
Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq
unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public
Breaking The News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political–Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption
THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest
