Synopses & Reviews
The current climate of American journalism is fraught with incestuous relations between government and a handful of Fortune 500 corporations that own and operate news organizations. From News Corporations Fox News, General Electrics NBC, Viacoms CBS, Disneys ABC, and Time Warners CNN to Clear Channels massive radio empire, what the mainstream media present as "news" has become largely a "paid political announcement" born of favor trading, conflict of interest, and self-serving, bottom-line corporate logic. As a result of such accommodationism, American viewers receive a homogenized, censored version of reality and the watchdog of American democracy, the press, has become a docile instrument of governmental authority and big money.
In this timely collection of essays by more than a dozen of the nation's top media scholars, critics, and journalists, including a preface by Arthur Kent, the present media crisis is carefully exposed. From coverage of the war in Iraq to national security, this book details the manner in which journalists have walked in lockstep to the self-serving quid pro quo of government and corporate media giants. Among the many topics broached are methods of media manipulation and propagandizing; the claim that the media is liberal; media ownership, rules, and deregulation; alternative media; the threat to free access to information on the Internet; the effects of media consolidation on actors, producers, agents, managers, and lawyers in the film industry; and the standardization of music and reduction of localism in radio. The contributors include media critic Danny Schechter, political analyst Michael Parenti, Mother Jones publisher Jay Harris, the ACLUs Barry Steinhardt and Jay Stanley, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, and many other distinguished commentators.
Not only does this book expose the current crisis, it proposes solutions to it, pinpointing legal and constitutional challenges, reviewing recent FCC rulings and congressional legislation, and proposing structural changes in the ways diverse media currently operate. For any American who prizes democracy, this book is a clear wake-up call to look more carefully behind the superficial slogans of a free America and the stars and stripes strategically displayed on the TV monitor.
Review
"An important, relevant and often riveting look at the news... as it is, as
it should be, and what we can do about it!"
Robert Greenwald, Producer/Director, Outfoxed: Ruppert
Murdock's War on Journalism, and Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the War
in Iraq
Review
"Peter Phillips, Danny Schechter, Marc Cooper, Norman Solomon and more ...
it's the Seven Samarai of Media truth knights. Read this book and you're
inoculated against the epidemic of stupidity, cupidity and propaganda
sludge that vomits from the corporate Pravda that is the American press."
Greg Palast, author of the New York Times bestseller, The
Best Democracy Money Can Buy: Expanded Election Edition and Joker's Wild:
Dubya's House of Cards
Review
"...ethicist Elliot D. Cohen has compiled insightful essays that take on
the many facets of what he terms the corporate media's "threat to
democracy." The book brings together scholarly and grassroots voices to
illuminate the concepts and challenges within the media democracy
movement...a primer for the budding media activist"
Znet review
Review
"...about the most important trend in today's media: its shift from being a
special kind of business to "just another business," under concentrated
corporate ownership. If there are prospects for slowing the change, they
are laid out in these essays--along with tips about dealing with its
consequences."
James Fallows, National Correspondent, Atlantic Monthly,
and author of Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy
Review
"...an indispensable reference for anyone wishing to understand why the
mass media fails to serve our democracy. It documents...why anyone who
cares about the future of broadcast journalism in this country should
oppose the concentration of media outlets in the hands of a few very
powerful corporate owners."
Chellie Pingree, President & CEO, Common Cause
Review
"This book provides thought-provoking insights into the role of the media
in our society and adds another chapter to the critical debate about the
future of American media."
The Honorable Michael J. Copps
About the Author
Elliot D. Cohen, Ph.D. (Port St. Lucie, FL), is the director of the
Institute of Critical Thinking, the editor of the International Journal of
Applied Philosophy, and the author of many books in journalism,
professional ethics, and philosophical counseling, including Journalistic
Ethics (with Deni Elliot), Philosophical Issues in Journalism, and What
Would Aristotle Do? Self-Control through the Power of Reason.