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

by Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols

Book Overview

Thomas Frank called Tragedy and 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 expos 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1595581294
• ISBN13: 9781595581297
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: New Press
• Length: 211 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

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 can remember. It is a lie told and retold, screamed and ranted about by the actual media powers that be, those who work for Sinclair Broadcasting, Clear Channel, Fox News--the entire Murdoch empire and more--the O'Reilly's, the Limbaugh's, the Ollie North's, the Scarborough's, the Beck's, the evangelical demagogues, the shrill shock jocks of AM radio, the editorial writers at the Wall Street Journal, and even some people working for the New York Times and the Washington Post. Behind these voices of deception are the conservative and controlling owners of our media and their corporate sponsors, people who merely want to massage and indoctrinate the populous into compliant couch potatoes who will buy their products and hail to the chief and not rock the boat. Recently there have been a slew of books belatedly exposing this lie. Tragedy and Farce is yet another such tome, but in some ways it is among the best of the bunch. Nichols and McChesney take a historical perspective, showing how journalism has gone from 19th century Hearst jingoism to an eclectic array of publications in the heyday of the American press in the early 20th century to the docile and sycophantic reporters who work for today's mass media. An important and at times laugh out loud funny part of the book are the cartoons by Tom Tomorrow. His insightful satire and parody of our political elites and media mavens nicely complement the text. But do Nichols and McChesney go far enough? They assert there is "a crisis in journalism" and they point to the recent consolidation of media, to the monopolistic franchises and subsidies that some media enjoy (p. 173) thanks to their financial, editorial, and news spin support of various politicians, especially those in the Bush Administration. They warn that "big media plays a well-marked role in defining the choices from which America's two major parties select their nominees for president." (p. 91) And they remind us that so tight is that media control that no third party candidate has more than a remote chance of ever becoming president. But what I would say is replace "big media" in the quote with "corporate America" and change "well-marked role" to "absolutely controlling role" and we are closer to the awful truth. The plain fact is that we have a democracy by capitalism in this country, that there is no chance for any candidate to achieve the highest office who is not in the pocket of, and whose mind is not to some extent contro

Truth Available in Books if Not in the Media

The premise of this book is that we are not getting the real news from our media. The truth is being distorted, spun and omitted by the editors who are responsive to the dictates of THEIR masters, Big Business. By allowing large conglomerates to buy up our communication media and monopolize the very avenues by which we learn about our government's policies and mishaps, the government/Big Business has assured itself of a propaganda machine. Better than Pravda at disguising the truth, ABC, NBC, CBS and of course, Fox are servile and willingly disguise the truth. This book goes further and details the lack of money being spent on investigative journalism. They are simply stenographers to the Bush administration. I highgly reccommend this book, but be prepared to go elsewhere to get your news. YOu will never again trust the U.S. media for the truth. Not even PBS is giving it to us straight, or questioning their 'sources'. From now on, it's LeMonde or Der Spiegel for me, and sometimes, the Washington Post!!!..just for comparison. But here's one good piece of news: You CAN trust the traffic and weather. Well, at least the traffic picture. Big Business (e.g., GE, Disney, et al) can't make money off lying about that.

Scathing indictment of American media coverage of the Iraqui War and the 2004 Presidential election

The trend is unmistakable. Officials in Washington refer to what is happening to American media as "deregulation". Nothing could be further from the truth. What is really going on in this country is media consolidation. As a result one company, Clear Channel, now owns more than 1200 radio stations across America. A handful of other media conglomerates including Citadel, Entercom and Infinity control most of the rest. The same holds true for television stations and major newspapers. John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney find this to be an alarming situation. In "Tragedy and Farce" Nichols and McChesney present a compelling case for making the ongoing media consolidation the overriding public issue of our day. For most of the history of the American republic there has existed a vibrant and diversified press. Most major cities had multiple daily newspapers reflecting a wide variety of opinion. Likewise most radio and television stations were locally owned and operated. In this environment the vast majority of these outlets were committed to covering local news and issues. Sadly in just the past quarter century all of this has changed dramatically. And as the authors passionately argue, no matter what your political persuasion, this is at the very least an unfortunate and at worst a potentially dangerous situation. At the beginning of Chapter 1 Nichols and McChesney quote Founding Father and former President James Madison who opined that "A popular Government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy or perhaps both." It is the contention of the authors that this unprecedented consolidation of American media has resulted in a situation where the American people are not being given adequate information to make intelligent decisions at the polls. Some may argue that this is just sour grapes from Nichols and McChesney who make no attempt to hide their "liberal" point of view. But for my money the authors present an extremely well thought out and coherent case for their position. Their analysis of the pathetic media coverage of the events leading up to the Iraqui War is right on target. They go on to make the case that American media coverage of the 2004 Presidential election was really not much better. Perhaps the most persuasive argument they make involves the so-called "Downing Street memo". This memo, which many considered to be the "smoking gun" against the Bush administration, suggested that President Bush decided to overthrow Saddam Hussein in the summer of 2002 and intentionally manipulated American intelligence to support his case. At the very least, release of this information should have set off a vigorous debate about our involvement in Iraq and about the veracity of our Commander-In-Chief. It should have become a major campaign issue in 2004. But as Nichols and McChesney are quick to point out the American media decided that other events that were going on at th

Rock Solid Info From Two Professionals

Simpy a great book. Nichols and McChesney are two of the most informed and sharpest media critics around. Right wingers won't like this book because it destroys so many of the myths that they cling to. However facts are facts and the authors are expert at presenting them.