The corporate media's business model is even worse than I thought. Good to know I'm not missing much by not watching it. ( )

Oh Matt. I love your work. It's complex and you dig in no matter where it leads you. You see what's wrong and you aren't afraid to point it out. This book succeeds fairly well on that level. (3.5 rounded up to 4 because I love reading Matt's articles and his writing style is always on point.)

But for all that's good and right in the world, please take that plank from your eye.

For example: Stop excusing your friends for aiding and abetting the Bush administration. Thousands upon thousands of deaths in the middle east are far, far beyond an "oopsie" with complaints of being "mislead". Frankly, none of you deserve forgiveness for that.

And stop insulting people who live in fly-over country in the same breath that you scold your peers who do it. OMG.

But. I still enjoyed the book. As a follow up to Manufacturing Consent, it's a good commentary of the awful new style of commentary news we are watching and reading. Fear, uncertainty and doubt has always worked, but now it's ramped up to eleven 24/7. I miss the half hour of local news followed by national news that ended. There was no need to wallow in politics and bad news. There still isn't. ( )

see my review at ritaer.dreamwidth.org

Great breakdown of the dysfunction in media, but more a collection of essays of autobiographical musings than a thesis with a solution. ( )

This book is quintessential Taibbi. Whilst not rigorous or academic, the book is interesting, insightful, and funny.

The chapter comparing the consumption of news with smoking was by far the best.

Quote of the book: “The news isn't here to create 'the' truth... What we create is a truth... product”