3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Should be on the shelves of every community library, February 9, 2001
In Drive-By Journalism: The Assault On Your Need To Know, Arthur Rowse sets for a compelling and persuasive argument that we are being lulled into political and social apathy by the steady beat of media produced "news-amuse" journalism. Rowse points out that media mergers are rapidly creating a huge news cartel with just five conglomerates controlling what most people see, read and hear in television news broadcasts and major urban center newspapers. Profit-at-all-costs pressures have created a kind of "drive-by" journalism with an emphasis on trivia and tragedy ("If it bleeds, it leads!). News producers must nowadays showcase information in a recreational or entertainment framework that prefers sensationalism over substance, sound bites over insights. That's why such critical matters as health care, gun control, tax equity, campaign reform, and the environment are made subservient to personality and horse race style coverage. Drive-By Journalism should be on the shelves of every community library in the country, and required reading for journalism students, media activists, and those charged with the responsibility for gathering, analyzing, and disseminating the news of the day.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Life Jacket for the First Amendment, September 18, 2000
If ever the First Amendment needed a life jacket, this is the time. Rowse tells how good newspapering, that is tough, honest reporting, is drowning thanks to the media giants and the corporate villains who control them. Whether its politics, economic disasters for the working poor, pollution or corruption, America is being denied a saving hand from the very institutions that the Founding Fathers provided us. Here is a lighthouse book offering a way out of our troubled journalistic waters. And it's a page-turner, as well.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wall Street Conquers the Fourth Estate, June 10, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Drive-By Journalism: The Assault on Your Need to Know (Paperback)
In Drive-by Journalism, Arthur Rowse makes a convincing case that a lack of reliable news is crippling American democracy.
As a result of deregulation of the news and entertainment industries, a steady series of corporate mergers has concentrated the media into a five-firm oligopoly of unprecedented power. We may think we have a lot of channels to choose from, but they all come from the same handful of sources, all of which are more interested in satisfying corporate investors than in producing an informed electorate. Rather than compete, the media conglomerates collude like mafia bosses, divvying up the available markets, using every available second of air time to sell us products, services, and a consumer lifestyle. This does not speak well to the likelihood of our getting trustworthy news.
Rowse deftly slaps down the ridiculous yet pervasive myth that the mass media are liberally biased and demonstrates conclusively that quite the opposite is true. Although many reporters have liberal tendencies, they are not the ones who determine which stories get reported. News networks have become lap dogs for their parent companies, and these media giants are as conservative as they are powerful. Moreover, they respond to advertisers, not the viewing public. NBC, for example, wouldn't dream of reporting on General Electric, the most notorious polluter in the nation, because GE is now NBC's parent company. The same is true of ABC and Disney, CBS and Westinghouse. In fact, every major network is now owned by the biggest advertisers in the nation. Don't think that isn't affecting what gets reported on the 6 o'clock news.....
According to Rowse, about 40% of what we see on the news these days is not even the product of investigative journalism; it is pre-packaged propaganda "donated" to the networks by political and corporate public relations firms. By accepting these gracious handouts, the networks can reduce the number of expensive journalists they employ. The result, of course, is that networks no longer investigate; they merely serve as conduits through which powerful organizations deliver their pre-fab images to the public.
Perhaps Rowse’s most frightening point is the link he makes between poor news reporting and citizen apathy. With nothing but info-tainment and scandal stories on the news, Americans have no viable means to choose between one candidate and another, between one policy and another. So they don’t bother. With voters thus sidelined, well-funded corporate lobbyists have the undivided attention of our lawmakers, whom they outnumber 40 to 1.
This book is well-documented, well-organized, well-written, and vitally important in our times. Better still, it’s truly interesting. Rowse provides fascinating insider anecdotes that bring all his statistics to life. Very highly recommended.
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