It’s Not News It’s Fark How Mass Media

Don't read it, it's a trap!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Admiral Ackbar and a squirrel with nuts the size of bowling balls were huffing gold paint and being general attention whores and failed to inspire a huge manatee into bursting into flames. Really a boring story...

Fark Dis
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
The Fark.com website is a hilarious indictment of the ridiculousness and uselessness of Mass Media, and this here book is meant mostly for laughs. (Solid in-depth critiques of stupid news, usually with a focus on corporate/advertiser pressure, are easily found elsewhere.) On the good side, Drew Curtis has some pretty good insights on why news is so dumb these days, from the perspective of the informed outside observer. Good examples are his solid hatchet jobs on news coverage of Janet Jackson's Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction or Dick Cheney's face shooting incident. Curtis also has a pretty well-considered closing chapter on how Mass Media is failing in light of the Internet, shooting down the old boys who continue to live with their heads in the sand.

But Curtis keeps falling back into thin examples of ridiculous stories that amount to little more than a boring list. There is also a lot of unintentional irony here, as Curtis is guilty of many of weaknesses that he sarcastically condemns from Mass Media. For example, he blasts mainstream journalists for a lack of fact-checking. But here he states that Alexander Hamilton is on the $20 bill; and says he was in middle school when Johnny Carson left his show (1992) after earlier saying several times that he was in college in the early 90s. Also, Curtis slams journalists for pasting old material into new stories to take up space. But a large amount of space in this book is pasted submissions from the Fark.com message board. A few of these are surprisingly insightful but most are the cheeky pseudo-commentary that you'd expect.

This book is still good for laughs as you read about instances of stupid journalism from lazy journalists. But it's unclear how serious Curtis is trying to be in terms of analysis and insight on very important media issues. But in the end, this book gives the impression that it doesn't take its subject matter too seriously. Readers with the same mindset will enjoy it - for a while. [~doomsdayer520~]

Die Laughing or MBA in Pitching the Media
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This book is the bomb. Using the funniest stories from the best Fark.com posts -- which scores of radio hosts habitually steal from without giving due credit -- Drew has given anyone what they need to kick the "news" habit, bust a gut laughing, or successfully pitch the media. By pointing out how the media spins non-news into cover stories, he shows the inside workings of the PR machines that prefers to stay well behind closed doors.

If you don't care to learn anything, and just want an easy read that will make you cry laughing, this is the one. Milk spurts galore. Highest recommendations!

Subby +1
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
As a former author I'm getting a kick out of this review

/tag suggestions were "fap fap fap"

//that's funny

///buy the book

A bit unfocused
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
This book's entertaining as a look into the types of stories that get recycled, hyped unnecessarily, etc. by major news outlets. But it's not sure whether it wants to be a "best of wacky Fark highlights" collection or a substantive critique of the state of news...the author even mentions trying to decide which area to focus on, before choosing both.

The result is an unfocused book. The anecdotes (most of the book) are interesting enough but grow repetitive, and the critique of news (a subject in which the author is really very qualified to comment on) is more shrill and snarky than reasoned. A late chapter briefly suggests fixes for the broken state of news; that's more of what I'd have liked to read, but right when it got going, then it was over.

A quick, fun read, but not as substantive as it might have been.

You'll be amazed how much of your "news" is utter Fark
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This book is like a textbook for journalism students. It shows all the ways that modern media inflates trivial stories into days of 24-hour coverage as a lazy ploy to sell ads and fill time. CNN takes the worst beating from Drew Curtis because, unlike Fox News, CNN actually pretends to be a credible news source. What the mainstream media calls "news" is just celebrity scandals, weather alerts, fear-mongering and corporate shilling because they know that's what you'll watch. I don't know how he managed it, but Curtis makes [...] look like a more legitimate news source than anything on TV. Fark may be crude, to the point of gut-busting laughter, but it's unfiltered and unbiased.

Predictable and Lightweight, But Serves a General Purpose
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
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

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

Should be required reading for College Journalists/New Media
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a really funny book, but at the same time a very relevant text in the new media world. Working for a large online media company, this book really rang home.

If you work for an online media company, if you are in college and want to be a journalist, or if you want to work for an online new media company this is a must read.

Funny and Thought-provoking
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This book is a rare, and wonderful, combination of hilariously funny and thought-provoking. Curtis' media analysis is dead-on (personal favorites: "Equal Time for Nutjobs" and "Proximity to NY/LA/Atlanta.") Anyone who pays even the slightest bit of attention to the news should read this book -- you will see things differently afterward. Among other things, you'll realize that a lot of the people quoted in articles on scientific studies as "opposing viewpoints" actually have no idea what the hell they're talking about. Plus you'll laugh out loud a lot.

Don't think you have to be familiar with the website to like the book -- I'd never been to fark.com before I discovered the book in the Nashville airport.

And I disagree with the PW review: The fark.com comments do add to the book, adding another layer of analysis and a lot of humor.

If you're looking for a fun read that opens your eyes to news you read every day, this one's for you.

Beware of the Media's Agenda
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This book will make you laugh, make you cry, and propably make you mad. You will discover how you have been duped by the Media to dance to their tune. I have always known the Media will only tell you what they want you to know to achieve their ratings and their agenda but to finally see it in print is great. The truth lies between the lines, it's up to us to find it.

To "understand" the media - READ THIS BOOK
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I just got my copy of the book yesterday, I also just got strange looks for laugh/spitting muffin at the diner while reading it and simply can't put it down. I'm not sure (because I'm still reading it) if Drew has covered the "let's bring up the dangers of illegal immigration" thinly disguised mexican racism that rears it's head every time that the "real" news gets too uncomfortable. The kicker was the pizza chain in Texas that got death threats (all instigated by fox news) for accepting pesos - yet I live in Central New York and nobody is sending death threats to the State for taking Canadian Dollars on the Thruway toll booths. Thanks for this book Drew, I can think of MANY people that I need to buy copies for.

Fun and interesting but wore thin by the end
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I really started out liking this book. The guy is right about the fake news stories, the filler and the crap in the news. I was reading this thing and enjoying the heck out of it. Its an okay read. But as I got deeper in the book I got bored as once you understand the crap thats out there it doesnt matter much what 'type' it is. But my hats off to the guy for creating a business out of this nonsense. Its fun and interesting ... to a point.

A great read and a great critique of the media.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This book is an extremely effective critique of the media and it's unique, in that it doesn't come from the left or the right. Curtis' approach is apolitical and he lays into the mainstream media for not for being slanted one way or the other, but for doing a poor job of disseminating the news.

Why is the media doing stories on shark attacks, bird flu scares, and other statistically unlikely scenarios? Because nobody is interested in being told the truth, that they're more likely to be killed in an auto accident or by slipping in their bathtub.

Then there are the filler articles. We get stories telling us that traffic is going to be terrible around the next holiday and that it's going to be hot this summer. Boy, those are real newsflashes. These are the sort of articles you get because reporters are lazy.

But, then there's the real killer that people don't discuss: most people, despite what they say, don't want real news without spin. From the book,

"People don't really want to watch or read news that does the right thing. The McNeil-Leher Newshour was a great example of this. Quality news, mostly information, and no one watched it. It was dry as breakfast toast in a diner at lunch on Saturday. Is there any way to fix this? No."

Additionally, I can tell you that the book is light, funny, reading and, after having interviewed him, I can assure you that Drew Curtis knows what he's talking about.

Long story, short: Whether you're conservative or liberal, I think you'll find this to be a great read and scalding critique of the mainstream media.

Funny, Insightful, and a Delightful Read.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I read the book a couple of weekends ago while at the cottage and laughed out loud several times. The author does a nice job of revealing patterns he has seen in the media and conveying them with humour and a down-to-earth perspective. He definitely stands on the side of the road and says, "That Emperor? He's naked." Thanks Drew for pointing out the obvious...which is so easily overlooked.

Loved it!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I picked up this book not really expecting to read all it - it seemed like a fun book to skim for an hour or so. However, this book was so amusing and true that I kept reading it until the end - every word of it! I even took to carrying it around with me. Once I left it somewhere and felt some measure of devastation that I didn't have it to read me to sleep that night. The point I am making is that if you are a consumer of mass media, which I admit I am to a great extent, you find much to amuse you in this book. Curtis gives a sarcastic and insightful critique of the media. After discussing each story that appeared on his website, fark.com, he includes snarky comments that were posted on the site. It is actually a very amusing and clever addition to the book - it makes the reader feel as if she were reading along with a group of witty friends.

My favorite story from the book is the terror drill held in Kentucky by over 80 local and national agencies. It involved the hypothetical situation of a terrorist infecting a goat with a biological disease and then infecting millions when it was petted during a "goat show." This drill was necessary because Kentucky is one of the top five goat-producing states. This kept me laughing until 3 in the morning. Home of the brave? Not anymore!

Changes how you look / listen to news
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I live in Lexington (where the author lives) and listen to him on the radio periodically (Z103), so I may be a little biased. While nothing in the book came as a suprise, it definitely makes you more aware of how much crap the media actually feeds us. Very easy to read, spends just enough time on a subject to be entertaining without losing your attention. Highly recommend.

Mass media gets pwned by Fark
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a very enjoyable light read full of insightful commentary on repeatable and observable trends in the mass media. Humorous, laugh out loud hysterically funny at times, critical of the media while acknowledging its unenviable but jealously guarded place in the world while still critical enough to tell them to cut the [...]and get back to work. And, while Curtis acknowledges the fact that the consumer is often pedestrian and puerile, he doesn't let the media get away with using that as an excuse.

I would expect the book to become required reading in journalism classes. Either that, or he pissed off every professor of journalism in the country.

Drew's Book Surpassed My Expectations, NTTAWWT
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purchased this book to support Fark, my most favorite waste of time on the internet. Much to my delight, the book is actually wonderful! Curtis could have taken the easy way out and presented us with one of those torturous "100 Best Moments Of..." sort of nightmares. Instead, he explores why so much of what is marketed as news is actually marketing, or too much airtime for a random crazy guy, or poorly thought out lists, or laziness.

The subject matter is critical to understanding modern media, yet the delivery is, at times, laugh out loud funny. The writing can be a little uneven in places, but for a first book by a guy who designed a website to host a picture of a squirrel with distended gonads, I was stunned by the depth of the discussion. My husband, who is not a Farker, is enjoying the book as well. We will be reading selected essays in the bathroom for years to come.

I'm not an expert, but I can read.....
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This book is oh, so true! [...] keeps way too many people occupied and this book lets the reader know why.

Nothing new, but a nice follow-on...
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
...to Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business." I went to a book signing by the author, and someone asked him about the similarities before I could ask the same thing. Curtis replied that he hadn't read the book, but that it was definitely on his reading list, since this was the third time on the tour someone had asked him the same question.

Lazy, needs a better editor
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
This isn't bad for what it's supposed to be, I guess, but a little bit of effort could've made it better. Far too many simple grammatical errors, dumb and easily correctible mistakes like claiming Alexander Hamilton is on the $20 bill, and odd stylistic quirks (repeating "So it goes" enough to make me think Curtis just read Slaughterhouse Five, and yet using it in inappopriate places). While these errors aren't the types of things he's attacking in the book, they are very distracting in a book as critical of the media as this one is.

This book is awesome.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This book really shows how the media is full of crap and what really lies behind the news story.

Insightful and comical look at our absurd media
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
For anyone who has been a regular on fark, the book is an extension of the website fark dot com. However, while the author's favorite examples are extremely funny, don't let that fool you into believing the book is all about humor. Drew offers some powerful insight into the news today and where advertising is going in the electronic age. If his numbers are true of a site that receives millions of hits, then any media outlet, radio, television, print, or otherwise, has a rude awakening when their advertisers start to ask the tough questions about how often their advertisements lead to real sales or conversions. Radio is just now finding out their perceptions of the listening audience is drastically different with electronic tracking, rather than the old phone poll logs. In the years to come, the advertising industry is going to be turned on its head. To some extent, the insight offered in this book is well ahead of its time with its predictions. Thankfully enough, Drew keeps the book mostly comical through absurd news stories. Thanks for the book Drew!

It's Not Fark, It's a Book
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Drew Curtis' book is a terrific read and a surprisingly astute look into the world of the mass media and the various articles in the news which keep popping up year after year.

Curtis' book, much like his website (...) is simultaneously funny and informative. I'm sure other writers on the media have tackled this subject already, but Curtis makes it more accessible with his straightforward and humorous writing.

My only real issue is the frequent inclusion of comments from the Fark forum. It distracted the flow of the book. While some of them were very funny, others were not. It left me wondering why some had been included and others had not. In general, I think it's difficult to duplicate the trainwrecks and hilarity found on the Fark and TotalFark forums in the medium of a book.

Farker comments aside, this was a very entertaining read. I look forward to seeing what Drew has in store next.

Great book!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
WOW! What an awesome book. My table has leaned to the right for years. I bought this book and now my table is level and doesn't wobble. Thanks Drew!

Not for anyone over the age or I.Q. of 13
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
The problem with this book is that it wouldn't exist were it not for the "media excess" that it claims to decry. It's as though People Magazine ran a cover article on the stupidity of Celebrity Worship. Beyond the hypocrisy, you're left with the simple fact that Mr. Curtis simply cannot write. He has all the literary skills of a hamstrung squid. The Fark website itself is pretty much just a meeting ground for half-wits and social rejects, but at least it's true to it's own original concept: hundreds of perpetual adolescents gather to make snarky comments about world events. This book, however, tries to pretend to have something serious to say about the News Industry- a concept that has merit, but is totally beyond the intellectual reach of it's author. It's as though Dane Cook decided to write a book deconstructing the career and achievements of George Carlin.

Outstanding!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Long gone are the days of journalistic integrity. Today the media is more concerned with ratings than reporting accurate news. This book describes all of the techniques reporters use to make stories sound more important than they actually are.

Farkin' great book!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is an interesting, humorous and somewhat sad look at the media and the sheeple that follow along.

I highly recommend it.

The writers site, Fark.com is worth hitting daily for a wide variety of "Not News".

It's Not News, It's Fark
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This book is both informative and entertaining. Its satire on the news business is funny as well as giving you some interesting tidbits about the industry.

Entertaining, but sadly illiterate
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I am in the news business myself and appreciate this book for its dissection of all that is wrong with the mass media today, particularly in the United States, where trash as substance first originated. I cannot, however, give this book top ratings for the simple reason that the author has forgotten his grammar. The word "media" is the plural of "medium", and therefore the media ARE something, but they never IS something. The same is true of the words "bacteria" and "bacterium", which appear in a leading role in "It's Not News". As I have written in other reviews on Amazon, I am absolutely horrified at the deterioration of the quality of the English language in the "Internet age", and there is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for this kind of thing in a work which is at least theoretically published by a reputable publishing company. I do believe that there is still a profession called proofreader, and this is a book which most sorely needed a good one.

It's farking great!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I laughed, I cried, I pooped, I farked. I did all those things simultaneously.

One lifetime sponsorship for togamoos please.

I laughed, I cried, I LOL'ed
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
People seem to expect anything having to do with Drew Curtis to be completely unserious, but the fact is that years of watching mainstream media for a living have given him some pretty astute insights into what, exactly, is wrong with our public discourse.

A great essay padded into book form
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
If you have little idea how the media works, and often wonder why Paris Hilton is given the "Breaking News" treatment while child soldiers in Uganda are buried on CNN's website, this is a good introduction. Much of the news is built on gimmicks that work to get said medium (TV, newspaper, radio, internet, etc) more eyeballs, more ratings, and more ads dollars. Here, Drew Curtis is on solid ground when he exposes he gimmickery involved in modern news media -- and often how shameless it is.

However, after awhile the format of the book sinks into a rut. Silly abuse after silly abuse is shown -- along with Farker's comments. It's not that they are bad, but rather they usually follow a pattern of having little to do with the issue at hand. Rather, they come off like Leno's late-night jokes - sometimes really funny, sometimes really dumb. After awhile, you get the hint. For someone who is first looking into media criticism (beyond accusations of bias and 'corporate' control), this is a good place to start getting your bearings. Otherwise, the aformentioned Neil Postman book is probably a good companion or substitute.

Still, this is a good place to start for everyone who has watched the nightly news and said to yourself "this isn't news." You're not alone.

Funny stuff, but....
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
...talk about biting the hand that feeds you. This is a celebration, masquerading as a denunciation, of all manners of news media excesses and idiocies. Fark is a legitimate internet phenomenon, and deserves a book-length profile. But, after reading the book, I couldn't really say why Fark is that much more different or special than some other big news satire sites out there. The founder just got there first with the most, I guess. The best thing are the comments from farkers, though, of which the author provides a generous sample. A fun three-evening read.

Utter Rubbish
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
Curtis has one basic proposition: Good journalism is easy, just report the facts. Sadly, he demonstrates a complete and consistent failure to understand that the world is full of nuance and that facts are fluid, dynamic things that don't always look symmetrical from all angles. Whenever he takes on a fact, he's wrong. Whenever he tries to be funnier than those around him, he's tragic.

He also commits the cardinal sin - he thinks he is funny. He is not. His website is, because his visitors are, and he (to his immense credit) gives them space to be. I just wish he'd be satisfied with what he has instead of thinking he's some gonzo journo because his website is full of inside knowledge.

Amazing.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Perfection wrapped inside a fleece blanky wrapped inside a butter dish. Truly.

This book has it all - and by all, I mean some. But it's the some that really matters. The some that some people go after some of the time in some places. Oh, yes... that some - and this book is fat with it!

If you have a few hours to kill on the potty, you could do a lot worse - and believe me, I've tried.