Drive-By Journalism: The Assault on Your Need to Know

By Arthur E. Rowse

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1567511929
• ISBN13: 9781567511925
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Common Courage Press
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Wall Street Conquers the Fourth Estate

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.

Should be on the shelves of every community library

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.

A Life Jacket for the First Amendment

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.

Very Interesting Book!

It's quite alarming to learn how the failure of the press to report responsibly on government and politics (versus scandal, crime, and drama) is affecting the demise of a living democracy. Four out of ten Americans don't even know who the vice president is (although I have to believe in this year with the VP running for president, that might be different)! The book documents quite well how the press is methodically contributing to the decline of interest in politics and the power and political influence of the owners of media giants. A good read!!Rob

The Story the Media Won't Touch

DRIVE-BY JOURNALISM shows how the news is being corrupted by media mergers, tabloidism, trivialities, self-censorship, gotcha journalism and other assaults on free society. It blows the whistle on the rating-chasing predators that have turned a sacred obligation to educate and inform people into a race to exploit the First Amendment for commercial purposes and amuse people for maximum profit. Rowse shows how the media shape politics to their own purposes, essentially deciding who runs for public office, who gets elected and what it all means. The result is a government that represents only the wealthiest interests