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 exposé 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 starved of democracy's oxygen: accurate
information. More than anything John Kerry, George Bush, or even Karl
Rove did, the media's miscoverage of the campaign and war decided the
election. Most disturbingly, the flawed coverage reflects new,
structural problems within U.S. journalism.
Tragedy and Farce dissects the media failures of recent years and
shows how they expose the decline in resources and standards for
political journalism--as well as the methodical campaign by the
political right to control the news cycle. In our highly concentrated
media system it has become commercially and politically irrational to do
the kind of journalism a self-governing society requires.