"With this deliciously funny exposé, Jeff Cohen can
probably kiss his television career goodbye. The rest of
us meanwhile can celebrate his book and embrace him as
one of America's sharpest and bravest pundits -- in any
medium." —Barbara Ehrenreich
"Jeff Cohen has given us a lively, funny, serious,
and ultimately devastating look at the corporate media,
which he had a unique opportunity to observe from the
inside. When future historians search for a description
of the major media of our time, they will have his book
as a primary source." —Howard Zinn
Did you miss Jeff Cohen's very well received session
at our #NoWar2022 conference? Or did you see it? Either
way, you'll want to jump at this chance to discuss with
him online in four small-group sessions over four weeks,
his book on being a cable news insider, a book that
guaranteed he'd be a cable news outsider.
In August 2022, World BEYOND War will be
holding a weekly discussion each of four weeks
of Cable News Confidential with the
author Jeff Cohen as part of a small group WBW book club
limited to a group of 18 participants. He will
send each participant a signed paperback. We'll let you
know which parts of the book will be discussed each week
along with the Zoom details to access the discussions.
When: For one hour on four
Thursdays, August 4, 11, 18, 25, 2022. The time is 23:00
UTC (similar to GMT), 1 pm in Honolulu, 4 pm in Los
Angeles, 6 pm in Mexico City, 7 pm in New York, midnight
in London, and Friday at 8 am in Tokyo, 9 am in Sydney,
and 11 am in Auckland.
REGISTER
HERE.
About the Author:
Jeff Cohen is Co-Founder and Policy Director at
RootsAction.org. He is a media critic, columnist,
documentary filmmaker, and retired journalism professor
who founded the media watch group FAIR in 1986. For
years, he was a regular pundit on CNN, Fox News, and
MSNBC discussing issues of media and politics.
About the Book:
Producer, pundit, and media critic Jeff Cohen offers
a fast-paced romp through the three major cable news
channels--Fox, CNN, and MSNBC--and delivers a serious
message about their failure to cover the most urgent
issues of the day.
Published in 2006, the book has a heavy emphasis on
the pro-war biases of U.S. television news, with a
special focus on the blatant political censorship that
Cohen encountered at the hands of MSNBC executives (when
he was senior producer of Phil Donahue's primetime show)
during the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"Television news is so bad, says Cohen, the founder
of progressive media watchdog group Fairness and
Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), that 'Walter Cronkite
would have big trouble getting a job today in TV news.'
Thus, the wry media critic kicks off this excellent,
high-energy look back at his trials and tribulations at
CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. Though opinionated and
incisive, Cohen's memoir is not the confession of a
tortured progressive; Cohen freely admits to being a
'telebimbo' and a 'well-paid party to the feeding
frenzy.' In 1987, Cohen began a stint as a guest on
CNN's Crossfire, representing FAIR and progressive
concerns; before he knows it, he's an enthusiastic
member of the media 'kakistocracy,' the 'rule of the
worst.' Doing battle with conservative gadflies Pat
Buchanan, Robert Novak and others proves exhilarating,
but a disturbing trend of 'genuflecting to the political
right' leads CNN executives to replace Crossfire co-host
Michael Kinsley with two Democratic centrists.
Surprisingly, Cohen finds punditry nirvana as a panelist
on Fox News Channel's News Watch, 'the smartest and most
balanced show on Fox and perhaps anywhere in cable
news.' At the behest of Phil Donahue, Cohen moves to
MSNBC, where the handwriting is literally on the wall:
at network headquarters, posters celebrate news coverage
'highlights' like the death of Princess Diana and the
Columbine shootings. Though he chides himself and his
colleagues repeatedly for ignoring real news in favor of
sensationalism ('Nuclear tensions rise; we talk sex on
Fox'), Cohen's willingness to mire himself in the swamp
of infotainment amply mirrors the situation of viewers
drawn into the cable news runaround, doomed to get their
news from 'three dogs chasing each other's tails to the
right.'" —Publishers
Weekly
Reserve
Your Spot Now and Get Your Book With Plenty of Time to
Read it!
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