"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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