Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-211).

Preface : Tucker is a what? -- Tragedy and farce -- The crisis in journalism -- Oh, what an embedded war -- The policing of the primaries -- Media and the November election -- Media for a people who mean to be their own governors.

"In this book, John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney, two of the country's leading media analysts and founders of the national media reform group Free Press, dissect the abysmal coverage of the Iraq War and the 2004 presidential election, showing how these media failures expose the decline in resources and standards for political journalism, the organized campaign by the political right to control the news cycle, and the ascendancy of infotainment. Tragedy and Farce helps us to navigate among swift boats and Humvees, from the machinations of the Sinclair Broadcasting Group to the dismissals of the Downing Street memo. Ultimately, Nichols and McChesney argue that the media crisis is not due to incompetent or corrupt journalists but to corrupt policy making that has allowed the media to become the private domain of billionaire investors and massive corporations. In our highly concentrated media system it has become commercially and politically irrational to do the kind of journalism a self-governing society requires."--BOOK JACKET.