Product Description

From the creator of Fark.com, an exposé on the media gone awry, revealing the hysterical, often outrageous non-news that passes for newsworthy today

Have you ever found yourself noticing certain patterns in the news you see and read each day? Perhaps it’s the blatant fear-mongering in the absence of facts on your local 6 o’clock news ("Tsunami could hit the Atlantic any day!" EVERYBODY PANIC), or the seasonal articles that appear year after year like clockwork ("Roads will be crowded this holiday season." Thanks AAA.). IT’S NOT NEWS, IT’S FARK is Drew Curtis’ clever examination of the state of the media today and a hilarious look at the go-to stories mass media uses when there's just not enough hard news to fill a newspaper or a news broadcast. Who is to blame for non-news in the media? Is it the media, or the media consumer and their website-clicking habits? Or does the answer lie somewhere in between? IT'S NOT NEWS, IT'S FARK takes a crack at why

Drew exposes eight stranger-than-fiction media patterns that prove just how little reporting is going on in the world of reporters today. Regardless of whether it’s a slow news day, mainstream media still has to deliver. IT’S NOT NEWS, IT’S FARK examines all the "news" that was never fit for print in the first place, and promises to have you laughing (with the media, mind you, not at them...) along the way. Let the hilarity ensue.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #681002 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-31
• Released on: 2007-05-31
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The editorial principle behind Curtis's Web Site Fark.com is remarkably simple: readers submit news stories with their own wacky headlines, inviting snarky commentary from other readers. Here, he steps back to examine why "Mass Media" keeps churning out the sort of inane stories that are "supposed to look like news" that make the site so wildly popular. The critique is familiar—see Barry Glassner's The Culture of Fear, among others—but Curtis delivers it with richly sarcastic humor. A section on hysteria over unlikely disasters, for example, punctures alarmist stories with one-line synopses like "Oh my God, there's bacteria on everything." Other chapters explore fake news trends, such as "Equal Time for Nutjobs," which explains how 9/11 conspiracy theories manage to get public airing, or the proliferation of nonevents that are little more than publicity stunts. But the anger behind his criticisms of media companies for producing such nonsense is defused by the acknowledgment that readers actually want to be titillated. Unfortunately, the pleasure of reading Fark.com online, where you can always add your own two cents to the conversation, doesn't always translate to the printed page; old user comments aren't so much comic relief as tacked-on disruption. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Curtis, founder of the hugely popular Web site Fark.com, recalls how and why he got the idea to feature news that is really "Not News." The genesis for the site was correspondence Curtis exchanged with a friend he'd met while living in England; much of it was trading odd news stories. On a whim, in 1997 he registered the domain name Fark.com while he pondered what to post. He decided to use the site as a clearinghouse for odd bits of news and commentary by contributors. Curtis includes excerpts from Fark.com--searching for modern descendents of Genghis Khan, tools Britons use for flossing--and biting commentary on modern news gathering, which Curtis complains has grown inane under the pressure of a 24/7 news cycle. Among his criticisms: canned seasonal stories, out-of-context celebrity comments, articles that are actually advertisements, and headlines that contradict articles. What's most fun about Fark.com, which is used by radio DJs and commercial news outlets, is its rewritten headlines and streaming commentary. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
...a supremely simple set up. . . .Fark is a must read at many media outlets. -- Time, a 2004 article naming Drew Curtis as one of five Bloggers to Watch

It's Not News, It's Fark is an insightful examination of how mass media is drowning in filler and fluff. Still, it could have used a chapter on Boobies. -- The Smoking Gun

As a member of the news media, I can state authoritatively that this book will cure cancer AND end global warming. -- Dave Barry, humorist and bestselling author

Fark is to the mainstream media as something is to something. (I leave it up to Drew Curtis' innate cleverness to fill in the appropriate blanks.) -- Bill Schultz, Producer, Fox News' Red Eye

I find it hilarious and sadly disturbing that I've spent fifteen years of my life in a goddamned newsroom, and yet Drew Curtis has learned enough about what we do -- because our methods are so transparent and simplistic -- that he can write a book about media trends and pretty much nail it. -- Chez Pazienza, Producer, CNN

Lewd, crude, and traffic-generating Fark.com invites its community of ad hoc commentators to participate in an ongoing brutal but frequently witty dissection of current news stories that sometimes turns into news itself. When the site recently green lighted a news item under the descriptive headline "Anna Nicole Smith's condition downgraded to dead," Reuters and other international news outlets reported the crack. The enterprise is still primarily run by one guy: founder and smart-ass Drew Curtis. In January 2007, he launched Fark TV on the SuperDeluxe comedy video site. He is also scheduled to release a book titled It's not news, it's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass of Crap as News in May 2007. (Yeah, but your media watchdog wants crap!) -- PC World magazine on the "50 Most Important People online"

This is that absolute rarity: the right book at the right time. It puts the news in perspective--and Mass Media on the spot--by showing how little of it is news at all. I laughed, I cried, I wised up. In fact, at one point I laughed so hard I almost threw up. Readers who want to know where that happened need to buy this book and read the item about Homeland Security and goats. -- Stephen King

Customer Reviews

Fun and interesting but wore thin by the end
I really started out liking this book. The guy is right about the fake news stories, the filler and the crap in the news. I was reading this thing and enjoying the heck out of it. Its an okay read. But as I got deeper in the book I got bored as once you understand the crap thats out there it doesnt matter much what 'type' it is. But my hats off to the guy for creating a business out of this nonsense. Its fun and interesting ... to a point.

A bit unfocused
This book's entertaining as a look into the types of stories that get recycled, hyped unnecessarily, etc. by major news outlets. But it's not sure whether it wants to be a "best of wacky Fark highlights" collection or a substantive critique of the state of news...the author even mentions trying to decide which area to focus on, before choosing both.

The result is an unfocused book. The anecdotes (most of the book) are interesting enough but grow repetitive, and the critique of news (a subject in which the author is really very qualified to comment on) is more shrill and snarky than reasoned. A late chapter briefly suggests fixes for the broken state of news; that's more of what I'd have liked to read, but right when it got going, then it was over.

A quick, fun read, but not as substantive as it might have been.

A great essay padded into book form
If you have little idea how the media works, and often wonder why Paris Hilton is given the "Breaking News" treatment while child soldiers in Uganda are buried on CNN's website, this is a good introduction. Much of the news is built on gimmicks that work to get said medium (TV, newspaper, radio, internet, etc) more eyeballs, more ratings, and more ads dollars. Here, Drew Curtis is on solid ground when he exposes he gimmickery involved in modern news media -- and often how shameless it is.

However, after awhile the format of the book sinks into a rut. Silly abuse after silly abuse is shown -- along with Farker's comments. It's not that they are bad, but rather they usually follow a pattern of having little to do with the issue at hand. Rather, they come off like Leno's late-night jokes - sometimes really funny, sometimes really dumb. After awhile, you get the hint. For someone who is first looking into media criticism (beyond accusations of bias and 'corporate' control), this is a good place to start getting your bearings. Otherwise, the aformentioned Neil Postman book is probably a good companion or substitute.

Still, this is a good place to start for everyone who has watched the nightly news and said to yourself "this isn't news." You're not alone.