Reddit reviews It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap As News

Matt Drudge broke the Lewinsky story, which had been embargoed by the mainstream media. It's probably hard to appreciate how big a deal this was at the time, but I'll try to explain.

For generations, television, radio, and print media had been seen as utterly trustworthy because they made a big deal about how impartial they were. Some conservatives felt that the media was overly harsh on Republicans and overly protective of Democrats, but they were mostly looked at as conspiracy kooks. But, generally speaking, much editorial content was openly left-leaning, leading conservatives to wonder if all reporters were left leaning and, if so, how they could maintain impartiality.

Then deregulation came to talk radio, and with it, the rise of conservative talk radio. It was cheaper to reach a mass audience with radio than with any other medium, and conservatives flocked to FM AM radio, mainly to hear their viewpoints shouted back at them. This helped them reassure themselves that they were no longer alone. You see, in spite of Ronald Reagan's victories, conservatives always felt culturally isolated, as most of the media and entertainment in this country is produced by people to the left of the political spectrum, and everybody knows it. This led to a siege mentality on the part of conservatives and helped sow the seeds of doubt about the impartiality of the media.

FM AM radio was the only cultural phenomenon (aside from sports) that conservatives could truly feel comfortable with, you see.

Then came Drudge. A nobody with a website (how many people even knew what a website was back then?) who broke a story that the press was sitting on. FM radio exploded in a frenzy, pointing out (with justification?) that if Ronald Reagan or Richard Nixon had gotten a blow job in the Oval Office, it would have been front page news. Then came Ken Starr's investigation, which forced the mainstream media to start covering the story (you can't exactly ignore the Independent Council investigating a sitting President, can you?) and then the whole fucking thing snowballed into the clusterfuck we all remember.

A couple of press scandals later (I see Dan Rather was on the top of /r/all the other day talking about integrity like he didn't run a story he should have known was fake), and now we have half the country who flat out don't believe a word the press says, especially when it comes to politics.

And now we have Trump, and we have half a country that literally doesn't give a shit about any of his scandals, because they figure either the stories about his scandals are overblown or just fake.

Read Drew Curtis' book Fark. He saw this phenomenon coming ten years ago, and described how the media could have corrected course and regained the trust of the American people. Unfortunately, trust is hard earned, easily lost, and almost impossible to regain.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1592403662/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487166868&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=fark&dpPl=1&dpID=51ucbpaahQL&ref=plSrch

In his book It's Not News It's Fark, Drew Curtis said that some user on his website isolated a freeze frame, and that it spread from there to the news, and I believe it.

People don't care to be educated. That's why they just accept what the media says at face value. The whole "fake news" thing has become big in the Trump era but the media has always done this.

Back in the early days of the internet they had my grandma convinced that a computer virus could be transmitted to people.

I also remember when some dude posted on totse, the temple of the screaming electron about making a drug that involved collecting gas from fermenting feces in a balloon and inhaling it. There was a big scare about teenagers huffing the shit gas known as jenkem even though it was complete bullshit.

This is a great book although it is a bit dated:
https://www.amazon.com/Its-Not-News-Fark-Media/dp/1592403662/