Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture by James Bowman

Synopsis

James Bowman provides a scintillating and fast-paced anatomy of the mainstream media self-generated demise. The Mind of the Media looks behind the headlines to examine mainstream media's governing myths. Writing with acerbic wit, Bowman shows how the mainstream media's embrace of a spurious notion of objectivity, combined with its addiction to scandal, and an unshakable conviction of its own moral superiority have done irreparable damage to the media's public authority.

Publishers Weekly

Bowman (Honor: A History), media critic for the New Criterion, pursues the press with the passion of the Furies in this slim monograph on the media's failures. Carefully dissecting claims of objectivity, Bowman skewers the media for its liberal bias, the "foundation on which the mass media's house has been built." According to Bowman, the media are united in believing that those who disagree with them are "mendacious and corrupt" and use their perch to assault proclaimed enemies. The media's belief in "hidden realities" causes them to question any story offered in good faith and to seek secret motives for each and every action. The consequence is that "all politics [are reduced] to rival scandal-narratives." This corrupting influence spreads outward because "political culture must naturally adjust itself to media culture in an age of scandal." At times Bowman takes hyperbolic jokes and asides too seriously, but he generally makes for an effective, angry ombudsman. The harm done by the mass media is irreparable, Bowman believes, but blogs may offer a healthy-if imperfect-alternative. (Feb.)