'It's Not News It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News' by Drew Curtis (Book - 2007)

If I were to take everything I learned in college about analyzing mass media, then to add in everything I've learned the last several years actually working in mass media, distill it down into 300 pages and add a witty writing style, it would only be about half as informative and quintessentially true as this book. Drew Curtis, who owns and runs one of the most popular news sites on the Internet, tears the whole process of news gathering and reporting down at such a backbreaking level that it's almost insulting. A book on how news is gathered and distributed is probably not everyone's cup of tea, but speaking as someone who's been an insider of the industry for a good portion of my life now, Curtis gets it right. You'll laugh, you'll learn, and you'll probably feel more than a little slighted at the conclusions he draws, but it strikes true enough that you can't help but wonder how the News business survives in the first place. An absolute must for anyone in or studying media, and a piece of near-brilliant observation for any news junkie.

8 out of 10.