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You give a little love and it all comes back to you – whether you’re a bad Scott Baio flick or a soda commercial or here, at Public Eye.

Earlier this week, Slate gave a little love to “Whoop-Dee-Damn-Doo” – Public Eye’s examination of the coverage given to Clarence Thomas’ book interviews. So today we give back, to Jack Shafer who discussed Drew Curtis (of “Fark” fame) and his book “It’s Not News, It’s Fark,” featuring this passage:

For all its insight, Curtis' book has gotten scant attention from the mainstream press. Although Salon gave it decent exposure, the Tucson Citizen was the largest American newspaper to review it, and theirs was a mini-review.

Curtis did better on the broadcast side, with segments on NPR, Fox News Channel, and the nerd cable channel G4TV. Perhaps the book got overlooked because Curtis stuffed it with hilarious examples from his Web site, and Dave Barry blurbed it, making critics think it was a humor volume.

Since my predecessor Brian Montopoli is no longer here, I wanted to stick up a tad on behalf of this curious media outpost, which straddles the border of Blogistan and Mainstream Media. Montopoli had a great interview with Curtis earlier this year, where Curtis – one of the savvier tour guides of MediaLand – had this to say:

Most people treat the news media like the exercise bike they have in their basement. They're glad it's there but they never use it. This is obviously a ratings problem for the news outlets.

The number one question I get when I meet people who read my website is "Where can I go to get the real news?" The implication is the major news outlets aren't meeting this need. Most people I've talked to are convinced that they're not getting valuable information from news media anymore. I'm not talking about tinfoil-hatters either, these are intelligent people who believe their news media has failed them.

All that being said, however, two different people – from very different media outlets – suggest that the newsmedia’s not doing a half bad job.

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Drew Curtis, founder of Fark.com, has a book coming out on May 31st called "It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries To Pass Off Crap As News." We interviewed him over email.




Brian Montopoli: In printing soft, wacky, and oddball news - or "crap," as you put it in your book title - aren't the media simply giving people what they want? News is a business, after all.

Drew Curtis: Yes, however a lot of what people want isn't news, and we're talking about news sources giving up on their core mission - informing us. Journalism is straying into entertainment. The lines between serious news segments, news entertainment, and news comedy are blurring. For example, just last week CNN led with a story about a nudist colony trying to attract new members with free beer. What is the intrinsic value of delivering this under the guise of news? The problem is a lot of people like to watch videos of nudists with their bits fuzzed out, lots more than the latest body count from Iraq, as was evidenced by CNN.com's Most Popular list.

How can we fix this Afghanistan mess? What's Russia doing in Estonia these days? Is global warming real? Does anyone care? Sadly, few do.
Most people treat the news media like the exercise bike they have in their basement. They're glad it's there but they never use it. This is obviously a ratings problem for the news outlets.

The number one question I get when I meet people who read my website is "Where can I go to get the real news?" The implication is the major news outlets aren't meeting this need. Most people I've talked to are convinced that they're not getting valuable information from news media anymore. I'm not talking about tinfoil-hatters either, these are intelligent people who believe their news media has failed them.

It's not just consumers that are annoyed by this. Journalists themselves are in the same boat. I've met hundreds over the past few years, they're disgruntled and angry because they went into journalism to cover real stories and make a real difference, not waste time discussing drunk Germans getting arrested driving down the street in motorized wheelchairs.

If this is news to any media executives out there, I suggest they hold an all hands on deck meeting and let [reporters] freely express their frustrations. Ask them what they think about the stories they've been asked to cover and the priority that has been given to the stories. They'll get an earful.

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