Producer, pundit, and media critic Jeff Cohen offers a fast-paced rompthrough the three major cable news channels – Fox, CNN, and MSNBC – and delivers a serious message about their failure to cover the most urgent issues of the day.

Propelled by hilarious anecdotes featuring celebrities, famous pundits and media personalities, Cable News Confidential highlights the foibles, hypocrisies, and absurdities he witnessed at news organizations run by entertainment conglomerates.

Praise for Cable News Confidential

“With this deliciously funny exposé, Jeff Cohen can probably kiss his television career good-bye. The rest of us, meanwhile, can celebrate his book and embrace him as one of America’s sharpest and bravest pundits—in any medium!”
—Barbara Ehrenreich

“Jeff Cohen has given us a lively, funny, serious, and ultimately devastating look at the corporate media, which he had a unique opportunity to observe from the inside. When future historians search for a description of the major media in our time, they will have his book as a primary source.”
—Howard Zinn

“Jeff Cohen’s dissection of cable TV news is both irresistibly funny and civically painful. It goes from uproarious anecdotes to those that make you wince. Must read.”
—Molly Ivins

Publishers Weekly
Reviewed 2006-10-16

“Author Who Gives a Damn”
by Marcia Kuntz and Jamison Foser, Media Matters

Cable News: Hazardous to the Republic
Jason Salzman, Minuteman Media, 9/6/06

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Media Contact: Darcy Cohan, (415) 339-4111
or email: darcycohan@p3books.com

From the co-author of Wizards of Media Oz…

Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media

By Jeff Cohen

“Jeff Cohen’s dissection of cable TV news is both irresistibly funny and civically painful. It goes from uproarious anecdotes to those that make you wince.”
—Molly Ivins

In his new book, Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media (PoliPointPress, $14.95, September 28, 2006, ISBN: 0-9760621-6-X), TV producer, pundit, and media critic Jeff Cohen offers a fast-paced romp though the three major cable news channels  — Fox, CNN, and MSNBC  — and delivers a serious message about their failures in covering the most urgent issues of the day.

Few media critics have been afforded an intimate, on-the-job view of the outlets they critique. Cohen founded the media watch group FAIR in 1986 and in the ensuing years ended up as a paid pundit on all three cable news channels. He was also senior producer of MSNBC’s Donahue, until it was terminated three weeks before the Iraq war. While books have been written by journalists who grew disillusioned with TV news, Cohen was never “illusioned.”

Propelled by amusing anecdotes of famous pundits and media personalities, Cable News Confidential highlights the idiosyncrasies, hypocrisies, and absurdities at so-called news operations run by the entertainment conglomerates. In his book, Cohen:

* examines the orders and newsroom rituals that led to suppression and bias in the run-up to the Iraq war and the 2002 mid-term elections.

* recalls how — as terrorists plotted to commit 9/11 — cable news was playing its essential watchdog role. . .  on Gary Condit’s sex life.

* recounts memorable on-air confrontations with the likes of O’Reilly, Falwell, Buchanan, Novak, Ben Stein and others. (Ann Coulter refused to debate him.)

* explains the odd occurrences that can happen to a leftish media critic — on the air or in    the greenroom — while on the payroll of rightwing Fox News Channel.

* offers an inside look at TV’s history of pitting fire-breathing rightists against pundits whose motto could be “I’m not a leftist, but I play one on TV.”

About the Author

Jeff Cohen is the founder of FAIR, the progressive media watch group based in New York.  He evolved from media critic to media pundit, appearing regularly on national TV — including as a co-host of CNN’s Crossfire, a weekly panelists on Fox News Watch, and a daily commentator on MSNBC.  He has discussed media issues widely, including on Today, Larry King Live, C-Span, and NPR.

He is the co-author of four books, including Wizards of Media Oz: Behind the Curtain of Mainstream News (Common Courage, 1997) and The Way Things Aren’t: Rush Limbaugh’s Reign of Error (New Press, 1995).

Cohen’s columns have run in many publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Atlanta Constitution, Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe and Miami Herald. He was a regular columnist for Brill’s Content in 1999-2000. His investigative articles have appeared in such magazines as Rolling Stone, New Times and Mother Jones.

Prior to launching FAIR, Cohen worked as an ACLU lawyer.  In 2003, he was communications director of the Kucinich for President campaign.

Recent columns include:

Is Olbermann on Thin Ice? 10/3/06 http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1003-36.htm

Chavez, Limbaugh and Hypocrisy on Name-Calling, 9/22/06 http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0922-35.htm

Smoking Gun: Washington Post Hires Top Bush Speechwriter, 9/14/06 http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0914-28.htm

Jeff Cohen: Sick Puppy Meets Media Beast 8/29/06
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/383

About the Book:

TITLE: Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media

AUTHOR: Jeff Cohen

PUBLICATION DATE: September 28, 2006

PRICE:$14.95; Soft cover, ISBN:0-9760621-6-X

MEDIA CONTACT: Darcy Cohan, (415) 339-4111
or email: darcycohan@p3books.com

AP, 10/8/06, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061008/ap_en_tv/tv_keith_olbermann

Alternet, 9/19/06, http://alternet.org/mediaculture/41803/

Boston Phoenix, 9/18/06, http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid22622.aspx

MinutemanMedia, 9/6/06 http://www.minutemanmedia.org/SALZMAN%20090606.htm

BuzzFlash.com, 9/6/06, http://www.buzzflash.com/store/reviews/328

Toronto Globe, 8/18/06, http://www.p3books.com/books/cablenews_interview.html

Event Cities, Fall 2006:

New York, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, Madison, Seattle, San Francisco, LA