JEFF COHEN
CABLE NEWS CONFIDENTIAL
Jeff Cohen is the founder of FAIR, the media watch group based in New York. He devolved from media critic to media pundit, appearing regularly on national TV -- including as a co-host of Crossfire on CNN, a weekly News Watch panelist on Fox News and a commentator on MSNBC. He was senior producer of Donahue on MSNBC, until the show was terminated on the eve of the Iraq War. His most recent book is Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media.
It's often said that journalism, like sausage making, is an ugly process best unseen by those who wish to enjoy its consumption. Cohen offers a guided tour inside the sausage factory of TV news. In his eye-opening and entertaining presentation, Jeff Cohen explains why television news has become a national joke and a nightly Jon Stewart punch line, based on his firsthand experience. Cohen started out as an outsider critic but became an insider pundit. He takes his audience on a personal tour of TV news, illuminating what's comical and what's tragic in the news business today. One focus of his presentation is TV news performance in the run-up to the Iraq War.
Among the many topics Cohen addresses:
- Why certain viewpoints are often excluded from mainstream debate
- The impact of corporate ownership (and sponsorship) on TV journalism
- Myths about "fair and balanced" Fox News, as observed on the inside
Besides examining corporate media, Cohen highlights the good news in today's media environment: the boom in independent outlets on TV, radio and Internet. Few media critics have been afforded an intimate, on-the-job view of the outlets they condemn. Cohen founded the media watch group FAIR in 1986 and in the ensuing years, ended up a paid pundit on all three cable news channels: CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. It's not uncommon to hear criticism from journalists who grew disillusioned with TV news. But Cohen was never "illusioned". He was a skeptic when he first ventured into cable news -- with his antenna alert to the foibles and hypocrisies of television news in the era of entertainment conglomerates.
Contact the lecture bureau to schedule Jeff Cohen for your next event.
the lecture bureau 
7 Crescent Street Cambridge, MA 02138 888-912-0355
