General Questions on Tom Fenton’s “Bad News”

1. What specific reasons does Fenton give for why US citizens don’t trust the news media?

2. In the chapter, “How We Got There,” what are the reasons Fenton gives for the reduction in foreign news coverage?

3. In “The Culture of Spin,” Fenton argues that the news media has failed badly in counteracting spin. Why? What are some of the examples of the oversights and omissions of the 9/11 Commission and Bush administration spin that the news media failed to counteract?

4. How does the rest of the world see us, according to Fenton (cite examples), and what is the paradox of massive choice in information sources in the US that Fenton talks about?

5. Evaluate Fenton’s argument that, “[T]here’s no rule that intelligent news and profits work in inverse ratio to each other.”