The basic point of the authors is that all of the popular media are completely beholden to the power structure, so they are inevitably corrupt. Although non-commercial broadcasters and 'left-leaning' newspapers have moments of liberal freedom, there are unspoken limits beyond which reporters and editors are not allowed to go.

The part that resonated the most with me was a section towards the end entitled "Towards a Compassionate Media." Making the very credible claim that compassion is not a part of contemporary news media, they explain "Exploitative pwer has a vested interest in smearing concern for others as 'naive,' 'sentimental,' and 'weak' because it benefits from the promotion of greed, hatred and ignorance." Whether or not you agree with the cause, I think it self-evident that compassion is out of style. This trend is especially significant on Fox, which consistently portrays any form of empathy, other than a shallow sort of sentimentality over relatively trivial stories, as being a form of weakness. A story about a lost puppy can generate more emotion than can a story about killings in Darfur. ( )