It's Not News, It's FARK: How Mass Media Tries to Pass off Crap as News

Overview

Drew Curtis examines how modern mass media often elevates trivial, sensational, or PR-driven items into headline news while overlooking stories of greater public importance. The book combines sharp critique with humor, drawing on Curtis's experience running the popular news-aggregation site Fark to illustrate how editors, producers, and corporate pressures shape what audiences see. The central claim is that commercial incentives, convenience, and the machinery of news production frequently conspire to pass off "crap" as news.

Tone and approach

The tone is conversational, witty, and frequently sarcastic, which makes rigorous criticism feel accessible rather than pedantic. Curtis mixes anecdote with analysis: personal stories about Fark, observations about headline-writing and content selection, and reflections on how internet culture exposes and amplifies media quirks. Humor is used as a tool to disarm readers and to underscore the absurdities that arise when news becomes entertainment.

Core arguments

A recurring argument is that the economics of mass media reward attention-grabbing items over depth. Time pressures, staffing cuts, and the need to maintain audience engagement push outlets toward short, sensational pieces that perform well in ratings and clicks. Curtis argues that this skews public understanding by prioritizing immediacy and novelty instead of context and investigation. The book also contends that reliance on press releases, wire services, and prepared statements further homogenizes coverage and reduces the diversity of perspectives.

Mechanisms of distortion

Curtis lays out several mechanisms by which trivial content becomes elevated: headline sensationalism that distorts nuance, repetition across outlets that reinforces perceived importance, and editorial shortcuts that favor quickly digestible stories. He highlights how the structure of newsrooms and production cycles makes it easier to repurpose shallow content than to pursue slow, resource-intensive reporting. The result is a feedback loop where audience metrics drive editorial choices, and editorial choices shape audience expectations.

Role of the internet and aggregation

The rise of online aggregation plays a dual role in Curtis's analysis. On one hand, sites like Fark and other aggregators can expose the absurdities of mainstream coverage and democratize the filtering of news. On the other hand, aggregation itself can participate in the amplification of trivial items by rewarding the most clickable headlines. Curtis uses his platform as a case study to show how readers often prioritize curiosity, irony, or entertainment, which can both correct and perpetuate the problem.

Examples and anecdotes

Concrete examples and memorable anecdotes illustrate how easily the trivial can overtake the important: stories that go viral for their shock value, repeated human-interest pieces that crowd out policy coverage, and the baffling persistence of PR-driven narratives. Curtis points to predictable patterns, certain types of stories that reliably draw attention regardless of broader significance, and shows how they recur across different outlets and eras.

Implications and advice

Curtis urges readers to be skeptical consumers of news and to cultivate habits that privilege context over sensationalism. He suggests that audiences reward outlets that invest in substantive coverage and that independent curators and engaged communities can help correct market failures. The book does not offer a simple fix but emphasizes the need for persistent pressure, via reader choices, support for quality journalism, and cultural expectations, to shift incentives.

Conclusion

It's Not News, It's FARK functions as both a diagnosis and a call to awareness: the modern news ecosystem has structural flaws that promote triviality, but those flaws are visible, understandable, and, to some degree, addressable. Curtis's blend of humor, insider observation, and pointed critique makes the argument memorable while inviting readers to rethink what they accept as news and why.