Unlike a news story answering who, what, when or where, De Botton leaves the reader asking just why he bothered.
He argues that news is only one set of all the stories out there, and ''The news we are given about the nation is not the nation''.
Fair enough.
De Botton also questions why media outlets focus so much on the dark side or the banal side of humanity.
Um, OK.
In an age where connected humans can get get almost instantaneous news items from all corners of the globe, people care more ''about the birth of one baby to a member of the British royal family than about 100,000 desperate children from rickets and malaria in central Africa''.
And that is the fault of the media for not presenting the news in a compelling way.
With the reporting of foreign news he takes issue with the media assessing a story based on how gruesome, tragic or macabre it is for the general public.
But when he counters it with this ''a bombing that kills thirty people is thought more newsworthy than a quiet day in a fishing village'', is quite frankly, naive.
And unlike the news site he rallies against, you have to dig a little deep to find something of interest in this book.
I did enjoyed his exploration of ''gaffe journalism'' - when journalists focus on errors a politician makes - but it is all too brief.
Another highlight was a candid picture of President Barack Obama pretending to be caught in a web from a young boy dressed up as Spider-Man. De Botton is at his best when pondering just why the news' audience feels compelled to keep checking for constant updates.
''To consult the news is to raise a seashell to our ears and to be overpowered by the roar of humanity.''
- Hamish McNeilly is an ODT Dunedin reporter.
