Killing the messenger : 100 years of media criticism / edited by Tom Goldstein.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Goldstein, Tom.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Press--United States--History--20th century.

Press.

Reporters and reporting.

History.

Privacy, Right of.

Journalism--Objectivity.

United States.

Journalism--Objectivity--United States--History.

Journalism.

Press--United States--Influence--History.

Privacy, Right of--United States--History.

Reporters and reporting--United States--History.

Physical Description:

xii, 289 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

Revised edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2007]

Summary:

Killing the Messenger has long been a popular resource for readers eager to experience the best media criticism of the past century. Selections are chosen from magazines, journals, official reports, public speeches, and books that have been long out of print and cover a range of issues: the inadequacy of the press to police themselves, the importance of ethics and training, the problem of bias and sensationalism, and the threat of censorship.

Pieces by Theodore Roosevelt, Louis Brandeis, Joseph Pulitzer, Upton Sinclair, Spiro Agnew, George Seldes, and John Hersey, among others, are now joined by A. J. Liebling's early warning of the dangers of media consolidation. Will Irwin's analysis of journalism's growing power and pervasiveness, Daniel P. Moynihan's look at the changing relationship between the press and the presidency in 1971, Robert Darnton's essay on creative license, and Leo C. Rosten's statistical survey of the sociological makeup of newspaper correspondents in 1930s Washington and the effect of a journalist's "psychology" on the character of his reporting. Killing the Messenger serves as a valuable reminder that criticizing the press is an old and invaluable tradition in our country and that many of today's issues have their roots in these fascinating and provocative examples of early criticism.

Contents:

Part 1 Reporting on Public and Private Matters 1

The Right to Privacy / Samuel Warren, Louis Brandeis 3

Editorials from the Emporia Gazette, 1901-1921 / William Allen White 18

The Press and the Individual / George Seldes 22

Part 2 The Power of the Press and How to Curb It 43

The American Newspaper: A Study of Journalism in Relation to the Public / Will Irwin 45

Selection from The Brass Check / Upton Sinclair 62

Selection from the "Report of the Commission on Freedom of the Press / Robert Maynard Hutchins 79

The End of Free Lunch / A. J. Liebling 93

Part 3 Journalists and Their Biases-Conscious or Not? 101

The Man with the Muckrake / Theodore Roosevelt 105

Speeches on the Media / Spiro Agnew 112

The Presidency and the Press / Daniel P. Moynihan 131

A Test of the News / Walter Lippmann, Charles Merz 154

Part 4 Telling Stories: Facts, Truth, and the News 173

Writing News and Telling Stories / Robert Darnton 175

Newspapers and the Truth / Frederick Lewis Allen 198

The Legend on the License / John Hersey 213

Part 5 Making the Press Professional 233

Selections from the College of Journalism / Joseph Pulitzer 235

The Social Composition of Washington Correspondents / Leo C. Rosten 245

The Role of the Mass Media in Reporting of News about Minorities / Commission on Civil Disorders 253.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0231118325

9780231118323

0231118333

9780231118330

OCLC:

71275557