All the news unfit to print : a history of how things were and how they were reported / Eric Burns.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burns, Eric.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Journalism--Objectivity.

Journalism.

History, Modern--19th century.

History, Modern.

History, Modern--20th century.

Physical Description:

viii, 280 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Hoboken, N.J. : John Wiley & Sons, 2009.

Summary:

A premature newswire report announces the end of World War I, spurring wild celebrations in American streets days before the actual treaty was signed. A St. Louis newspaper prints reviews of theatrical performances that never took place-they had been canceled due to bad weather. New York newspaper reporters plant evidence in the apartment of the man accused of kidnapping the Lindbergh baby and then call him a liar in the courtroom once the trial begins.

These are just a few of the many wrongs that have been reported as right over two centuries of American history. All the News Unfit to Print puts the media under the microscope to expose the many types of mistakes, hoaxes, omissions, and lies that have skewed our understanding of the past, and reveals the range of reasons and motivations-from boredom and haste to politics and greed-behind them. Reviewing a host of journalistic slip-ups involving Ben Franklin, Mark Twain, William Randolph Hearst, Theodore H. White, and many others, this book covers the stories behind the stories to refine incorrect "first drafts" of history from the Revolutionary War era to more recent times.

Contents:

Part 1 Telling Lies 1

1 How Journalists Got the Idea 5

2 Journalism from Afar 11

3 A Woman Who Never Was 21

4 Lies against the British 27

5 Lies against Americans 37

6 The Boss 51

7 The Epoch of the Hoax 59

8 Furnishing a War 71

9 L'Affaire 93

10 Speeding Up a War 107

Part 2 Hiding the Truth 119

11 Their Man in Moscow 123

12 Sins of Omission 141

13 The Same Team 161

14 Rejecting the Faith 191

15 Janet's World 201

16 What a Picture Is Worth 209

17 The Most Hated Man in American Newsrooms 221

18 What Haste Makes 229.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780470405239

0470405236

OCLC:

265088277