On press : the liberal values that shaped the news / Matthew Pressman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pressman, Matthew, 1981- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

New York Times Company.

Los Angeles Times (Firm).

Journalistic ethics--United States--History--20th century.

Journalistic ethics.

Journalistic ethics--United States--History--21st century.

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

Liberalism.

History.

United States.

Liberalism--United States--History--21st century.

American newspapers--Objectivity.

American newspapers.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

321 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2018.

Summary:

In the 1960s and 70s the American press forged a new set of values. Threatened with obsolescence by the proliferation of new competitors, pressured to rectify their treatment of minorities and women, denounced as biased by both the left and the right, the country's leading news organizations made fundamental changes. They shifted from simply reporting the news to analyzing it. They adopted a more adversarial approach to those in power. They continued to strive for objectivity, but they did so in a way that left many outside their newsrooms (and many on the inside) deeply dissatisfied. In many ways they became more liberal. Powerful institutions like the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times--the two newspapers this book scrutinizes--transformed themselves, with major ramifications for the rest of the news media and for the country as a whole. On Press shows how these changes occurred, why they persisted for three decades after the 1970s, and why the media is reassessing long-held values once again in the Trump era.-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Liberal values, not liberal bias

Opening the door to interpretation

Objectivity and the right: a worthy ideal abandoned

Objectivity and the left: an ideal worth abandoning

The reader-oriented newspaper

Minorities and women in the newsroom: a two-pronged struggle

The press and the powerful: from allies to adversaries

American journalism and its values, 1980-2018: validation, devastation, alteration.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674976658

0674976657

OCLC:

1020312292