An aristocracy of critics : Luce, Hutchins, Niebuhr, and the committee that redefined freedom of the press / Stephen Bates.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bates, Stephen, 1958- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Luce, Henry R., 1898-1967.

Luce, Henry R.

Hutchins, Robert Maynard, 1899-1977.

Hutchins, Robert Maynard.

Niebuhr, Reinhold, 1892-1971.

Niebuhr, Reinhold.

Commission on Freedom of the Press--History.

Commission on Freedom of the Press.

Freedom of the press--United States--History.

Freedom of the press.

Journalism--Political aspects--United States.

Journalism.

Journalism--Political aspects.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 312 pages)

Place of Publication:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2020]

Summary:

"The story behind the 1940s Commission on Freedom of the Press—groundbreaking then, timelier than ever now'A well-constructed, timely study, clearly relevant to current debates.'—Kirkus, starred review In 1943, Time Inc. editor-in-chief Henry R. Luce sponsored the greatest collaboration of intellectuals in the twentieth century. He and University of Chicago president Robert Maynard Hutchins summoned the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, the Pulitzer-winning poet Archibald MacLeish, and ten other preeminent thinkers to join the Commission on Freedom of the Press. They spent three years wrestling with subjects that are as pertinent as ever: partisan media and distorted news, activists who silence rather than rebut their opponents, conspiracy theories spread by shadowy groups, and the survivability of American democracy in a post-truth age. The report that emerged, A Free and Responsible Press, is a classic, but many of the commission's sharpest insights never made it into print. Journalist and First Amendment scholar Stephen Bates reveals how these towering intellects debated some of the most vital questions of their time—and reached conclusions urgently relevant today." -- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Introduction

1. Skunk at the Garden Party

2. Unlucky Crusader

3. Disillusionment in Democracy

4. Synthetic Dead Cats

5. Highest Intellect Ever

6. Restless Searchlights

7. The Glorious, Mischievous First Amendment

8. The Right to Be Let Alone

9. Resurrecting Free Speech

10. Is Bigness Badness?

11. Gadgeteer

12. Beguiling the Dragon

13. Consider Yourself Pedestaled

14. All Great Problems Are Insoluble

15. Jefferson’s Epitaph

16. Gentleman’s “C”

17. The Luce That Laid the Golden Egg

18. From Target to Canon

19. Democracy on the Skids

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Gallery begins following page

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-295) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on November 1, 2021)

Other Format:

Print version: Bates, Stephen, 1958- Aristocracy of critics.

ISBN:

0-300-25579-9

9780300255799

0300255799

OCLC:

1200002023