Killing the Messenger: 100 Years of Media Criticism

About this book

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. Lieblings early warning of the dangers of media consolidation Will Irwins analysis of journalisms growing power and pervasiveness Daniel P. Moynihans look at the changing relationship between the press and the presidency in 1971 Robert Darntons essay on creative license and Leo C. Rostens statistical survey of the sociological makeup of newspaper correspondents in 1930s Washington and the effect of a journalists "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 todays issues have their roots in these fascinating and provocative examples of early criticism.