"The ultimate story behind all the stories... In an age when the
press is alternately villain or hero, Pressman serves as a kind of
medicine man of journalism, telling us how we got from there to
here."-Graydon Carter, former editor of Vanity Fair In the 1960s
and 1970s, the American press embraced a new way of reporting and
selling the news. The causes were many: the proliferation of
television, pressure to rectify the news media's dismal treatment
of minorities and women, accusations of bias from left and right,
and the migration of affluent subscribers to suburbs. As Matthew
Pressman's timely history reveals, during these tumultuous decades
the core values that held the profession together broke apart, and
the distinctive characteristics of contemporary American journalism
emerged. Simply reporting the facts was no longer enough. In a
country facing assassinations, a failing war in Vietnam, and
presidential impeachment, reporters recognized a pressing need to
interpret and analyze events for their readers. Objectivity and
impartiality, the cornerstones of journalistic principle, were not
jettisoned, but they were reimagined. Journalists' adoption of an
adversarial relationship with government and big business, along
with sympathy for the dispossessed, gave their reporting a
distinctly liberal drift. Yet at the same time, "soft
news"-lifestyle, arts, entertainment-moved to the forefront of
editors' concerns, as profits took precedence over politics. Today,
the American press stands once again at a precipice. Accusations of
political bias are more rampant than ever, and there are increasing
calls from activists, customers, advertisers, and reporters
themselves to rethink the values that drive the industry. As On
Press suggests, today's controversies-the latest iteration of
debates that began a half-century ago-will likely take the press in
unforeseen directions and challenge its survival.
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