This book examines social investigative reporting in American history, focusing on the years 1890-1915.

Social Foundations of the Mass Media is a historical examination of the intellectual debate over the extent of permissible freedom that should be allowed for the expression and discussion of conflicting ideas. The treatment begins with the ancient Egyptian concepts, extends through Middle Eastern writings, treats the Inquisition and concludes with modern concepts in the United States. Both the church and the state have long desired to repress dissident opinion fearing that their authority would be undermined. They have used persecution, laws, the courts and public opinion to try to impose their ideas upon an unwilling population. Thinkers from Aristotle to Zechariah Chafee, Jr., the renowned legal scholar at Harvard University, and Hugo Black, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, have had much to say about the role of journalists, writers and dissidents. Each of their ideas and those of many others appear in the Social Foundations of the Mass Media. The debate will continue well into the future, but the issues that have been raised over the centuries remain central to the debate today.

"Walter Brasch is the most informed, opinionated, witty, and delightful commentator on the media scene today." -Aspen Media Review

Like two of his role models, Thomas Jefferson and John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton was one of the nation's most dynamic and effective presidents, and like his mentors, he was one of the most vilified. He left office with one of the highest approval ratings for his personal moral conduct. He would affect Americans like few people ever could, and no one could be neutral.

"In Sex and the Single Beer Can, Walt Brasch is both refreshingly irreverent and irreverently fresh. Little escapes his attention. This is a book about the media, politics, government, war, political incorrectness, religion, the injustice system, the health industry and other corporations, Miss America and, yes, sex and beer. He ties these subjects together under a double-barreled heading of the foibles and strengths of American society. His approach is both biting criticism and healthy respect, both creative imagination and deep understanding. Most of all, Sex and the Single Beer Can is a plea for a better media and a better place in which to live. Because it is broad in its scope, it's also suitable for a variety of journalism/ mass communication classes either as a primary or secondary text. It could add important perspectives to classes in ethics, media management, media economics, media and society, media criticism and a variety of other subjects of journalistic interest." -Dr. Ralph Izard, former associate dean, Manship School of Journalism, Louisiana State University; professor emeritus and former director, Scripps School of Journalism, The Ohio University.

The emergency management response to Hurricane Katrina revealed more than just a failure of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but systemic problems in all levels of government. In 'Unacceptable, ' award-winning journalist Walter M. Brasch explores not only the facts of the disaster, but WHY the federal response was inefficient.