THE EFFETE CONSPIRACY and Other Crimes by the Press

by Ben H. Bagdikian ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 1972

A collection of timely essays by a well-known practitioner of journalism. Bagdikian parries the Agnew assault: ""the American press has been worrying for the last few years about its alleged liberalism. Unfortunately, this has obscured another problem: the American daily press is conservative."" Bagdikian develops this theme with statistics and observations underscoring the rightward politics of dailies. This includes the press in major cities (minus the New York Times and the Washington Post whose ""mildly reformist"" views the administration is said to want to ""isolate or silence"") and most small towns: ""the smaller the newspaper, the greater its relative influence"" on political sentiment at the grassroots level. Questioning ""the impact on news when it is controlled by corporations with deep nonjournalistic Financial involvement,"" Bagdikian examines the rise of oligopolistic ownership of newspapers and other media. His assertion that, in general, news and editorial policies are ""designed to fit the owners' other financial and political interests"" is backed by a case study of the DuPonts' blatant interference with a company-owned paper in Rhode Island. Other topics include the Pentagon Papers (""To withhold the truth from the public is to hold the public in contempt"" -- an unexceptionable maxim, but it might have been interesting to examine the ""financial and politicai interests"" which entered into those decisions as well) and the widespread phenomenon of publishing press releases verbatim as news or editorials (Trujillo's puffs are a past example). The Presidency and the press gets a light once-over from JFK to LBJ, the latter ""the only President in this century who seemed to be on better terms with newspaper publishers than with the weekly press."" Bagdikian stresses an alert public as one answer to the problems he raises: his book is a worthy contribution to that end, with the virtues of polemical energy and factual ballast.

Pub Date: Aug. 2, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION