NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Television and the News

by Edward Jay Epstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 14, 1973

It was Richard Salant, president of CBS News, who unwittingly titled Epstein's latest if not greatest foray into investigative reporting: ""Our reports do not cover stories from their point of view. They are presenting them from nobody's point of view."" When all is competently said and done, when all the hefty and quite unoriginal questions are disposed of -- what after all is news? what controls if any can be established to minimize personal bias in the news gathering, editing, and reporting processes? how to deal with the news fraternity's homogeneous ""sociology of knowledge""? is ""fairness"" as mandated by the FCC a possibility or even a desirability? who really controls news content? -- when all of these persistent riddles are fielded (rather like an unwelcome relative in your life), Epstein has only one firm recommendation and this is, ""alternative sources of national news are necessary for balance."" Fine. Perhaps his next work will be on cable TV which is not discussed here (for a clue, see Barrett's The Politics of Broadcasting above). This is not so much a mediocre book as a disappointing one -- Epstein's Inquest and Counterplot contributed to the Kennedy assassination controversy and the piece on the Panthers in the New Yorker awhile back was a masterpiece of corrective journalism. But News From Nowhere, despite its readability and logical reliability, simply has very little news from anywhere.

Pub Date: March 14, 1973

ISBN: 1566633001

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION