READING THE NEWS: A Pantheon Guide to Popular Culture

by Robert Karl & Michael Schudson--Eds. Manoff ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 19, 1986

A poor collection of essays by academics, compiled with more than a hint of haste and hackery. All of the participants here have solid grounding in the news profession, but they seem to have been less than careful in putting their experiences into print. One essay makes a sloppy joke about editors preferring a sportwriter to Bertrand Russell as staff, ignoring the fact that Russell was a successful journalist for many decades. The same essay, ""Grisly Truth about Bare Facts,"" has some amusingly vulgar subchapters about what reporters call ""Holy Shit!"" stories, as well as a section called ""The Press Covers its Ass For Lawyers."" Yet it is less amusing when the vulgarity extends to the selection of experts to quote: PLO supporter Edward Said, for example, is given a forum to call Judaism ""a very backward-looking theological doctrine."" If one of the essayists is hung up on religion, another is disturbed by sexuality. A piece called ""The Dark Continent of American Journalism"" begins with a nasty joke about a gay prisoner being stabbed to death in jail; it's described as a ""delightful play on words."" These essays make us grateful that strong editorial control keeps reporters' personalities from intruding too often in the stories they write: if this book is any indication, they are a hostile lot indeed. These ""authorities"" on journalism reveal chips on their shoulders about ""smug Ivy League English graduates"" as well. There are some alert observations of the fourth estate in these pages, but their impression is overshadowed by the mean-spirited essays. An oddly insensitive compilation.

Pub Date: Jan. 19, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1986

Categories: NONFICTION