Media and Power (Upper and Lower)

Author: (American) Harry Elmer Barnes
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: Based on extensive historical materials, Harry Elmer Barnes dedicates significant attention to describing a series of major political events in 20th-century American news and politics, including their backgrounds, causes, developments, and outcomes. He also explores the reactions of the press, government, and the public to these events, as well as the deep-rooted trust gaps they created between the President and the people, the President and the press, the press and the people, the elderly and the young, African Americans and whites, and white-collar workers and blue-collar workers. These events primarily include the McCarthyism of the 1950s; the Bay of Pigs incident, the Berlin Wall, the hydrogen bomb, presidential assassinations, the Vietnam War, racial riots in major cities, campus unrest, the assassinations of Senator Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., the failure of the promise to win in Vietnam, the issue of long hair, the issue of sex, the issue of using vulgar language, drug abuse, the Kent State University incident, the My Lai incident, the near depression, and the Watergate scandal, among others. Behind these events, some distrusted the U.S. government, others distrusted the news, while both the government and the press encouraged people not to trust the other. The author dedicates considerable space in the book toly describing the presidents after Hoover, allowing readers to witness a vivid contemporary history of American news and politics. Throughout, the press becomes a central thread in politics, to some extent altering the political structure, while politics, in turn, influences the formation of the press to some extent. The press, to some extent, determines the selection of political figures, and political leaders, in certain cases, affect the rise and fall of press figures. The relationship between media giants and political leaders is one of mutual intimidation—"the big fish eats the small fish, and the small fish eat the big fish"—sometimes even leading to mutual non-compromise and a stalemate. On the other hand, they are interdependent and inseparable. Without involvement in politics, media giants cannot sustain their newspapers; similarly, without the press, political leaders cannot truly be political leaders. The press becomes politics, generating power, and in itself becomes political power. This history is grand in scale, ever-changing, astonishing, and captivating. At the same time, the author's analysis in the book is meticulous and incisive, magnifying the details of history and awakening people to critical thinking.