Media and Power - Who Controls America (Volume 1 and 2)

Author: David Halberstam
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2006-08-01
Features: Renowned journalist David Halberstam spent seven years observing and documenting the history of five prominent American media outlets—the Columbia Broadcasting System, Time, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times—as well as their journalists, editors, and publishers, and their interactions with U.S. politicians, the government, and politics. His fluent prose and genius in editing are admired by general readers, while his rigorous approach to historical facts and profound historical insights are recognized by scholars and experts, making this book one of the best-selling books in the United States in the 1980s. Rich in content, it intersperses little-known anecdotes and insights, offering fresh perspectives and a deeper understanding of the remote giants of 20th-century media. —The New York Times David Halberstam is a talented storyteller, captivating readers with his powerful and brilliant work that one cannot put down. —The San Francisco Chronicle Against a backdrop of vast historical materials, Halberstam devoted extensive to describing the background, causes, development, and outcomes of a series of major political events in the history of 20th-century American news and politics. He explored the reactions of the media, politics, and the public to these events, as well as the deeply rooted trust gaps between the President and the people, the President and the media, the media and the people, the elderly and the young, African Americans and whites, the white-collar class and the blue-collar class. 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, 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, and both the government and the media encouraged people not to trust the other. The author dedicates significant space in the book to the presidents after Hoover, allowing readers to witness a vivid contemporary history of American news and politics. Throughout, the media became a central thread in politics, to some extent altering the political structure, while politics, in turn, influenced the formation of the media to some extent. The media, to some extent, determined the selection of political figures, and political leaders, in certain cases, influenced the rise and fall of media figures. The relationship between media giants and political leaders was one of mutual intimidation, with some even refusing to yield, sharing power. On the other hand, they were interdependent and inseparable. Without the media, media giants could not operate in politics; without the media, political leaders could not truly be political leaders. The media became politics, generating power, and in itself became political power. This history is grand in scale, ever-changing, astonishing, and compelling. 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.