BACKSTORY: INSIDE THE BUSINESS

Author: Ken Auletta
Publisher: INSIDE THE BUSINESS
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: Book Description From Howell Raines and the New York Times to Roger Ailes and Fox News, America's most celebrated media journalist dissects the people and institutions shaping media, for good and for ill, in a time of profound change. It is said that journalism is a vital public service as well as a business, but more and more it is also said that big media consolidation; noisy, instant opinions on cable and the Internet; and political "bias" are making a mockery of such high-minded ideals. In Backstory, Ken Auletta explores why one of America's most important industries is also among its most troubled. He travels from the proud New York Times, the last outpost of old-school family ownership, whose own personnel problems make headline news, into the depths of New York City's brutal tabloid wars and out across the country to journalism's new wave, chains like the Chicago Tribune's, where 'synergy' is ever more an mantra. He probes the moral ambiguity of "media personalities"—journalists who become celebrities themselves, padding their incomes by schmoozing with Imus and rounding up lucrative corporate lecture circuit fees. Here he confronts the legacy of journalism's past and the different prospects for its future, from fallen stars of new media such as Inside.com to the rising star of cable news, Roger Ailes's Fox News. The product of more than ten years covering the news media for The New Yorker, Backstory is Journalism 101 by the course's master teacher.
From Publishers Weekly Like Auletta's earlier The Highwaymen, this is a collection of the author's work as media correspondent for The New Yorker, but the focus has shifted away from the individual toward the institutional. The book starts with a 2002 profile of the New York Times executive editor Howell Raines, depicting his attempt to redefine the paper's approach to journalism and foreshadowing his departure in the aftermath of the Jayson Blair scandal. Because of Raines's notoriety, it's an obvious choice to lead off with, but that decision affects the meta-narrative running through the book's first half. A string of articles dealing with newspapers around the country (including a look at New York's battling tabloids that didn't make it into The New Yorker because it wasn't "colorful" enough) examine the tension between editorial and business concerns, culminating in a 1993 look at the Times with open speculation about who would succeed the person who held the job before Raines and what it might mean for the newsroom. Alas, the moving profile of former Times reporter John McCandlish Phillips, who abandoned a promising career in journalism to devote himself to Christian evangelism, seems out of place among the corporate chronicles. Yet its significance becomes clearer as subsequent pieces emphasize the growing lack of humility among contemporary journalists. Two final stories look at media startups that failed (Inside.com) and succeeded (Fox News), the latter bringing us up-to-date with the network's coverage of the war in Iraq. By putting these articles together, Auletta provides a valuable perspective on how the pressures of business have affected how we read and watch the news.
From Bookmarks Magazine Auletta, whose previous books include Greed and Glory on Wall Street and World War 3.0, is concerned about how the publishing industry affects the practice of journalism, in theory not beholden to profits and losses. Most critics agree that Backstory is a provocative, if uneven, collection that shows a serious understanding of the trade. Auletta's best pieces examine controversial figures such as Raines and Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes. His less successful ones delve into the grisly (and possibly soporific) details of the business and meander off into unrelated topics. (One interesting but irrelevant article features a reporter who abandoned journalism for religion.) Still, this is Journalism 101 straight from the horse's mouth, with a small (very small) silver lining: if journalism, it has long been said, is not just a business but a vital public service. Lately, however, voices from all sides of the political spectrum insist that today's journalism often makes a mockery of its high-minded ideals. But that's where agreement ceases and the debate about what ails journalism grows increasingly partisan and ugly. Is the culprit big media consolidation? Gotcha journalism? Noisy, instant opinions on cable and the Internet? A pack of unpatriotic liberals, out of touch with America, whose collective bias forms an "Axis of Weasel"? Right-wing pundits who think that the words "fair and balanced" will, like a fairy's spell, turn their partisan diet into fair and balanced journalism? In Backstory, Ken Auletta's piercing gaze sweeps into every corner of a subject that has generated tremendous noise but precious little clear thinking. He sits by the campfire and tells stories. Stories about people that serve to illuminate the institutions they work for and the issues they wrestle with. He travels from the proud New York Times, a last outpost of old-school family ownership, recently battered by scandal, out across the country to journalism's new wave, chains like the Chicago Tribune where synergy is in the saddle and the stock price often sets the pace. He journeys into the depths of New York City's brutal tabloid wars, where he discovers that greed and power are at least as compelling as profit; he ventures out onto the cushy celebrity-journalist circuit, where he shines a spotlight on journalists who've ascended to the Olympian status of "media personality" and get to schmooze with Imus and collect fat corporate lecture fees. Here he confronts the legacy of journalism's less compromised past, and the prospects for its future, from fallen stars of "new media" like Inside.com to the ascendant star of cable, Roger Ailes's Fox News. The product of more than ten years covering the news media for The New Yorker, Backstory will become the definitive take on this most important of subjects, a Journalism 101 for civilians as well as journalists by the course's master teacher.