Backstory: Inside the Business of News

by Ken Auletta

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143034634
• ISBN13: 9780143034636
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 350 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Good quality and a good book

This was the only book out of 7 that I actually enjoyed reading in my rhetoric class.

A Compelling Analysis of Contemporary News Media

Frequent readers of The New Yorker are already familiar with Auletta's brilliant essays on the news media. What we have here in this volume are several of his best, all but one of which previously appeared in that magazine. Specific subjects include the Howell Raines "doctrine" during his tenure at the New York Times, Mark H. Willes' major reorganization of that newspaper, initiatives within the Tribune Company to achieve organizational synergies, the "tabloid wars" waged by the New York Daily News and the New York Post, Arthur M. Sulzberger, Jr.'s "Outward Bound Adventure" at the New York Times, a profile of John McCandlish Phillips, Jr. ("the reporter who disappeared"), an explanation of how and why "fee speech" could corrupt "journalism's claim to public trust," a profile of Don Imus, an examination of the life and death of Inside.com, and an analysis of the creation, emergence, and impact of Fox News. However, Auletta's primary objective is to answer questions such as these: 1. What is the proper role of the news media? 2. How has that role changed during the last decade? Why? 3. What are the nature and extent of the impact of business considerations on the selection, articulation, and provision of news? Auletta's thinking and writing have exceptional rigor, focus, and clarity. Yes, we learn a great deal about the individuals and organizations on which he focuses in this volume but its much greater value (to me) is derived from his thoughtful and eloquent responses to the questions posed earlier.

Online reviews are worthless

Read what is written below... enough said.

An excellent read! Gets you the inside story!

I saw a story about this book on PBS and was intrigued to read it. It was worth it! It lets you know the true inside story about the media and the problems they have critizing their stories enough.

insightful collection of articles

Insightful collection of articles which explores the state of journalism by focusing on individual newspapers and news companies. Most of these articles have been published over the years in the New Yorker, but the collection gives a perceptive overview of the journalistic world that so influences public perceptions of world events.