Backstory: Inside the Business of News

By Ken Auletta

Book Overview

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 a mantra. He probes the moral ambiguity of "media personalities"--journalists who become celebrities themselves, padding their incomes by schmoozing with Imus and rounding the lucrative corporate lecture circuit. He reckons with 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.

• 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.

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.