When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina

by W. Lance Bennett, Regina G. Lawrence, Steven Livingston, et al.

Book Overview

A sobering look at the intimate relationship between political power and the news media, When the Press Fails argues the dependence of reporters on official sources disastrously thwarts coverage of dissenting voices from outside the Beltway. The result is both an indictment of official spin and an urgent call to action that questions why the mainstream press failed to challenge the Bush administration's arguments for an invasion of Iraq or...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226042855
• ISBN13: 9780226042855
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A Useful Academic Analysis

Some of the previous reviews of this book are written clearly by those with a political axe to grind and an obsession with analyzing media from "liberal" vs. "conservative" perspective. This book's authors have no interest in such a clumsy "analysis." Their book is not arguing that the media was conservatively or liberally biased under Bush, or conservatively or liberally biased under Clinton, etc. It is an examination of how media operate using an OFFICIAL SOURCE bias, not a liberal or conservative bias. This finding has been very well documented over and over in sound empirical/scholarly analyses over the last twenty years, but these findings are apparently beyond the understanding of partisan hacks like Brett Bozell on the right and Eric Alterman on the left who prefer to frame media as biased in a partisan/liberal-conservative fashion. I strongly recommend reading this book. As a teacher of political communication, I can say without hesistation that the empirical/data analysis in this book is as good as you will find in any book written on media. In the end I completely reject the authors' argument (which is implied throughout the book) that public debate in media should be limited to the views expressed by political officials in the Democratic and Republican party. But this is a normative problem I have with the book, not a quality of research problem. In terms of the authors' empirical analysis, it's spot on and definitely worth reading. I'd place this book, in terms of the quality of research, in the top ten of all scholarly books ever written on the mass media.

A harsh critique of today's press & media.

Freedom of the Press is one of the most fundamental freedoms in the American constitution. Then we have presidential scandals - and sadly watch as the media does exactly what the government intends for them to do. "When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media From Iraq to Katrina" is an examination of today's media and a criticism of their over-reliance on official sources. It also acts as a call to start questioning the mainstream press, and for the press itself to cover conflicting viewpoints against what the government's official sources want them to report. Failure to do so could lead to further disasters due to the blind spot of the public - who need this information to act as they should in our system of government. "When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media From Iraq to Katrina" has the highest recommendation to community library shelves, and for anyone who wants a harsh critique of today's press & media. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch