Backstory: Inside the Business of News

ISBN: 0143034634

Author: Auletta, Ken

Condition: New

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 Americas 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 Citys brutal tabloid wars and out across the country to journalisms new wave, chains like the Chicago Tribunes, 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 journalisms 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 Ailess Fox News. The product of more than ten years covering the news media for The New Yorker, Backstory is Journalism 101 by the courses master teacher.