Media Circus; The Trouble with America's Newspapers

New York: Times Books, 1993. First Edition [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. [10], 420, [2] pages. Includes introduction, sources, and index. Signed by the author with a comment, on the free front paper facing the half title. Comment reads: Best Wishes, from a member of the circus--Howard Kurtz. Howard Alan Kurtz (born August 1, 1953) is an American journalist and author best known for his coverage of the media. Kurtz is the host of Fox News's Media Buzz program, the successor to Fox News Watch. He is the former media writer for The Washington Post and the former Washington bureau chief for The Daily Beast. He has written five books about the media. Kurtz left CNN and joined Fox News in 2013. After college, Kurtz moved to Washington D.C. to work as a reporter for syndicated columnist Jack Anderson. Kurtz left Anderson to join the Washington. Kurtz was hired at The Washington Post by Bob Woodward . Kurtz has also written for The New Republic and New York magazine. The author, press critic for The Washington Post, argues that the press has sacrificed its credibility while failing to stem the tide of newspaper closings. Derived from a Kirkus review: A gossipy diagnosis of what ails US newspapers. Washington Post Media-reporter Kurtz concludes that broadsheets as well as tabloids have been losing credibility because they tend to focus on scandalous sleaze or marginal manipulators while-until overtaken by events-they all but ignore important stories like the collapse of thrift institutions and the root causes of the L.A. riots. At the same time, dailies have been squandering their natural advantages- -notably, an unrivaled ability to provide the public with in-depth context on TV's blur of sound bites. In-house woes ranging from ethical lapses through noisy allegations of racial bias and sexism have further undermined an already shaky industry. Kurtz examines how labor strife as well as economic problems have expanded the number of single-paper towns, inducing many survivors to emulate USA Today-which, he says, has been moving up-market with a less flashy format and more substantive content. Covered as well are the improved (i.e., more analytic) performances of print journalists during the 1992 presidential campaign; the Pentagon's innovative use of the press corps during the Gulf War; the many ways in which government officials can seduce correspondents supposed to probe them; and the capacity of newspapers to compete for attention in a high-tech era arguably dominated by CNN, C-SPAN, MTV, or allied sources of instant gratification. A cautionary, wide-ranging critique that's both entertaining and informative.