Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public

Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public
Average customer rating:

VERY INTERESTING BOOK

What's going on in Washington DC?

A misleading title on a journalistic memoir

rambling, disjointed, biasd, personal, fun

Neither focused nor organized

Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public
Helen Thomas
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0743267818

Book Description

In the course of more than sixty years spent covering Washington politics, Helen Thomas has witnessed a raft of fundamental changes in the way news is gathered and reported. Gone are the days of frequent firsthand contact with the president. Now, the press sees the president only at tightly controlled and orchestrated press conferences. In addition, Thomas sees a growing -- and alarming -- reluctance among reporters to question government spokesmen and probe for the truth. The result has been a wholesale failure by journalists to fulfill what is arguably their most vital role in contemporary American life -- to be the watchdogs of democracy. Today's journalists, according to Thomas, have become subdued, compromised lapdogs.

Here, the legendary journalist and bestselling author delivers a hard-hitting manifesto on the precipitous decline in the quality and ethics of political reportage -- and issues a clarion call for change. Thomas confronts some of the most significant issues of the day, including the jailing of reporters, the conservative swing in television news coverage, and the administration's increased insistence on "managed" news. But she is most emphatic about reporters' failure to adequately question President George W. Bush and White House spokesmen about the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, and on subjects ranging from homeland security to the economy. This, she insists, was a dire lapse.

Drawing on her peerless knowledge of journalism, Washington politics, and nine presidential administrations, as well as frank interviews with leading journalists past and present, Thomas provides readers with a rich historical perspective on the roots of American journalism, the circumstances attending the rise and fall of its golden age, and the nature and consequences of its current shortcomings. The result is a powerful, eye-opening discourse on the state of political reportage -- as well as a welcome and inspiring demand for meaningful and lasting reform.

Customer Reviews:

VERY INTERESTING BOOK.......2007-08-23

Helen Thomas has covered the White House since JFK and her insight into how the media has failed in the recent years to cover the White House and be the Watchdogs of Democracy is "Right on Point." There are very few "Real" Journalists like hardworking Helen Thomas around anymore!!

What's going on in Washington DC?.......2007-05-13

The lady in the red suit scores again with this cogent comment on the Washington press corps. Ms. Thomas, who pitches hardball questions during press conferences if she is allowed to do so, has very coherently and successfully produced a well-reasoned text about why the press corps failed the American people by not investigating the shenanigans surrounding the present administration. This is a necessary read for journalism students and probably for those interested history and political science.

A misleading title on a journalistic memoir.......2007-04-26

This book sorely disappointed me for two reasons. I strongly agree with the thesis of the title, that the media largely abandoned their important duty as watchdogs of democracy in the run-up to the War in Iraq, HOWEVER, this issue amounts to a grand total of ONE chapter in her entire book. The rest is a bunch of anecdotes tied loosely together. In fact, it reads more like an anthology than a unified work.

The second thing that disappointed me was also something of a shock: Helen Thomas, Grand Dame, Dean of the Washington Press Corps, is a lousy writer! I am serious. I read on average one or two political/nonfiction books a month, and this is one of the most poorly written I have read yet. Some of the books I have read are by "regular" people, some by pundits, and some by politicians. Nearly all of them write in a more interesting and engaging style than Mrs. Thomas. Her tone is often conversational at best, and her stories seem to be told as much to discuss presidents' interactions with the media as to tell you what an interesting career she has had.

I could not in good faith give it one star. It isn't horrible. It is just extremely disappointing.

rambling, disjointed, biasd, personal, fun.......2007-02-08

This is a rambling, disjointed, biased, personal account
of what should be an important public issue. The title
has a question mark, and the subtitle identifies the
culprit and makes an accusation. So how does "Watchdogs
of Democracy? The Waning Washington Press Corps and How
It Has Failed the Public" measure up? Not very well on
the subject, but better as a collection of snippets.

The foreword drones on and on for ten pages. Chapter 1
tells us Journalism is an honorable profession in
spite of Jayson Blair and a few others.
Chapter 2 mentions several scandals uncovered by the
press. Chapter 3 has anecdotes about presidents with
the press. Chapter 4 is about press secretaries.
Chapter 5 is about spinning the news.
Chapter 6 is about leakers and whistle blowers.
Chapter 7 admits that the news business is a business.
Chapter 8 complains about the FCC. Chapter 9 is
the subject of the book, the press as lapdogs.
Chapter 10 covers war correspondents, Iraq wars,
and Vietnam. Chapter 11 covers her choice of the
greatest American journalists. There is over 11
pages of closely spaced, double column index,
but no references.

Thomas seems to think there is little in Washington
except the White House. The other branches, and the
bureaus and departments are seldom mentioned.

Some Republicans will be bothered by some of her
attacks, and some Democrats will be delighted.
There are attacks, and both Democrats and Republicans
are the targets, perhaps in equal numbers, but they
are treated differently. Democrats tend to get the
passive voice and quirky little adjectives.
Republicans tend to get the active voice and
malicious adjectives. Bush 43 gets the worst
treatment.

Still, it is an entertaining book. The only time
I was tempted to put it down was Thomas quoting
herself giving a speech disguised as a question at
a White House Press Conference.

Neither focused nor organized.......2007-01-14

This book was clearly written for profit. Many sections of the book are only weakly connected back to the main theme and nowhere does Helen Thomas make her case-in-chief directly. Instead, the reader is treated to a series of vignettes which all too frequently bear only a tenuous relationship to one another and which make no effort to maintain continuity. While each chapter has a reasonably strong cohesion (though those boundaries frequently intersect in a way which would make any Venn diagram lover proud), they work together not as a fine Swiss watch, but instead more like a Rube Goldberg machine.
There is one theme which appears time-and-again: the idea that an objective and vigorous free press is a necessary part of democracy. This point is made consistently throughout the book from a cornucopia of different, albeit predicable, angles, and is artfully shown both implicitly and explicitly through excellent and enjoyable anecdotes accumulated during the author's sixty years as a White House correspondent. Unfortunately for the reader, her anecdotes frequently seem to be included for their value as self-platitudes rather than for intrinsic value or thematic attenuation. Also unfortunate is the inconvenient truth that Helen Thomas is no longer the type of reporter she praises, but the type she opines against: an opinion columnist.
There are certainly gems in the rough scattered throughout the 201 pages, but the author's tendency both to ramble and babble makes them difficult to find and detracts from their value. With regard to Thomas' periodic attempts a historical organization, her comments at the conclusion of chapter four are revealing: "There were other press secretaries and other spokespersons. I have mentioned only a few who stand out in my mind, for better or worse." Indeed, it seems she deemed fit to simply write down a train of thought as it occurred to her in the shower; that is to say, while not devoid of organization, the linking up of subjects is tenuous at best. Perhaps the most interesting and enjoyable aspect of Helen Thomas' writing style in this book is her robust use of vocabulary, which includes a scattering of excellent words on every page (some of which I even had to look up).

The Complete New Yorker: Eighty Years of the Nation's Greatest Magazine (Book & 8 DVD-ROMs)

Average customer rating:

this version is outdated!
6 stars for content; 1 star for presentation
Wow! A Great Gift for any New Yorker Fan!
20th century in a box!
how about it mac users?

The Complete New Yorker: Eighty Years of the Nation's Greatest Magazine (Book & 8 DVD-ROMs)

Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1400064740
Release Date: 2005-09-20

Amazon.com

Fans of The New Yorker will be dazzled by The Complete New Yorker, a collection that includes every page of every issue, from full-color covers to spot drawings, from poetry to Profiles, from cartoons to advertisements--all on 8 searchable DVDs. No need to save old issues, with this package, you'll have every article, cartoon, illustration, and advertisement, as it appeared in print, at your fingertips. The Complete New Yorker covers the magazine's entire history, from February 1925 to February 2005, providing a detailed yet panoramic history of the life of the city, the nation, and the world.

With The Complete New Yorker, you'll be able to:

Browse by Cover (click to zoom):

Search by Keyword (click to zoom):

View Entire Articles (click to zoom):

Search the archives for your favorite articles, cartoons, covers, and see them exactly as they appeared in print:

(October 13, 1934):

(August 31, 1946)

(September 23, 1961):

(July 22, 1974):

(September 10, 2001):

Book Description

EVERY PAGE OF EVERY ISSUE
ON 8 DVD-ROMS, WITH A COMPANION BOOK OF HIGHLIGHTS.

A cultural monument, a journalistic gold mine, an essential research tool, an amazing time machine.

What has the New Yorker said about Prohibition, Duke Ellington, the Second World War, Bette Davis, boxing, Winston Churchill, Citizen Kane, the invention of television, the Cold War, baseball, the lunar landing, Willem de Kooning, Madonna, the internet, and 9/11?

Eighty years of The New Yorker offers a detailed, entertaining history of the life of the city, the nation, and the world since 1925.

Every article, every cartoon, every illustration, every advertisement, exactly as it appeared on the printed page, in full color. Flip through full spreads of the magazine to browse headlines, art work, ads, and cartoons, or zoom in on a single page, for closer viewing. Print any pages or covers you choose, or bookmark pages with your own notes.

Our powerful search environment allows you to home in on the pieces you want to see. Our entire history is catalogued by date, contributor, department, and subject.

4, 109 ISSUES. HALF A MILLION PAGES. YOURS TO SEARCH AND SAVOR.

Customer Reviews:

this version is outdated!.......2007-09-16

Buy the 9 DVD set directly from the New Yorker at half the price. I discovered this AFTER I bought from Amazon and when I pointed this out, they were of no help. Amazon basically told me it was my problem - caveat emptor!

6 stars for content; 1 star for presentation.......2007-08-12

To have finger-tip access to the complete contents of the New Yorker magazine throughout its entire publication history, even with the inconvenience of swapping discs, is a dream come true. One cannot have any criticism that the content of this product is an incredible value--the asking price is entirely fair.

The proprietary client that users are forced to access the contents through, however, is among the worst pieces of software design I have ever seen. The various panes, for example, cannot be resized, so that the abstract view, in most cases, is cut off. The `Article Abstract' pane is always 756 pixels wide and 88 pixels high, no matter how long the abstract is. Only by clicking in the abstract pane and using the up and down arrows can one view the full text of the abstract.

The client was designed by Bondi Digital Publications, whose slick website proudly claims credit for it. Bondi's developers should be forced to crawl on their knees from Manhattan to Murray Hill to beg forgiveness for their programming sins. I purchased and installed the 1.1 DVD, but the client remains the same DOS 5.1-era obscenity it was before.

The index is also less than trustworthy. Touted by its developer, Innodata Isogen, as "99.995% accurate," it has, in fact, some gaping flaws. From a fairly thorough browse through most of 1933's issues, for example, I found that no material beyond page 40 of most issues was actually captured by the indexing engine. So, despite the fact that virtually every issue included a "Books" section, according to the index, only four 1933 issues contained this section (and only one in 1932 and only nine in 1931). Clifton Fadiman wrote most of the main reviews in the "Books" section in 1934, yet there is a gap from the 17 Feb to the 9 June issue where no author is credited. Such omissions mean that serious researchers should think twice before relying on the search tool. I suspect the true accuracy figure is under 95%, which is pretty poor by today's standards.

It's a real shame that the management of the New Yorker didn't put this product into the hands of a technical team of the caliber of the one that implemented their website. The net result of their poor choice of subcontractors is akin to taking the Hope Diamond and wrapping it up in a used Big Mac wrapper.

Wow! A Great Gift for any New Yorker Fan!.......2007-05-24

First, I applaud the guys at the New Yorker for bringing this remarkable gift of the last 80 years on 8 CDs. You can reprint or print as often and as much as you want. I have to say that I didn't care for the book included. But this is truly a complete New Yorker with ads, indexes, authors, dates, subjects, etc. I have to say since I'm a big fan of Janet Flanner's who wrote Letters from Paris from 1925 to 1975. Fortunately, I don't have to spend a fortune seeking New Yorker magazines for a lot more money. It's easy to install and easier to use all the time. I love it. It's the perfect gift for anybody who loves to read, for any New Yorker fan, or anybody who has acquired the New Yorker Taste. It's not for everybody but it's for me.

I have to say that was the main purpose behind this purchase was the opportunity to have the magazine without collecting too much dust and space as magazines have been known to do. As a fan of Janet Flanner for the last couple of years, this complete New Yorker edition on dvd and book is fabulous and quite a bargain. I'm so glad that I got it and now I can print as much without having to go elsewhere to get the magazine editions. Janet Flanner was one of the most important voices of the last century and more so was that she was the voice of Paris from the American point of view from 1925 to 1975. Her name was synomous with New Yorker and the Letters from Paris edition. I am so happy to receive this wonderful item at a fraction of the price and be able to use it on my computer. I wonder what Janet would say about today's technology, the smoking ban everywhere but home, and the state of Paris, London, Rome, and New York City today. I won't say that Janet was a New Yorker because her heart was truly in Paris where she spent most of her life. We were very lucky to have her there reporting from 1925 until 1975. She was there between two World Wars. I think some of her finest writing came about during World War II and afterwards until she was no longer to write. I have to say that I think Paris changed after World War II. It wasn't so much about the lost generation of American expatriates like Flanner, her partner Solita Solano, Natalie Clifford Barney, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Beach etc. who relocated. Sure the hardcore expatriates like Flanner stayed behind but the change in Paris was obvious after the war. Nothing after the war was ever the same. In a way, all of Europe lost it's innocence during World War II and even Janet probably fondly remembered days before the war that ripped everybody apart. Nothing is for sure, nothing can last forever, maybe that's what Genet would say today.

Anyway, the product is excellent. There are a couple of pages missing in old issues but the quality is adequate. You get 80 years of print on 8 compact discs which I found accessible and easy to use on my computer. The first disc is to install the information which includes by author, subject, title, year, etc. This index is invaluable tool. It would also be a great addition to the schools for students to research. They have a wide variety of literature like cartoons, poems, short stories, non-fiction, profiles, reporter at large series etc. It would be a terrible shame not take the opportunity to buy this treasure.

20th century in a box!.......2007-05-13

Name a subject and the Complete New Yorker addresses it ...and probably from many perspectives and in every decade! This collection is a goldmine of research and personal library of literature.

how about it mac users?.......2007-05-01

all of the problems listed in all of the, amazon, reviews dealing with computer problems seem to be software conflict with various hardware suppliers. all of the, mac, users seem happy with the product. is this true mac users?

Average customer rating:

A worthy contribution to history free of myth and full of facts
Two Shortcuts To Becoming A Lone-Assassin Believer: Watch The 11/22/63 Real-Time Live TV Coverage....And Then Read This Book
Out of the Past
very good press reporting
JOURNALISM CLASSIC AND INSIDE SCOOP

When the News Went Live: Dallas 1963
Bob Huffaker
Manufacturer: Taylor Trade Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1589791398

Book Description

Broadcast journalism came of age in the Kennedy Assassination crisis and helped to hold a mourning nation together. Four reporters on the scene relate their experiences.

Customer Reviews:

A worthy contribution to history free of myth and full of facts.......2007-04-03

There are so very few books that convey a sense of "being there" when it comes to the Kennedy assassination. This outstanding book takes the reader back to that fateful weekend of November 22nd 1963 in Dallas, Texas and does so in an open, honest and compelling manner.

"When the News Went Live" is written by four journalists who were in Dallas on that day covering the presidential visit. Bob Huffaker and the other three newsmen share many interesting stories that you will not find elsewhere and that have been untold for many years no doubt to all but their personal friends. This is why the book is such a valuable contribution to the historical record. Such first hand observation regarding not just those few seconds in Dealey Plaza, the murder of Officer Tippet and the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby, but how in fact the entire story unfolded, makes fascinating reading.

As an aid to anyone interested in the assassination, this book is a must have. I would emphasize - rarely do you find first hand knowledge like this - much of what is written on this subject is written by people many steps removed from the event where fact and fiction merge into one. Not so here. A fabulous book which is refreshingly free of the conjecture and myth that is so common in the Himalayan pile of work on the Kennedy assassination and is highly recommended.

Two Shortcuts To Becoming A Lone-Assassin Believer: Watch The 11/22/63 Real-Time Live TV Coverage....And Then Read This Book.......2007-01-02

"With three shots from a mail-order rifle, Lee Oswald set off a worldwide tragedy that developed too fast to print. .... Broadcast journalism came of age in that crisis of grief and uncertainty, and as it drew its mourning audience, it helped to hold the nation together." -- Bob Huffaker; From the Preface of "When The News Went Live: Dallas 1963"

----------------------

"When The News Went Live: Dallas 1963", published in 2004, paints a vivid word picture of many of the incredible events that surrounded President John F. Kennedy's assassination in November of 1963, as seen through the eyes of four journalists -- Bob Huffaker, Bill Mercer, George Phenix, and Wes Wise -- who covered those events as they happened for CBS affiliate KRLD-TV and Radio in Dallas.

President Kennedy's shocking and appalling assassination on November 22, 1963, was the very first really big "Watch It Unfold Live On TV" news event of the television era, with four full commercial-free days being devoted to nothing but exclusive assassination-related coverage by all three major TV networks (with KRLD's on-the-scene Dallas reporters frequently feeding CBS-TV headquarters in New York).

And the four reporters whose intriguing stories unfold within this 224-page hardcover volume were right smack in the thick of things during the rapidly-developing events -- from the initial sketchy bulletins that told of the President being shot in Dealey Plaza during a motorcade drive through the city of Dallas -- to the announcement of JFK's death at Parkland Hospital -- to the capture of the accused assassin (Lee Harvey Oswald) in a nearby movie theater -- to Oswald's very own murder on live TV (with Bob Huffaker reporting live from the basement of the Dallas Police Department, where the single gunshot from Jack Ruby's pistol added yet another hard-to-believe chapter to the weekend's nightmarish story).

It was a mesmerizing weekend in American (and television) history, to say the least. And those days are re-lived with clarity in this engaging book by way of the recollections of four men who lived through and reported on those events when they were occurring.

"When The News Went Live" contains several excellent black-and-white photographs, too (some of them I haven't seen published elsewhere).

On a personal level, I have had the pleasure of communicating (via e-mail) with Bob Huffaker several times. He has been very cordial and gracious whenever answering the questions that I had for him. His personal insights into the events revolving around JFK's death are fascinating glimpses into the past, and are insights that I have enjoyed reading immensely.

A sample e-mail excerpt from Mr. Huffaker:

----------------------

"David, you're right about the presidential visit and motorcade being the main attraction that all Dallas media were covering, of course. But all our stations had limited capabilities for doing mobile TV, which then demanded either cables or microwave dishes--as well as a receiving dish within line-of-sight beaming or bouncing.

Hence the pool TV arrangements, limited to three planned locations. The local TV stations did live TV from the FTW {Fort Worth} breakfast, Love Field, and the Trade Mart. But this was, indeed, the day the news went live on television, unplanned.

WBAP-TV in Fort Worth had a non-running TV van, which they had towed all the way from Cowtown to Dallas Police headquarters, and we sent both of our KRLD-TV vans into duty--the Bread Truck at DPD and the Blue Goose on the 24th to the county jail, etc.

This was the first time in TV history when on-the-spot news suddenly demanded to go live from the scene. Before that, radio news on-the-spot descriptions such as ours that day were common (like the Hindenburg broadcast--radio only), and live TV was usually reserved for major speeches, sports, etc.

Bob" -- E-mail to this writer; May 30, 2006

----------------------

Relating to the subject of "WHEN THE NEWS WENT LIVE", I'd like to offer up the following observations as an extension of this book review.....

To those JFK conspiracy theorists who seem to favor the Oliver Stone-like or Robert Groden-promoted assassination scenarios (that feature a minimum of three gunmen and anywhere from 6 to 10 gunshots being fired at President Kennedy in Dallas' Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963) -- I always suggest to them that they ought to dig up some of the originally-aired "As It Is Happening" live TV or radio broadcasts from that dark Friday in American history.

After performing that exercise of watching a few hours of the November 22 television coverage of the assassination (in real time), or listening to some of the radio broadcasts in real time (which works just as well) -- I challenge anyone to then arrive at the same conclusion that was slapped up on the big theater screen in 1991 via Director Oliver Stone's blockbuster, conspiracy-laden motion picture "JFK".

Watching the day's events unfold "live" in front of you (or listening to them unfold on the radio as it was happening) should, in my opinion, provide everyone with a good general idea of how utterly impossible a task it would have been to have "faked" so much stuff that was being IMMEDIATELY reported to the world on live television and radio within minutes and hours of the President's assassination (and within a very short space of time following Police Officer J.D. Tippit's murder as well).

Via those original live TV/Radio broadcasts, you're not going to hear a SINGLE report that resembles anything close to the Oliver Stone/Jim Garrison-endorsed nonsense of:

"Three gunmen fired six shots at President Kennedy's motorcade today here in Dallas!!"

What you will hear, instead, is live coverage, as it happened, of a ONE-GUNMAN assassination taking place from where the majority of witnesses said it took place (the Texas School Book Depository Building), with no more than three shots having been fired by the SINGLE SHOOTER, which is a shot count that over 91% of the witnesses concur with -- including the small percentage of witnesses who heard only one or two shots, who are witnesses that certainly don't do Mr. Stone's "6-shot ambush" theory any favors.

Upon evaluating virtually all of the TV networks' live assassination footage from November 22nd, 1963, there is no possible way that a reasonable person could arrive at a conclusion that JFK was shot by three assassins, firing from both front and rear. Let alone arriving at an even more-cockeyed "8-to-10-shot" shooting scenario, as purported by Mr. Groden and some other CTers, which is an outlandish conspiracy-flavored scenario that has John Kennedy and John Connally being shot by way more than just the two Warren Commission-backed Mannlicher-Carcano bullets from Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle.*

* = And Mr. Groden's theory (that sports from 8 to 10 gunshots) also features an additional hunk of lunacy, in that Groden thinks it's very likely that NONE of these eight to ten shots came from the "Oswald window" in the Book Depository! (I'm not making this crazy stuff up here. I promise. Anyone who owns a copy of Robert Groden's 1993 book "The Killing Of A President" can check out Groden's preposterous theory for themselves, on pages 20-40.)

The bottom line is -- Very nearly all of the information being reported on TV and radio that November day favored a "Lone Assassin" shooting scenario (including the info concerning the Tippit murder in Oak Cliff), with very little evidence and information being broadcast that would support any type of a "conspiracy" whatsoever; and certainly no "conspiratorial" evidence that has ever panned out and "proved" that a multi-gun plot ended JFK's life in Dallas.

This is quite a telling "One Killer" fact. Because, in my view, if a vast conspiracy and subsequent "cover-up" had been in place on November 22nd (given the immense amount of TV and radio coverage, with reporters scrutinizing everything coming across their desks and digging hard for any type of case-solving clues during those first hours and days after JFK and J.D. Tippit were killed), I think that at least SOME pieces of the conspiracy would have leaked through to the sweeping television and radio coverage surrounding the two Dallas murders.

And I'm guessing that every reporter and newsman in the country (including Messrs. Huffaker, Mercer, Phenix, and Wise) would have loved to dig up some "conspiracy"-proving angle during that weekend in November of '63. Being the person who uncovered such a huge story would certainly be a feather in that reporter's cap, to be sure. But, as it turned out, nothing of that nature occurred....and has yet to occur all these many years later.

To think (as many theorists do) that these conspirators were so smart and so quick to have had the capabilities to immediately eliminate virtually every last scrap of information leading to a conspiracy plot of some kind, making sure that none of the "multi-gunmen shooting event" details seeped through to the media (multiplied by TWO separate murders as well, counting Tippit's!), is to think that any such evil-doers had powers similar to "Superman".

For example -- Almost every one of the initial reports concerning the number of gunshots heard by witnesses stated "3 shots". And while it's true that the very first report of the shooting from UPI's Merriman Smith (which was broadcast over all the television networks) stated "Three shots were fired...", it's also worth noting that Smith's initial bulletin was not the ONLY "three shots" account that was reported during those early hours just after the shooting.

For instance, Jay Watson of ABC affiliate WFAA-TV in Dallas (who happened to be in Dealey Plaza during the shooting and nervously reported the first bulletins to the unaware Dallas TV audience) is heard multiple times on November 22nd saying he heard "3 shots" fired.

Plus, several other members of the media are also on record stating their own PERSONAL beliefs that exactly three shots were fired by the assassin, including Robert MacNeil, Jack Bell, Bob Clark, Jerry Haynes, and Pierce Allman, among still others.

Some of the other "Three Shot" witnesses who were riding right in the Presidential motorcade itself include -- Photographers Tom Dillard, Robert Jackson, Mal Couch, and James Underwood. Plus, both John and Nellie Connally, who were riding in the same car with President Kennedy.

In addition, Presidential aides Ken O'Donnell and David Powers, who were both riding in the Secret Service follow-up car directly behind JFK's limousine, can also be added to the lengthy list of witnesses who heard precisely three gunshots.

And then there's also amateur filmmaker Abraham Zapruder, who took the most famous 26-second home movie in history when he captured the entire assassination with his 8mm Bell & Howell movie camera -- Zapruder showed up on live TV about 90 minutes after the President's murder took place and gave a graphic account of the horrifying event that had taken place in front of his very eyes.

Mr. Zapruder told the WFAA-TV viewing audience that he had heard two or three shots (but definitely no more than three), and he also demonstrated on live television where on the President's head he had seen the effects of the fatal gunshot. Zapruder puts his hand over the right-frontal portion of his own head to demonstrate where he saw the blood coming from JFK's head.

That's pretty amazing "LIVE" stuff from Mr. Zapruder's own lips (within approx. an hour-and-a-half of the assassination). And it's especially incredible and amazing if there had actually been many more than just two or three shots fired at the President, and if the fatal shot had actually (as many CTers believe) caused a huge hole in the BACK of John Kennedy's head, instead of the location where Zapruder placed it on live television -- i.e., the RIGHT SIDE AND FRONT portion of the head.

How could the so-called "conspirators" have possibly gotten THAT lucky with respect to Abraham Zapruder's live "on-the-air" WFAA-TV statements and head-wound "demonstration"? How?

And -- Could these ultra-clever conspirators have somehow managed to "manipulate" several reporters who were relaying the news live to the world immediately after the event, and have them ALL report on hearing just "three shots" (or, in a few cases, hearing only TWO shots, which is a number that certainly does not favor a "Multi-Shooter Conspiracy Plot")?

Or did the plotters just happen to get really, really LUCKY (again) when virtually all of the news reports favored the "Three Shots Fired" conclusion? With this 3-shot scenario matching the precise number of bullet shells that were found on the 6th Floor of the Book Depository after the shooting; and also perfectly matching the exact number of shots heard by TSBD witness Harold Norman, and also perfectly matching the precise number of bullet shells (3) that Norman heard hitting the plywood floor directly above his 5th-Floor location within the Depository.

Which, per Oliver Stone's movie, would mean that a full 50% of the ACTUAL number of gunshots were somehow inaudible to the enormous majority (91%+) of the earwitnesses! And, remember, Oliver has NONE of the shots within his movie's six-shot assassination ambush being "synchronized" in order to merge together with the sound of some of the other shots.

And yet, per Mr. Stone, we're supposed to actually believe that approximately 9 out of every 10 witnesses somehow missed hearing HALF of the gunshots fired that day! A reasonable thing to believe....or not? I ask you.

Were these so-called conspiratorial shooters so good that they could make 4 to 10 shots sound like only three to the vast majority of witnesses scattered all throughout Dealey Plaza? Highly doubtful, to say the least.

Again -- I'd advise all conspiracy theorists to sit down and watch the live TV footage....or listen to some of the surviving 11/22/63 radio tapes....and then try to find a "Multi-Gunmen Conspiracy" lurking within ANY of those original broadcasts. If anybody finds proof of a conspiracy via those means, please let me know. And let the world know too.

David Von Pein
December 2006
January 2007

Out of the Past.......2006-04-04

We have become accustomed (yea, verily, some would say desensitized)to horror unfolding before our eyes in our very own living rooms. Bob Huffaker's book brings us back to a time before the desensitization, when we could scarcely believe what our eyes were telling us. I recommend this book highly to those who were there, watching as I was, and even more so to those who were not there. The young, raised in an era of suicide bombers, need to understand that it was not always thus.

very good press reporting.......2005-07-30

1963 nov 22 brought to life again but with more professionalism.some very interesting facts that confirmed my own thoughts .

JOURNALISM CLASSIC AND INSIDE SCOOP.......2005-05-07

I stayed up all night reading when my copy of When The News Went Live, Dallas 1963 arrived. This book is a classic and should be included in the curriculum of every journalism and political science classroom in America.

Huffaker, Mercer, Phenix and Wise have written the Texas story of the Kennedy assassination, the inside scoop on Oswald's murder and the history of the evolution of modern journalism. These four men were Dallas television reporters, on the scene and on their own, in the middle of the news story of the century.

It is a salute to their training and their integrity as newsmen that their coverage under duress stands today as a compelling rendering of those fateful moments. I am glad they were the early ones on the scene, for they were the ones who broke the news to me in my elementary classroom. The story gives their perspectives more fully; all these years later, this book helps me understand the events and how they affected Texas and the nation.

Bob, Bill, George and Wes were there in Dallas with their Southern sensibilities. They weren't easily pushed around or manipulated that dark day and still aren't. They were taught to tell the truth as objectively as possible, and they reverted to that training and their good common sense when placed in positions lesser men might have blown or exploited. These four men cared about truth and justice and fairness and still do. I hope all young journalists will read this and learn about balanced reporting.

Average customer rating:

Insider look at Washington
Great book
This is a useful item
Kathryn Graham, a personal history
I wonder if reviewers really read the book?

Personal History
Katharine Graham
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375701044
Release Date: 1998-02-24

Amazon.com

In lieu of an unrevealing Famous-People-I-Have-Known autobiography, the owner of the Washington Post has chosen to be remarkably candid about the insecurities prompted by remote parents and a difficult marriage to the charismatic, manic-depressive Phil Graham, who ran the newspaper her father acquired. Katharine's account of her years as subservient daughter and wife is so painful that by the time she finally asserts herself at the Post following Phil's suicide in 1963 (more than halfway through the book), readers will want to cheer. After that, Watergate is practically an anticlimax.

Book Description

Winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Biography

An extraordinarily frank, honest, and generous book by one of America's most famous and admired women, Personal History is, as its title suggests, a book composed of both personal memoir and history.

It is the story of Graham's parents: the multimillionaire father who left private business and government service to buy and restore the down-and-out Washington Post, and the formidable, self-absorbed mother who was more interested in her political and charity work, and her passionate friendships with men like Thomas Mann and Adlai Stevenson, than in her children.

It is the story of how The Washington Post struggled to succeed -- a fascinating and instructive business history as told from the inside (the paper has been run by Graham herself, her father, her husband, and now her son).

It is the story of Phil Graham -- Kay's brilliant, charismatic husband (he clerked for two Supreme Court justices) -- whose plunge into manic-depression, betrayal, and eventual suicide is movingly and charitably recounted.

Best of all, it is the story of Kay Graham herself. She was brought up in a family of great wealth, yet she learned and understood nothing about money. She is half-Jewish, yet -- incredibly -- remained unaware of it for many years.She describes herself as having been naive and awkward, yet intelligent and energetic. She married a man she worshipped, and he fascinated and educated her, and then, in his illness, turned from her and abused her. This destruction of her confidence and happiness is a drama in itself, followed by the even more intense drama of her new life as the head of a great newspaper and a great company, a famous (and even feared) woman in her own right. Hers is a life that came into its own with a vengeance -- a success story on every level.

Graham's book is populated with a cast of fascinating characters, from fifty years of presidents (and their wives), to Steichen, Brancusi, Felix Frankfurter, Warren Buffett (her great advisor and protector), Robert McNamara, George Schultz (her regular tennis partner), and, of course, the great names from the Post: Woodward, Bernstein, and Graham's editorpartner, Ben Bradlee. She writes of them, and of the most dramatic moments of her stewardship of the Post (including the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, and the pressmen's strike), with acuity, humor, and good judgment. Her book is about learning by doing, about growing and growing up, about Washington, and about a woman liberated by both circumstance and her own great strengths.

Download Description

An extraordinarily frank, honest, and generous book by one of America's most famous and admired women -- a book that is, as its title suggests, both personal and history. It is the story of Katherine Graham's parents: the multi-millionaire father who left private business and government service to buy and restore the down-and-out Washington Post; the aggressive, formidable, self-absorbed mother, known in her time for her political and welfare work, and her passionate friendships with men such as Thomas Mann and Adlai Stevenson.

Customer Reviews:

Insider look at Washington .......2006-12-26

My only regret is that I did not pay more attention to Katharine Graham and the Washington Post while she was alive. Through unveiling her own insecurities and illustrating how she moved into one of the most powerful women in the world, I learned US History and the trials of a CEO woman in the 1960s and forward.

Ms. Graham reveals much about "inside Washington" and does a particularly good job of making the "players" come to life. I really hated to see the book end. Yet, Ms. Graham did what she set out to do -- documented a time in our history. Kathy Condon Executive Coach

Great book.......2006-11-13

Fantastic, gripping book, though it bogged down for me near the end with the minutia of labor/management disputes at the Washington Post. Still recommend highly.

This is a useful item.......2006-11-06

Katharine Graham's book is a useful study of life in Washington and the Washington Post. This is a very nice audio version of the book. For those who haven't the time to read, or have vision limitations, this is a very good substitute for the book.

Kathryn Graham, a personal history.......2006-02-25

Albeit a native of Washington, D C., I nevertheless found this
autobiography most absorbing. Intelligently yet personally written, including her own frequent self-analyses. Highly recommended,
I was sorry to finish it! BBBSS

I wonder if reviewers really read the book?.......2005-12-12

Do the reviewers on here really read the books? One reviewer above stated that Katherine Graham found her husband after he had hanged himself. No, she found him after he had shot himself. This is no small point, as later in the book, she reveals how hurt she was by a sign carried in an anti-Post parade during the newspaper strike that read, "Phil shot the wrong Graham." This is a fascinating book, and anyone posting a review of it on a forum like this should at least give it the respect of getting the basic facts straight.

Media-Art-History: Media Museum : Zkm - Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (Museum Guides.......Large Format)

Average customer rating:

Future of digital art

Media-Art-History: Media Museum : Zkm - Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (Museum Guides.......Large Format)
Hans-Peter Schwarz
Manufacturer: Prestel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3791318780

Customer Reviews:

Future of digital art.......2000-04-24

By the effort of ZKM, media and diital art have march into a new future. From this book we can get a close review of the past history of media art. Furthermore, we're waiting to explore the future of digital art.

Pop Dreams: Music, Movies, and the Media in the American 1960's (Harbrace Books on America Since 1945)

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brief and well written

Pop Dreams: Music, Movies, and the Media in the American 1960's (Harbrace Books on America Since 1945)
Archie Loss
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Common Culture: Reading and Writing About American Popular Culture (5th Edition)
America Transformed: A History of the United States Since 1900
The Age of Great Dreams: America in the 1960s (American Century Series)
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The Culture of the Cold War (The American Moment)

ASIN: 0155041460

Book Description

In one compact volume, POP DREAMS analyzes the trends, events, and personalities that influenced American culture from 1945 to 1970. The discussion broadens students' understanding of major events in popular culture by putting those events in historical context.

Customer Reviews:

brief and well written.......2005-08-25

This little book could easily have been a fully fledged tome. Loss surveys the popular American media in the 1960s. He shows how it echoed and in turn fed back on the burning issues of the times. The Vietnam War and the civil rights movement.

There is discussion of politics at the Federal level, with the actions of US Presidents being key events. But Loss manages to tie this all into a narrative that also encompasses analysis of the rock and roll scene and the counterculture.

The book is aimed at an undergraduate or high school reader, as a quick synopsis of trends that Loss traces back to 1945 and the emergence of the US from the Second World War. He hopes to whet the reader's appetite for more detailed reading of these vast topics.

The Culture Industry (Routledge Classics)

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The Critique of Mass-Culture Par Excellence
Remarkably insightful, yet a little too big on modern art ...

The Culture Industry (Routledge Classics)
Theodor Adorno
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415253802

Book Description

This book is an unrivalled indictment of the banality of mass culture - Adorno's finest essays are collected here, offering the reader unparalleled insights into Adorno's thoughts on culture.

Customer Reviews:

The Critique of Mass-Culture Par Excellence.......2007-08-26

In our banal age when sanctimonious platitude is often mistaken for wisdom or even ethical character, Adorno's mercilessly uncompromising analyses of the controlling nature of mass culture may initially strike some of us as exaggerated or hysterical initially. After all most of us now bear the consequence of lengthy habituation to our socio-economic situation: a chronic semi-conscious, autopilot behavioral and perceptive mode that can comprehend only the pre-digested, repetitive ideas or ways of thinking. However, once we start reading Adorno more attentively and thoughtfully we realize how prescient and perspicacious Adorno was as a critic of our modern society and culture. Many of his thoughts articulated in this volume anticipate the thoughts and writings of our leading contemporary thinkers, such as Jean Baudrillard, Frederic Jameson, and even Noam Chomsky (although he probably disagrees with Adorno's attitude toward culture, which may be construed as elitist).

I highly recommend this book to anybody who wants to escape the mass-culture induced stupor to become a more conscious human and citizen.

Remarkably insightful, yet a little too big on modern art ..........2006-11-23

The title of this review says much of it. Several essays in this book are dated in their literal forms, but your mind will take the ideas Adorno gives and apply them to your own experience. I don't know about ya'll, but I've found many of my new sensibilities about one thing while reading or otherwise interacting about something I would have considered entirely separated from the other.

My advice: read the intro twice: once through quickly and a second slowly and thoroughly; though I give that advice about many books, the intro to this book is vital to having a context to put the essays into.

Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation (Leonardo Books)

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Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation (Leonardo Books)
Steve Dixon
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Participation (Documents of Contemporary Art)

ASIN: 0262042355

Book Description

The past decade has seen an extraordinarily intense period of experimentation with computer technology within the performing arts. Digital media has been increasingly incorporated into live theater and dance, and new forms of interactive performance have emerged in participatory installations, on CD-ROM, and on the Web. In Digital Performance, Steve Dixon traces the evolution of these practices, presents detailed accounts of key practitioners and performances, and analyzes the theoretical, artistic, and technological contexts of this form of new media art.

Dixon finds precursors to today's digital performances in past forms of theatrical technology that range from the deus ex machina of classical Greek drama to Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk (concept of the total artwork), and draws parallels between contemporary work and the theories and practices of Constructivism, Dada, Surrealism, Expressionism, Futurism, and multimedia pioneers of the twentieth century. For a theoretical perspective on digital performance, Dixon draws on the work of Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, and others.

To document and analyze contemporary digital performance practice, Dixon considers changes in the representation of the body, space, and time. He considers virtual bodies, avatars, and digital doubles, as well as performances by artists including Stelarc, Robert Lepage, Merce Cunningham, Laurie Anderson, Blast Theory, and Eduardo Kac. He investigates new media’s novel approaches to creating theatrical spectacle, including virtual reality and robot performance work, telematic performances in which remote locations are linked in real time, Webcams, and online drama communities, and considers the "extratemporal" illusion created by some technological theater works. Finally, he defines categories of interactivity, from navigational to participatory and collaborative. Dixon challenges dominant theoretical approaches to digital performance--including what he calls postmodernism’s denial of the new--and offers a series of boldly original arguments in their place.

End Times: Death of the Fourth Estate (Counterpunch)

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Essential reading for anyone interested in free speech and media democracy!

End Times: Death of the Fourth Estate (Counterpunch)
Alexander Cockburn , and Jeffrey St. Clair
Manufacturer: AK Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (American Empire Project)
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ASIN: 1904859372

Book Description

We can no longer trust that our journalists are reporting the news without underlying corporate or governmental agendas. The US government deregulates radio and right-wing Clear Channel gobbles up available frequencies. Journalists are embedded and the war in Iraq is a noble one. Whether the information is fabricated, one-sided, or illegally obtained, recent scandals like those involving Judy Miller and Robert Woodward only serve to underline the point that journalistic integrity is not what it used to be.

Enter Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn, who have not only kept the tradition of muckraking alive, but have reinvented and reinvigorated it for our times. Their newest effort, End Times, presents a detailed scrutiny of the "quality" print press and leading corporate media in the last decade, detailing a disastrous sequence of misrepresentation, suppression, ignorance, and willful embrace of the government's agenda. These essays trace the impending disintegration of what is now "old media"-the traditional and now potentially tainted sources of our daily news-and looks toward the emergence of an entirely new landscape of mass communications: one that includes a more populist approach to information dissemination.

Customer Reviews:

Essential reading for anyone interested in free speech and media democracy!.......2007-06-17

Recently, I obtained a copy of this excellent CounterPunch anthology by becoming a member of the Friends of AK Press, something you too should consider if you're interested in cutting-edge radical thought. Exposing the corporate media as a propaganda organ of the reactionary right, "End Games" is a passionate call to democratize the news. Whether they're discussing the war on Iraq, Rupert Murdoch, the pro-Israel lobby, Bill O'Reilly, or the attack on micro-radio, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair will entertain and enlighten you. Smart, urgent, and at times wickedly funny, this is a book you need to read. And then after you read it, go on and make a movement documentary, start a punk band, publish a zine, organize a teach-in, post a story on Indymedia.org, or participate in a poetry slam. In short, become the media!

Censored 2007: The Top 25 Censored Stories (Censored)

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Kinda' paranoid
Last Resort for Those Who Want Real News
Best nonfiction I've read in years
A Must Read for Everyone
A must have book!!!

Censored 2007: The Top 25 Censored Stories (Censored)
Peter Phillips , and Project Censored
Manufacturer: Seven Stories Press
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Censored 2005: The Top 25 Censored Stories (Censored)

ASIN: 1583227385

Book Description

"Buy it, read it, act on it. Our future depends on the knowledge this collection of suppressed stories allows us."- San Diego Review

"Devastating evidence of the dumbing down of mainstream news in America. . . . Required reading for broadcasters, journalists, and well-informed citizens."- Los Angeles Times

"A terrific resource."- Library Journal

"For the smart and courageous news manager, this annual report is a virtual road map for the coming year's news schedule. Many of these stories should, in an ideal news world, prompt deep and lengthy investigative efforts."- The Village Voice

"A distant early warning system for society's problems."- American Journalism Review

The best-selling Censored series highlights the year's twenty-five most important underreported news stories, alerting readers to deficiencies in corporate media and the resurgence of alternative media. Among the top censored stories of the year, Censored 2007 highlights the environmental and economic repercussions of Hurricane Katrina, the newest findings on global warming, escalating trends in human trafficking, and the use of napalm in Iraq.

Customer Reviews:

Kinda' paranoid.......2007-07-16

I love reading these types of books because it takes me back to my college days when everything was a dark conspiracy by The Man to keep the common people down.

The authors try to get your ire up by casually throwing around the word 'Censored', even though many of these stories have received relentless coverage in the major media, blogs and academic journals for a number of years. Ask yourself, "Have I really been lacking for stories about the various dealings of Halliburton?"

Here are some others:

* Destruction of Rainforest
* Homelessness rising in America
* Detainees Tortured in Iraq and Afghanistan
* Dangers of Genetically Modified Food

Be honest, have you not been inundated with coverage of these issues?

If the authors of this book had done a quick Nexis-Lexis search, or even a simple Google search, they would have uncovered endless streams of coverage and debate on this and many other topics.

Instead, they focus their efforts on the mainstream media....a dying industry where fewer get their information. Perhaps Project Censored ought to drag itself into the 21st Century before hysterically claiming that Big Brother is trying to keep you ignorant.

Last Resort for Those Who Want Real News.......2007-03-05

With each and every corporate media mega-merger, the news industry becomes less competitive and, as a result, less informative. These days, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get real news. Luckily, for those who want to keep informed, there is Project Censored (PC), a non-profit news organization developed by Peter Phillips, Professor of Sociology at Sonoma University. This year's CENSORED 2007 is PC's 30th anniversary edition and, along with the top 25 censored stories of the year and the usual array of supplementary essays on media bias, this year's edition includes updates on the most important stories of the last 30 years - a nifty bonus. 2007 stories include:

1. The Future of the Internet: giant cable companies seek a monopoly on cable Internet
2. Halliburton charged with selling nuclear secrets to Iran - illegally - under Cheney
3. The worldwide death of oceans: warming, toxic buildup, dead zones, changing PH balance, fish, grass and kelp die offs
4. Hunger and homelessness in the US on the rise: Government solution? Discontinue Census surveys that keep statistical tables on poverty
5. US supports genocide in the Congo to gain access to resources used to make high-tech gadgetry such as cell phones
6. The end of federal whistleblower protections
7. US operatives torture detainees to death in Afghanistan and Iraq
8. Pentagon exempts itself from the Freedom of Information Act
9. World Bank funds the Palestine-Israel Wall
10. The death toll of civilians in Iraq from the expanded air war
11. Dangers of genetically modified foods confirmed
12. The dangers of common pesticides like Roundup
13. Homeland Security contracts KBR (a Halliburton subsidiary) to build detention centers in the US
14. The EPA's primary research partner is the chemical industry
15. Ecuador and Mexico defy the US on the international criminal court
16. The Iraq reconstruction promotes OPEC agenda: profit for major US oil companies
17. Physicist concludes that official 9/11 explanation is scientifically implausible
18. Destruction of rainforests is at an all-time high
19. Bottled water: a global environmental problem
20. Gold mining threatens ancient Andean glaciers
21. Billions in homeland security undisclosed
22. US Oil targets Kyoto in Europe
23. Cheney's Halliburton stock rose of 3000 percent last year
24. Pentagon plans to build new landmines
25. US military in Paraguay threatens the region

But don't just stop at the headlines. The stories are packed with details, sources, links, and at the end of the book there is a wonderful appendix of alternative media venues. Perhaps the most important publication in journalism, CENSORED should not be overlooked.

Mandatory annual reading.

j.w.k

Best nonfiction I've read in years.......2007-02-23

There is so much important information in here. Any responsible and engaged member of society should at least give it a quick run-through.

A Must Read for Everyone .......2007-02-06

This book is a must read for anyone who cares about news or what is happening in the world today. The book covers a number of different stories that have been left out of the corporate media coverage, as they usually will shame either sponsers or politically powerful people. Coverage includes global warming, the Iraq war, the White house and President Bush, Congress and a host of other characters.

This book is very well written with stories that give the information needed, but contained to keep them readable. Each story has a link to web site to obtain more information if the reader desires.

If Bill O'Rielly wants to be "fair and balanced" and end the "spin" he should cover these stories. But, he won't, and either will any other corporate owned media outlet! Read the book...it will put corporate media into a whole new light.

A must have book!!!.......2007-01-19

Everyone in the country must read this book. I look forward to them making it into a movie so even more people become aware of the information contained within every page of this book. Kudos to the class and every one else involved at Sonoma State University that produce the top 25 censored stories every year!
Thank You Professor Phillips and Professor Jensen! Your work is so very important in keeping the public informed about the events that are not covered by mainstream media but are vital to all of us who live in this country, and all of the people around the globe.

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