How government protects big media — and shuts out upstarts like me.
media
Posted inDecember 2003, Magazine
Meet the Press
How James Glassman reinvented journalism — as lobbying.
Posted inOctober 1999
Blaming the Messenger
Two new books hark back to a media “golden age” that never existed.
Posted inMagazine
Whittle, Down to Size
Everything you really need to know about Chris Whittle sits in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. There, the media mogul has erected a $55 million headquarters that relentlessly replicates Thomas Jefferson’s spread at Charlottesville. With its red-brick arches, wrought-iron gates, and 120-foot clock tower, it’s a massive, unexpected building—rich, as Whittle has said, in “energy and youthful spirit.” […]
Posted inJune 1992
How Phil Donahue Came to Manage the ’92 Campaign
A loss of control: You could say it’s the thread running through the events of our time, but then the metaphor would be backwards. Rather, it’s the thread that’s unraveling through the events of our time. At the international level, the loss of control is generally good news. At the national level, the loss of […]
Posted inMarch 1989
I’ve Tilted at Windmills, and the Windmills Won
Six years ago, I was offered an unusual job at Newsweek that was at least partly the result of the efforts of the editor of this magazine. While I’m grateful to Charlie Peters for assisting my career advancement, the job he helped arrange also points up some practical failures associated with his view of how […]
Posted inOctober 1986
Psychoanalyzing the News
Whenever a conservative critic of the media gets worked up, he’s sure to mention the “Lichter-Rothman study.” That study shows that reporters are liberal and unreligious. Rothman and the Lichters are obviously conservative, and the research for The Media Elite was funded by conservatives like Richard Mellon Scaife, which makes their scientific-sounding scholarship a bit […]
Posted inJanuary 1981
Rooting for Reagan
One morning in the first week of October, several of Jimmy Carter’s top political advisors picked up their telephones and asked to be connected to prominent reporters and editors around Washington. As each waited for the voice at the other end, rage—genuine or calculated for the occasion—boiled toward the surface. The Carter staffers were fed […]
