Taking a critical perspective on the economics and politics of "presenting" the news, this topical supplement argues that the media systematically distorts news coverage.

    9 black-and-white photographs.

    The Underground Empire is the result of Life reporter James Mills's behind-the-scenes investigation which spanned five years and traversed four continents. With recent media attention propelling the narcotics issue into the nation's headlines, Mills dramatically addresses this issue with stunning depth to explain why we're losing the most important war of our time. Everything in this book is true: no changed names, scenes, characters or dialogues. The Underground Empire, James Mills, Doubleday, 1st edition, 1986, ISBN # 0-385-17535-3. 1,165 pages. Description: Book; Gray boards with black cloth spine, gold lettering to spine and gold script of author's name on front board, red endpapers. Dust jacket; White with black blocks with white text and red splatter on front panel, black and red lettering to the spine, back panel has blurb for this book and author's bio (Report to the Commissioner, Panic in Needle Park), inside flaps carry second blurb for this book, jacket not price clipped, dated 0686 on bottom of the back flap. Condition: Book; Very good with some soiling to top edge of the pages, boards are bright and tight and clean, free of any dings, rubbing or creases to this very thick spine, all the gold lettering is strong but some letters, especially the publisher's name, are hand soiled. Inside red end paper has a black smudge on the upper back area about 1-inch long. No other marks. Dust jacket; Very good with bright and clean panels, not price clipped, chips along the edges of the spine, one closed tear at the bottom of front board, slight sunning to all panels but still bright, points chipped. Jacket now protected in Brodart.

    Can the land remain unchanged? In Blue Desert, Charles Bowden presents a view of the Southwest that seeks to measure how rapid growth has taken its toll on the land. Writing with a reporter's objectivity and a desert rat's passion, Bowden takes us into the streets as well as the desert to depict not a fragile environment but the unavoidable reality of abuse, exploitation, and human cruelty. Blue Desert shows us the Sunbelt's darker side as it has developed in recent times—where “the land always makes promises of aching beauty and the people always fail the land”—and defies us to ignore it.Blue Desert has no boundaries, no terrain, no topographical coordinates; it is a state of mind inescapable to one who sees change and knows that nothing can be done to stop it.

    Over the following decade, an army of lawyers, executives, politicians, and judges spent countless hours clashing over what amounted to the biggest corporate breakup in American history. From boardroom to courtroom, Steve Coll untangles the myriad threads of this complex and critical case and gives readers “an excellent behind-the-scenes look” at the human drama involved in the remaking of an entire industry (The Philadelphia Inquirer).   Hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “rich, intricate and convincing,” The Deal of the Century is the definitive narrative of a momentous turning point in the way America does business.    A New York Times–bestselling author’s “superbly reported” account of the dismantling of the world’s largest corporation (The Washington Post). Written by the two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Ghost Wars and Private Empire, The Deal of the Century chronicles the decade-long war for control of AT&T.

    And now Jon Franklin, himself a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and undisputed master of the great American nonfiction short story, shares the secrets of his success. Franklin shows how to make factual pieces come alive by applying the literary techniques of complication/resolution, flashback, foreshadowing, and pace. He illustrates his points with a close analysis and annotation of two of his most acclaimed stories, so that the reader can see, step-by-step, just how they were created. This lively, easy-to-follow guid combines readability and excitement with the best of expository prose and illuminates the techniques that beginning journalists—and more experienced ones, too—will find immensely helpful:Stalking the true short storyDrafting an effective outlineStructuring the rough copyPolishing like a proand the tips, tools, and techniques that will put your stories on the cutting edge

    The complete collection of 'the Tony Hancock of journalism' Jeffrey Bernard s first 'Low Life' Spectator series, with all the original illustrations"

    This new, expanded ninth edition of the best-selling guide to style is based on The Economist's own house style manual, and is an invaluable companion for everyone who wants to communicate with the clarity, style and precision for which The Economist is renowned. As the introduction says, 'clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought.' THE STYLE GUIDE gives general advice on writing, points out common errors and cliches, offers guidance on consistent use of punctuation, abbreviations and capital letters, and contains an exhaustive range of reference material - covering everything from accountancy ratios and stock market indices to laws of nature and science. Some of the numerous useful rules and common mistakes pointed out in the guide include: * Which informs, that defines. This is the house that Jack built. But This house, which Jack built, is now falling down. * Discreet means circumspect or prudent; discrete means separate or distinct.Remember that "Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are" (Oscar Wilde). * Fortuitous means accidental, not fortunate or well-timed.

    Murrow. At twenty-nine, he was the prototype of a species new to communications--an eyewitness to history with power to reach millions. His wartime radio reports from London rooftops brought the world into American homes for the first time. His legendary television documentary See It Now exposed us to the scandals and injustices within our own country. Friend of Presidents, conscience of the people, Murrow remained an enigma--idealistic, creative, self-destructive. In this portrait, based on twelve years of research, A. M. Sperber reveals the complexity and achievements of a man whose voice, intelligence, and honesty inspired a nation during its most profound and vulnerable times.

    Vogel examines the business economics of the major entertainment enterprises: movies, music, television programming, broadcasting, cable, casino gambling and wagering, publishing, performing arts, sports, theme parks, and toys and games. The seventh edition has been further revised and broadened and differs from its predecessors by restructuring and repositioning the previous Internet chapter, including new material on the economics of networks and advertising, adding a new section on policy implications, and further expanding the section on recent theoretical work pertaining to box-office behaviour. The result is a comprehensive up-to-date reference guide on the economics, financing, production, and marketing of entertainment in the United States and overseas. Investors, business executives, accountants, lawyers, arts administrators, and general readers will find that the book offers an invaluable guide to how entertainment industries operate.

    The award-winning debut by the acclaimed author of Cold New World.Named by The New York Times Book Review as a top ten nonfiction book of 1986, this seminal piece of cross-cultural journalism is an account of a white American's experience teaching black students in South Africaan account essential for its incisive coverage of the student anti-apartheid movement, as well as for the unpretentious charms of its prose.

    Gathers selections from the author's writings about saints, mystics, visionaries, the imagination, sexual ecstasy, the occult, consciousness, and extra-sensory perception.

    He brings us face to face with Castro's executioner, with a tragic Ernest Hemingway and with the unchanged lifestyle of fishermen in an unspoilt Ibiza. He describes the gentle pleasures of Belize, the ferocious blood feuds of Sardinian bandits and the unpleasant duty of repatriating Cossacks to the Soviet Union in 1944." At the heart of the collection is Lewis's famous report on the genocide of the Brazilian Indians, which led to the creation of Survival International to campaign for the rights of tribal peoples.

    Finally driving into a clearing on the banks of the Ogeechee, Leigh found himself at Uncle Shed's Fishing Camp, and at the beginning of what would be a two-year discovery of the river and its people, a chronicle in images and words stretching from the Ogeechee's headwaters in Greene County to marsh flats near the Atlantic Ocean.In his photographs and text, Leigh introduces such river natives as George Altman, standing knee-deep in water and reeling out fishing stories as he flicks his line into a shaded area beneath a fallen tree; and Jack Mikell, Sr., whose life on the river is told in the array of frying pans that hang on the wall behind him and in his recollections of long nights tending moonshine stills in backwater swamps. Leigh tells of the many stories the river holds---of the Muck Runners, Louisville men who each winter slog through swamps and deadfalls two hundred miles to Savannah; of Frank Cox, whose journey down river, taken in numerous pieces with as many reluctant partners, fulfilled a childhood dream; and of a woman's baptism in Warren County, at which beads of anointing oil mingled with the cold water of the rushing river.At Uncle Shed's Fishing Camp, as tales of fish fries and courtship conjure up more than fifty years on the Ogeechee, the camera ranges across the clearing, capturing the pattern of river life in the faded letters of a hand-painted sign; in the weathered face of camp matriarch Bessie Dickerson; and in the scattered flowerpots, lawn chairs, ceramic swans, and gravestone that lie cluttered against a cabin wall. Recording the wild ramblings and lazy progress of the Ogeechee, the quiet rituals and raucous stories of its people, Jack Leigh chronicles the course of lives that run with the current of the river.

    The topics are race, politics, crime and punishment, home and family, and schools; the unifying theme is America’s two societies—Black and white, separate and unequal.

    Just in time for Life magazine's 50th anniversary is this resissue of the classic photographic journey through World War II.

    

    From Red Smith’s first story for the Milwaukee Sentinel in 1927 to his last column for the New York Times five days before his death in 1982, his inimitable style graced the country’s sports pages for over half a century. Even in his earliest column, his writing showed evidence of the wit, clarity, and eloquence that would become his hallmarks. In 1976 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism.  The people who appear throughout Red comprise a distinguished twentieth-century hall of fame: Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Joe Louis, Ernest Hemingway, Grantland Rice, Ring Lardner, and Damon Runyon. A biography of one of this country’s finest writers, Red is also American history of a rich and lasting sort.

    . . . Taken together they have a weight and amplitude of a very high order. . . . What is most impressive about these essays (apart from their range and erudition) is the way that literature and life are so subtly intertwined with each other. The passion for the one is the passion for the other. As it ought to be in criticism, but seldom is."—Mark Le Fanu, The Times (London)"If a critic's job is to puncture pomposity, deflate over-hyped reputations and ferret out true value, then Vizinczey is master of the art."—Publishers Weekly"Stephen Vizinczey comes on like a pistol-packing stranger here to root out corruption and remind us of our ideals. He carries the role off with inspired gusto. His boldness and pugnacity are bracing and can be very funny."—Ray Sawhill, Newsweek "Every piece in the book is good, and many are so good that, after dipping into the middle, I stayed up half of the night, reading with growing amazement and admiration."—Bruce Bebb, Los Angeles Reader

    But interviewing is a complex and fascinating skill, an art that few people do exceptionally well. The demand for instruction and information is ever-increasing for anyone in or around the media.This book is full of anecdotal material and valuable advice from many famous interviewers, including George Plimpton and Robert MacNeil. In a highly readable, entertaining style, it offers sound advice for anyone who needs to know how to interview or what to expect when being interviewed. Includes: -- The art of listening-- Elements of research-- Negotiating an interview-- Being interviewed yourself-- Preparing For an interview-- Broadcast interviews versus print interviews.

    In the crispness of its writing and editing, the bite of its critics and commentators, the range of its coverage, and the clarity of its typography, the “Trib” (as media people and many of its readers affectionately called it) raised newspapering to an art form. It had an influence and importance out of all proportion to its circulation. Abraham Lincoln valued its support so highly during the Civil War he went to great lengths to retain the allegiance of its co-founder Horace Greeley. And President Eisenhower felt it was so significant a national institution and Republican organ that while in the White House he helped broker the sale of the paper to its last owner, multimillionaire John Hay Whitney.From Karl Marx to Tom Wolfe, its list of staffers and contributors was spectacularly distinguished, including Walter Lippmann, Dorothy Thompson, Virgil Thomson, Eugenia Sheppard, Red Smith, Heywood Broun, Walter Kerr, Homer Bigart, and brothers Joseph and Stewart Alsop. At the close of World War II, the Herald Tribune, which represented the marriage of two newspapers that had done more than any others to create modern daily journalism, was at its apex of power and prestige. Yet just twenty-one years later, its influence still palpable in every newsroom across the nation, the Trib was gone. It is this story – of a great American daily’s rise to international renown and its doomed fight for survival in the world’s media capital – that Richard Kluger tells in this sweeping and fascinating book.It begins in pre-Civil War New York City with two bitter enemies who, between them, practically invented the newspaper as we know it: the Herald's James Gordon Bennett, a cynic who brought aggressive honesty to reporting for the first time, and the Tribune's Greeley, whose passion for social justice and vision of a national destiny made him an American icon and the most widely read polemicist since Tom Paine. These two giant figures loomed above a colorful, intensely competitive age, and with a novelist’s sense of detail and character, Kluger gives us an engaging picture of them and their time. Here are Bennett breaking new ground in 1836 with his extended coverage of the sensational murder of a well-known prostitute near City Hall… the Tribune scooping the War Department on the outcome of the Battle of Antietam in 1862…Greeley going upstate to testify in a libel suit brought against him by James Fenimore Cooper, then rushing back to the city in time to write a hilarious account of the trial for the next morning’s edition…the birth of investigative journalism as the Tribune's editors cracked the coded messages proving that Tilden’s backers tried to fix the presidential election of 1876.After the two papers and their two traditions – political and reportorial – merged early in the twentieth century, the fate of the Herald Tribune became intertwined with that of the pride-driven Reid family and its dynastic rule of the paper. In particular, it is the story of Helen Reid, the social secretary who married the owner’s son and became the paper’s dominant force, and of her two sons, whose fratricidal struggle for control helped bring about its downfall. To try to save it, one of America’s richest men lent his name and fortune as a last wave of staff talent redefined the limits and redesigned the look of U.S. daily journalism.The Tribune story is populated with a Dickensian cast of characters: Ishbel Ross, the dainty little woman who was the best and hardest-working reporter of her time…the acerbic city editor, Stanley Walker, and his successor, L. L. Engelking, who set a standard of city-room fervor and ferocity for a generation of newsmen…Homer Bigart, the stuttering copyboy who became America’s finest and most daring combat correspondent…the beautiful, bitchy, and intensely competitive Marguerite Higgins, who won a Pulitzer Prize by the time she was thirty…as well as modern figures like humorist Art Buchwald, crack drama critic Walter Kerr, straight-from-the gut reporter and columnist Jimmy Breslin, and crack science writer Earl Ubell.Above all, The Paper is a rich and revealing work of social and literary history, and exploration of the “free” in free press, and an elegiac tribute to the fading world of print journalism that spawned and sustained what was, line for line, America’s best newspaper.

    He gives us, in this spectacular volume, his famous early portraits of Pee Wee Russell, Red Allen, Earl Hines, and MaryLou Williams, written in their brilliant twilight years; his reconstructions of the lives of such legends as Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins, Jack Teagarden, Zoot Sims, and Sidney Catlett; his brief but indelible glimpses into the daily (or nocturnal) lives of Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus; andhis vivid depictions of such on-the-scene masters as Jim Hall, Ornette Coleman, St�phane Grappelli, Elvin Jones, Art Farmer, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Tommy Flanagan. He also includes his thoughts on such lesser known but invaluable players as Art Hodes, Jabbo Smith, Joe Wilder, Warne Marsh, Gene Bertoncini, and Joe Bushkin. American Musicians is at once a history of jazz, a biographical encyclopedia of many of its most important performers, and a model of American prose.

    A sharply observed narrative of the author's full season in Antarctica, in paperback for the first time.