Richard Reeves on Political Books
Richard Reeves on Political Books This is fli story of 1 he Meyer Day is Memorial (rime Wave, as I remember it. Sometime in the late Ic)(i0s, nlav he Arthur (ielh, then the assistant metropolitan...
...I he biggest known of all...
...pIt's a -,ood look at the press...
...I suggest that of all the considerations...
...lie news upholds the iniacy of holders of formal .Ihority as lone as they abide by the ciesant enduring values, both in public and pris=ate realms...
...Ilie tnagaiines tend...
...Gans studied, oyer a period of more than ten rears...
...In 1907, only 13 pet cent of .AciiArrr'r'k's stories on the war in Vietnam quoted enlisted men...
...1 he example fie uses alter that makes the point <main...
...The resemblance Is often uncanny," he "111, In the common olds of honest, mcritocratic...
...One usuall` reliable and scry important source is the reporter or editor who determines what will be printed or shown in this case, Gelb...
...fans actually has discos-cred some of the secrets for instance the fact that most stories on high schools, colleges...
...for two or three weeks, so were a series of other his and pieces of routine New York mayhem...
...wh11 is now depots managing editor of the Iiiii m or by stealing sonic of his Iurnitnrc...
...When I'nknowns managed to crack the new, it was usually for breaking the iaw...
...l he reason for telling that store is that Herbert J. Gars, a sociologist of distingntshed and deserved reputation, has figured out that such arc the ways the news business really operates...
...the bandleader...
...in practice, Hicir recruitment sold their access to journalists reflect the hierarchies of nation and society...
...the news operations of 7wlr and Aewu ii 'ele macatines and the CRS and N13C networks...
...When I began my fieldwork,"Gars says, "I assumed that journalists, especially reporters, knew' more about America than anyone else, .. WOO,, not the case...
...I nfortunatelt in conclusion, Cans strut, talking about a scheme to prosmdc "In uItiperspectisaI news...
...but he vcants to do it vpith an I-.ndownlent for New, something like the National I ndowment for the Art...
...had been mugged in Central Park...
...His own surveys indicate that newsmaga/ine and television news is sharply divided into two sourceisubAcct categories: Knowns and 1!nknowns...
...those governing the choice of sources arc of prime significance.,, R beech Rc(,A''~ c, i{r awhur ''1 ( unvc-nuc,n...
...it would he fair to ,riv that the news supports the social order of public, business, and professional, upper-middle-class, middle-,iWed, and white male sectors of society...
...and antibureaucratic goycrnment, and In the shared antipathy to political machines and demogogLies, particularly of populist Kent...
...hat arc the "relevant enduring salucs'?'' Gans arcues that they arc the same as the yalucs of the I'roeressiNc movement of the early 20th century - that is, self-righteously elitist...
...It sounds naisc to or M 01h: who has tit uekcd around in public tclcyision and seen the strings on the "no-strings" moues that Ilosss there: in my experience, public telex Iston folk are a lot more afraid of Washington than eomnlcrcml idles ision is-pes are of sponsors...
...IIr ur t1 r~ a rr,+=<<lur lralurr ''I I he V' ,i Iun~toti Atc,niN1v...
...l he length of this book alone;," he writes on page ?79 `,should demonstrate that there is no single or simple explanation of the news: but ii a handful of explanatoryfactors had to he singled out...
...III theory sources can conic 1 rom here," Gars writes...
...and the mouth culture originate with the children of editors...
...to fact does a hell of a job in c-cinolishing the myths of an antieslahlishment press...
...No, the Davis story was played on page one and...
...the dislike of bigness...
...In social and economic terms,," he writes...
...lourtialists obtain their information about America from their customary sources (mainly public officials...
...Newspapers and television in the city and in other cities responded in kind, and soon no street in America was safe...
...Meyer I)asis...
...by Implication, projected to the entire college population...
...0 significant example Hod place in the early scars of the , !eLnam vsass Mien anti-war protest was limited almost entirely to students on elite campuses but was...
...responsible Capitalisn1...
...the posterless must resort to clo,ii disturbance, to obtain it...
...So, according to one survey' cited by Gans, an analysis of 2,850 domestic and foreign stories to the -ii III(' SS and 77tcc U ashijiglott Past slows that 78 per cent of them carne from public officials...
...In the end, his most interesting ohsersations and data an in identifying who are the sources a small croup of American national news...
...A worthy coal, no doubt...
...the news especially salucs the order of the upper-clay, and upper-m lot dIc-class sectors of society, though I1 may make fun of some of their very rich members...
...pans...
...The Kit owit ns political, economic, social, and cultural celebrities - routinely account for 70 to so per cent of the new product...
...vthich would rosidc "no-strings" government money for alternatise journalism pro,lect...
...the President, accounted for 20 per cent of all domestic nests ail by hini,scll, and his cabinet accounted for a separate aggregate Total of noose than 20 per cent...
...Sometime in the late Ic)(i0s, nlav he Arthur (ielh, then the assistant metropolitan editor of The \'cir York Tiluec, decided a) more back to New York City from Wcstchestcr County...
...from what they themselves read in the paper (mainly the 'lanes): and, because they have trouble crossing_ the social harriers that separate them front strangers, from w hat they learn froth peers and personal contacts, notahl`, relatives and friends...
...1)c < ic/itt( bhhcrt c Neirs, just published by Pantheon Hook-,s, is the 371-page result of his discovery...
...One paragraph:' A couple...
...the defense of nature...
...I he president of ttie I~mted States has instantaneous access to all nesss media srhencser he slants...
...I he next morning a very angry Artte Gclb came to work and noticed that, overnight...
...actually, to uniycrsalire upper-middlcelass practices is it thcyuere shared be ll Americans...
...But if Gall') wants to push the idea, lie could begin by 11"1\ im-, dinner stub Artie (iclh...
...I he moving van was parked in front of his new place on the l pper \Vest Side of Manhattan and person or persons unknov;n stole a Couple of end tables or sollwthinc from the truck...
...With sonic oscrsimplification...
Vol. 11 • March 1979 • No. 1
