Last Sunday, in his weekly column in the New York Times on politics and the press, Frank Rich gave a shout out to When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina by W. Lance Bennett, Regina G. Lawrence, and Steven Livingston.
Rich’s editorial reflected on the continued failure of the U.S. media to deliver critical reporting, especially about the war in Iraq. Far from criticizing the failures of the Bush administration, says Rich, “a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows.”
When the Press Fails looks at the intimate relationship between political power and the news media and argues that reporters’ dependence on official sources disastrously thwarts coverage of dissenting voices. The book has just been shipped.
You can read Rich’s article on the NYT website or circulating around the internet on a variety of politics and media oriented blogs. You can find out more about the When the Press Fails on our own website.