Lance Bennett, coauthor of When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina, was interviewed Monday morning on Weekday, a public affairs program from KUOW in Seattle. Bennett discusses with host Steven Scher how the news media covered pivotal events from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina—where the news media succeeded and where it failed. You can find archived audio from the program at KUOW’s website.
In When the Press Fails W. Lance Bennett, Regina G. Lawrence, and Steven Livingston argue that reporters’ dependence on official sources has disastrously thwarted coverage of dissenting voices from outside the beltway, especially in terms of recent events such as the response to 9/11, the buildup to war with Iraq, and the Abu Ghraib scandal. A sobering look at the intimate relationship between political power and the news media, When the Press Fails delivers a revealing account of the mass media’s willingness to provide critical reportage when we need it most.
Read an excerpt from the book.