Attack the Messenger: How Politicians Turn You Against the Media (American Political Challenges) - Softcover

Crawford, Craig

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0742538176 ISBN 13: 9780742538177

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007

Synopsis

Attack the Messenger is an objective look at the loss of public trust in the news media-and the resulting threat to American democracy. Biased, sloppy, and sometimes deceitful reporting is partly to blame, but this book primarily examines how politicians declared war on the media's role as an honest broker of information-and won. Craig Crawford takes readers who crave truth in news through the power struggle between the government and mainstream media, as well as directs them on how to avoid political propaganda and find the most reliable news sources.

About this title

About the Author:

Craig Crawford is a White House columnist for Congressional Quarterly Inc. and author of The Politics of Life: 25 Rules for Survival in a Brutal and Manipulative World (2007).

Review:

I have covered many a presidential campaign with Craig Crawford, and I can honestly say that, of all the so-called 'political experts' out there, he definitely consumes the most cheeseburgers. (Dave Barry)

Craig Crawford has written a definitive book that throws new light on the roles of the press and officialdom with sparkling anecdotes that prove his point. He doesn't spare either side, but the First Amendment comes out a winner in this scintillating book. (Helen Thomas, Dean, White House Press Corps, Hearst Columnist)

How lies are made into the truth, and truth made into lies; how the liars come to be perceived as victims and the truth-tellers, evildoers. A cautionary story for those of all political stripes, to say nothing of journalists and those who consume information today, and Crawford's nailed it. (Keith Olbermann, MSNBC)

It's all here―the good, the bad, and the ugly . . . and cable, too―all compiled by a political pro with a jeweler's eye for detail and the distance vision of a fighter pilot. Craig Crawford knows his beat. (Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor, NBC Nightly News)

Craig's book made me alternately squeal with delight at the media's arrogance and curse his mother, Toby, for giving him life where he reveals the complicity of politicians in the contemporary degradation of political/press affairs. But Attack the Messenger is not about assigning blame; its an inspiration to stop the madness for democracy's sake. The media must stop presuming all politicians are corrupt, egomaniacal liars, and we pols have to consider the possibility that not all media are evil, self-serving, out-of-touch cynics. Both professions are anchored in ideas, populated with idealists who all rue their tradecrafts have degenerated to a point that devalues both their noble worlds and worse―the public they both long to serve. (Mary Matalin, Republican political consultant)

With wit and insider knowledge, Craig Crawford identifies America's Most Wanted: the con-men, spinners, character assassins, electronic demagogues, greedy bottom-liners, and barefaced liars who―with rather too much help from sloppiness in the media―are destroying public faith in the institution of a free press. This is a timely and entertaining book―which is more than I can say for most of the people in its gallery. (Tina Brown, Washington Post columnist and author)

Impassioned dissection of the rapid devolution of the media's power in today's political environment...pull[s] together the principal moments of the ongoing struggles between the press and the government. (Publishers Weekly)

Crawford . . . is a Washington insider, a purveyor of inside wisdom and a collector of mind-numbing detail. (David Shribman St. Petersburg Times)

Provocative. . . . Mr. Crawford's book serves as a useful introduction to the issue at hand, providing a persuasive sketch of how the current White House, with assists from its two predecessors and a changing media landscape, has worked to undermine the mainstream press. (Michiko Kakutani, Books of the Times Editor The New York Times)

Crawford often writes engagingly and has his moments of perceptiveness and clarity. (Margaret Sullivan, editor-in-chief, The Buffalo News Washington Monthly)

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0742538176
• ISBN 13: 9780742538177
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208