Running With the Machine: A Journalist's Eye-Opening Plunge into Politics - Hardcover

Lynch, Dan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0878755330 ISBN 13: 9780878755332

Publisher: Whitston Pub Co Inc, 2001

Synopsis

When author Dan Lynch retired from a 30-year career as a reporter and columnist, he decided to run for a seat in the New York State Assembly during the same campaign season as Hillary Rodham Clinton's run for the U.S. Senate. In this absorbing book, Lynch chronicles his campaign spent running as an independent in the Democratic slot.

About this title

About the Author

Dan Lynch is a veteran newspaperman, author, and television and radio commentator. He worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer as chief political writerm was an editor for New York's Newsday and served for 16 years as managing editor at the Albany Times Union. He became the newspaper's featured columnist in 1995 and his opinion column was distributed to 660 North American newspapers. Lynch received multiple awards for his column and was twice selected by a Times Union reader's poll as the New York State Capital Region's "best print journalist". He is the author of six novels and many articles and has taught journalism at Temple University and Long Island University. His live radio talk program , The Dan Lynch Show, is broadcast weekdays on Albany's leading news-talk radio station.

Reviews

A longtime political journalist and radio commentator, Lynch recounts his na‹ve and unsuccessful bid for the New York State Assembly, representing Albany County, on the Democratic ticket. Numerous anecdotes describe his frustration with chaotic local politics, particularly the media: he claims they don't check the veracity of campaign statements and therefore give inaccurate, biased and incidental coverage. He complains that the media are interested in campaign tactics rather than issues; most of his ideas for new laws were ignored while his finances were scrutinized. Insisting that only professional politicians survive politics, Lynch describes a multibillion-dollar business intent on keeping outsiders at bay: "Many people in the regular Democratic organization really don't want me to win." Acknowledging the occasional decent politico, Lynch believes deception is so enmeshed in politics that it breeds a government of liars and phonies a situation unlikely to change, since voters and the media, he asserts, accept most fakery as normal. Lynch is horrified when his opponent, despite promises of a clean campaign, sends out nasty, vaguely accusatory press releases, has Lynch lawn signs destroyed and undertakes attacks on his daughter, a weekend anchor at a local news channel. His complaints ranging from the lack of support from political bigwigs to aching knees from walking door to door can get tiresome, like his repeated statements that political commitments mean nothing and that he is the "un-politician." Despite such redundancy, his outsider perspective and inside experience provide an intriguing look into a side of politics normally inaccessible to the public. Photos. (Oct.)Forecast: Booksellers in the Albany area, where Lynch is well known, can expect strong sales.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

When Lynch retired from a 30-year career as a reporter and columnist, he decided to run for a seat in the New York State Assembly during the same campaign season as Hillary Rodham Clinton's run for the U.S. Senate. In this absorbing book, Lynch chronicles his campaign, running as an independent in the Democratic slot. He discovered a dimension of political skulduggery, treachery, and pettiness he'd never imagined, even as a cynical reporter. He recounts little financial support from the Democrats; fierce party infighting; and dirty politics by his opponent, a do-nothing pol who enjoyed the considerable advantages of incumbency. Lynch's former newspaper bent over backwards to prove its objectivity, barely reporting on the election. He found that the other local paper claimed to be nonpartisan but slanted coverage toward the incumbent. Having looked at life from the other side of the divide, Lynch is critical of the way the press covers campaign strategies rather than issues. This is an amusing, appalling, eye-opening look at the "dark, disturbing" political culture of the U.S. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Whitston Pub Co Inc
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0878755330
• ISBN 13: 9780878755332
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 436