MEDIA MYTHS

BUY THIS BOOK Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism W. Joseph Campbell “We Read It” reader: Kevin Robillard Blaming “the media,” be they mainstream or not, is one of America’s favorite pastimes. Depending on your bent, this book can either buttress your disgust (Can you believe the lies?!) or arm you with the power of dismissal (Can’t trust a thing in the papers …). Of the 10 exploded myths here, there are a few whoppers you’re likely to be familiar with, like how the media turned Jessica Lynch (who never actually fired her gun) into a female version of Rambo. And some you should know but might not, like how Woodward and Bernstein didn’t quite end the presidency of Richard Nixon all by themselves.
  What’s the Big Deal? Legend has it that media baron William Randolph Hearst supposedly incited battle in 1897 when he promised to “furnish” the Spanish-American War. Likewise, Walter Cronkite allegedly ended a war in 1968 with a special report on Vietnam that “convinced” Lyndon Johnson he had lost the support of the American public. Neither tale is true, but like many media myths, they make those who report the news the center of the story. Campbell uncovers many classic tales that should never have made it past the fact checkers. More important, he demonstrates how once the media air a falsehood, removing it from the public imagination is harder than sucking oil out of water.
  Buzz Rating: Whisper Campbell has done an interview with Slate press critic Jack Shafer. He also wrote an item for The Huffington Post, but then again, who hasn’t?

  One-Breath Author Bio Campbell is a professor at American University specializing in journalism history. He’s written four other books, most recently Yellow Journalism. Before that, he was a tried-and-true newspaper man reporting for The Hartford Courant, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and the Associated Press.
  The Book, In His Own Words “Media-driven myths are neither trivial not innocuous. They can and do have adverse consequences. Notably, they tend to distort understanding of the role and function of journalism in American society, conferring on the news media far more power and influence than they necessarily wield. Media myths often emerge from an eagerness to find influence and lasting significance in what journalists do, and they tend to give credit where credit is not entirely due” (page 4).   Don’t Miss These Bits

1. The first media mogul wasn’t so bad after all. Campbell demolishes the myth that Hearst ever said, “You furnish the pictures, I’ll furnish the war.” As it turns out, the only source for the information was a memoir by New York Journal reporter James Creelman, “a portly, bearded, cigar-chomping, Canadian-born journalist prone to pomposity and exaggeration” (page 11). And Creelman never saw the supposed telegram from Hearst; he was actually in Europe at the time. So a well-known exaggerator is the only source for the existence of a telegram he could never have seen.

2. Remember how brave Anderson Cooper and countless other network correspondents were, reporting on Katrina? About that: Campbell argues that the media grossly inflated the violence in New Orleans at the time. Among the false reports were tales of little girls being raped in the Superdome, of bodies being stacked in a freezer, and of snipers shooting at rescue personnel: “The exaggerated, over-the-top reporting … had the very real and serious effects of delaying the arrival of aid to New Orleans, of diverting and distorting the deployment of resources and capabilities, [and] of heightening the anxiety of evacuees at the Superdome and Convention Center” (page 168). The media reports made rescue workers and volunteers reluctant to enter the city, he says, and sparked unnecessary confusion among officials running the rescue process.

3. Actually, blame Hollywood. Of the 10 falsehoods the book touches on, three have been given the Hollywood treatment. Hearst’s quotation was replicated in Citizen Kane, which was based on the mogul’s life. Woodward and Bernstein were shown singlehandedly bringing down Nixon in All the President’s Men. In reality, plenty of other reporters were on the story, and the FBI did more than its fair share of investigating. And according to Good Night, and Good Luck, Edward R. Murrow started Joseph McCarthy’s tumble from power. A truer depiction of events would have shown that McCarthy was already well on his way down.

Swipe This Critique Campbell bounces back and forth between myths about the media and myths spread by the media. While the introduction and conclusion do a good job of holding everything together, three of the chapters—one focusing on “bra burning,” another on the media’s instant love affair with not-really-a-war-hero Jessica Lynch, and a third on false reports of a looming crack-baby epidemic—can’t help but feel a little tacked on. They’re well written and interesting, but they seem as if they were included so the number of myths could be a round 10 rather than to complete an argument. Gradebook Prose: Campbell is an academic now, but his roots as a journalist show through with clear, concise writing. Construction: Focusing each of 10 chapters on different myths occasionally makes it feel like 10 separate books, although the introduction and conclusion help. Miscellaneous : Key for blowing up conventional wisdom.     Subscribe    Unsubscribe    Newsweek.com    Privacy Policy To prevent this email from appearing in your junk mail,
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