The More You Watch the Less You Know News Wars/(sub)Merged Hopes/Media Adventures

by Schechter, Danny; Browne, Jackson; McChesney, Robert

• ISBN13: 9781888363401
• ISBN10: 1888363401
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-10-07
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Summary

A candid insider's tale of how the media really works and why it doesn't work the way it should, The More You Watch, The Less You Know has emerged as a key catalyst in the debate on media reform. The More You Watch, The Less You Know recounts Schechter's media adventures, from when he was "Danny Schechter the News Dissector" on Boston's WBCN radio, to his stints as a producer at ABC's 20/20 and CNN, to his personal odyssey chronicling the anti-Apartheid revolution in South Africa, to his development of innovative programming like South Africa Now and Rights & Wrongs as an independent producer. In this age of telecommunications bills and media mergers, The More You Watch, The Less You Know is an insider's passionate plea for freedom of the (electronic) press.

Author Biography

Formerly a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard, DANNY SCHECHTER made waves in the mainstream and alternative media for more than 30 years. Called the "alternative Walter Cronkite," he witnessed and participated in the history-making events of our age, from the founding of the Yippies in 1967, to Nelson Mandela's triumphant presidential election in 1994, for which Schechter was designated the exclusive filmmaker, to the Media and Democracy Congress of 1996, which he helped organize, to his most recent television production, Rights & Wrongs, which aired weekly on over 150 PBS and cable outlets nationwide. His many TV specials and films include Beyond Life: Timothy Leary Lives (1997), Countdown to Freedom: Ten Days that Changed South Africa (1994), narrated by James Earl Jones and Alfre Woodard, Sarajevo Ground Zero (1993), Mandela in America (1990), and The Making of Sun City (1990). For eight years a producer at ABC's 20/20, where he won two National News Emmys, Schechter reported from 45 countries and lectured at many schools and universities. He was co-founder and executive producer at Globalvision, a New York-based television and film company where he produced the award-winning series South Africa Now and co-produced Right & Wrongs: Human Rights Television with Charlayne Hunter-Gault. Schechter passed away in 2015.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	9	(6)
Foreword	15	(4)
Jackson Browne
Foreword	19	(6)
Robert W. McChesney
Introduction: The Many Fronts of the Media War	25	(60)
PART ONE: A MOLE IN THE MACHINE	85	(56)
1. News Dissecting: Inside the Rock Radio Revolution	85	(26)
2. Elevating Journalism (through Harvard Yard)	111	(10)
3. Going Local: Breaking into the Business and Being Broken by It	121	(20)
PART TWO: NETWORKING	141	(110)
4. CNN: The World's Most (Self) Important Network	141	(22)
5. 20/20: We're in Touch So You Be in Touch	163	(22)
6. The Control Room	185	(14)
7. Defecting: Becoming a Network Refugee	199	(16)
8. Globalvision: Downwardly Mobile and Upwardly Global	215	(36)
PART THREE: COVERING SOUTH AFRICA	251	(82)
9. Passion and Discovery: That Was Then	251	(54)
10. On the Island	305	(14)
11. Contradictions, Contradictions: This Is Now	319	(14)
PART FOUR: REMOTE CONTROL	333	(112)
12. Media Worlds in Collision	333	(20)
13. I, Rupert	353	(20)
14. The Mergers of July and the End of Journalism	373	(72)
PART FIVE: TRANSFORMING MEDIA	445	(24)
15. What We Can Do	445	(18)
16. The Media Channel	463	(6)
Selected Media Reform Groups	469	(2)
Filmography	471