Watchdogs of Democracy? : The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public

by Helen Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780743267816
• ISBN10: 0743267818
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-06-20
• Publisher: Scribner

Summary

In the course of more than sixty years spent covering Washington politics, Helen Thomas has witnessed firsthand a raft of fundamental changes in the way news is gathered and reported. Today, she sees a growing-and alarming-reluctance among reporters to question government spokesmen and probe for the truth. The result has been a wholesale failure by journalists to fulfill what is arguably their most vital role in contemporary American life-to be the watchdogs of democracy.

Author Biography

Helen Thomas is the dean of the White House press corps

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Foreword	xiii
1. Journalism—a Most Honorable Profession	1	(12)
2. Eruptions of Corruption	13	(13)
3. Presidents and Reporters—Never the Twain Shall Meet	26	(10)
4. Press Secretaries—in the Bull's-Eye	36	(21)
5. Spinning the News	57	(30)
6. Hail to the Heroic Leakers and Whistle-Blowers-and the Journalists Who Protect Them	87	(25)
7. Newspapers Are a Business, Too	112	(12)
8. The FCC—Fair and Balanced?	124	(11)
9. Lapdogs of the Press	135	(18)
10. Foreign Correspondents in Iraq Déjà Vu All Over Again!	153	(16)
11. The Greatest American Journalists of Our Times	169	(22)
Epilogue	191	(12)
Index	203