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A lot of big-shot journalists didn't like this book, a systematic jeremiad about the current sad state of American political journalism. For instance, both theNew York Timesop-ed page and theNew Yorkertook pains to excoriate the book and its author--pretty good hints that Fallows is onto something. His point is that greed and intellectual sloth have fostered a political media elite that increasingly focuses on spin and ignores substance at the very time when solving the country's real problems requires all possible nuance.
Compared with "Looking at the sun", this book is a mess Compared with "Looking at the sun", this book is a mess...the author's point is simply buried by messy stories one after another, as if he just can't deliver his analytical thinking clearly. This is a huge style problem with almost all best sellers today. Americans don't want to think and can't think now. A used copy of this book is for sale only for 1 cent...
good book but not his best work Fallows is very smart and an excellent writer. This book is very good but I do not believe it to be his best work. However, this is an important part of any survey or recent books on the large problems within the US media.Liberal vs. Conservative? No Contest I first met James Fallows online in the early '90s, and then in person several times. For a Rhodes Scholar and Harvard grad, he was surprisingly in touch with the realities I knew as a moderate Westerner living in the East. He was kind enough to give me a copy of Breaking the News, and I found it to be a great read. It offered new perspectives and excellent explanations on the sorry state of today's journalism, far beyond the traditional but simplistic explanation of "liberal bias." Jim's perspective truly transcends the partisan and raises issues above the divisive fray that almost tragically seems to divide our great country. Although critics may contend that Jim offers a liberal apologist's view that liberal bias is not the primary problem (or even much of a problem at all), even my friends who are staunch conservatives should find little to disagree with and much to learn in "Breaking the News."
