People's Witness: The Journalist in Modern Politics

by F Inglis (Author)

• Used

  Illustrated
  2002

  $5.35

  Political journalists are central figures in the titanic struggles of modern history, not only telling us about events but also interpreting them and shaping our views. This is a study of the relationship between journalism and politics in the 20th century, telling the stories of the journalists - both good and bad - who have played major roles. Fred Inglis tracks the flamboyant biographies of giants of the genre, from the early newspapermen during the Russian Revolution to those that reported on the Spanish Civil War, the hideous discoveries at Dachau, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. He scrutinizes news proprietors such as Joseph Pulitzer, Katharine Graham and Rupert Murdoch; writer journalists like George Orwell, Evelyn Waugh, Andre Malraux and Martha Gellhorn; and journalists of conscience - William Shirer in Nazi Germany, James Cameron in Asia, Neil Sheehan in Vietnam, Norman Mailer at the Pentagon, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein after Watergate, and others. Inglis also examines the great pioneers of broadcast news journalism, notably Ed Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Alistair Cooke, as well as such celebrated BBC television journalists as John Cole and John Simpson. He explores the relations between political journalists and their all-powerful proprietors and exposes instances of pomposity, misjudgement and downright untruthfulness as well as moments of courage and responsibility. This sweeping narrative measures each journalist against the best principles of the vocation and silhouettes some of their most dramatic life stories against the moral horizons of the epoch.