August 2023 MBR The Journalism Shelf

The Journalism Shelf

Provoking the Press
Kevin M. Lerner
University of Missouri Press
113 Heinkel Bldg., 201 S. 7th Street, Columbia, MO 65211
https://upress.missouri.edu
9780826221865, $51.15, HC, 290pp

https://www.amazon.com/Provoking-Press-Confidence-Journalism-Perspective/dp/0826221866

Synopsis: At the beginning of the 1970s, broadcast news and a few newspapers such as The New York Times wielded national influence in shaping public discourse, to a degree never before enjoyed by the news media. At the same time, however, attacks from political conservatives such as Vice President Spiro Agnew began to erode public trust in news institutions, even as a new breed of college-educated reporters were hitting their stride.

This new wave of journalists, doing their best to cover the roiling culture wars of the day, grew increasingly frustrated by the limitations of traditional notions of objectivity in news writing and began to push back against convention, turning their eyes on the press itself.

Two of these new journalists (a Pulitzer Prize winning, Harvard-educated New York Times reporter named J. Anthony Lukas, and a former Newsweek media writer named Richard Pollak), founded a journalism review called (MORE) in 1971, with its pilot issue appearing the same month that the Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers.

(MORE) covered the press with a critical attitude that blended seriousness and satire -- part New York Review of Books, part underground press. In the eight years that it published, (MORE) brought together nearly every important American journalist of the 1970s, either as a writer, a subject of its critical eye, or as a participant in its series of raucous "A.J. Liebling Counter-Conventions" (meetings named after the outspoken press critic) the first of which convened in 1974.

In issue after issue the magazine considered and questioned the mainstream press's coverage of explosive stories of the decade, including the Watergate scandal; the "seven dirty words" obscenity trial; the debate over a reporter's constitutional privilege; the rise of public broadcasting; the struggle for women and minorities to find a voice in mainstream newsrooms; and the U.S. debut of press baron Rupert Murdoch.

With the publication of "Provoking the Press: (MORE) Magazine and the Crisis of Confidence in American Journalism", author and professor of journalism Kevin Lerner explores the power of criticism to reform and guide the institutions of the press and, in turn, influence public discourse.

Critique: A timely and valued contribution to our current political and culture polarization and increasing attacks on journalism and journalists by those with an extremist agenda or a criminal enterprise such as currently exemplified by Donald A. Trump and his continuing attempts to overthrow a freely and fairly elected American government, "Provoking the Press" should be considered essential reading by all aspiring and active journalists whether in print, digital, or broadcast medias. While available for personal reading lists in a paperback edition (9780826222886, $26.00) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $24.70), "Provoking the Press" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university library History of American Journalism collections and supplemental curriculum Censorship & Politics studies lists.

Editorial Note: Kevin M. Lerner (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gJ-kc4sAAAAJ) is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and edits the Journal of Magazine Media.

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