Praise for THE DEATH AND LIFE OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM
Winner of the Newspaper Guild Herbert Block Freedom Award
for Outstanding Contribution to Freedom of the Press
A Kansas City Star Book of the Year
A Booklist Editor’s Choice of the Year
A Progressive Book of the Year
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2010
One of the 10 Most Important Info-Tech Policy Books of 2010 according to
Technology Liberation Front Blog
“The authors argue passionately for radical solutions but also offer an exhilarating vision for the direction of American journalism.”
—Booklist starred review
“In The Death and Life of American Journalism, longtime practitioners Robert McChesney and John Nichols present a sober but ultimately hopeful analysis. Their solution—government subsidies of newspapers to save “a public good”—will make some journalists queasy, but extraordinary measures may be needed. It is hardly the only recent book on this urgent subject, but it is one I recommend. After all, when summer’s idyll is passed, we will again need the timely, independent reporting that newspapers still provide.”
—Renée Loth, Boston Globe
“This well-written and thought-provoking book is sure to spark heated debate within the journalism community.”
—Library Journal
“In this powerful book on the shrinking American media, the authors accurately explain its current crisis.”
—Publishers Weekly
“After reading descriptions of the crisis that seem repetitive, an intelligent discussion about solutions seems in order. McChesney and Nichols deliver.”
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“[McChesney and Nichols] provide a compelling blueprint for rejuvenating meaningful journalism in the US.”
—Choice
“A provocative plan for rescuing—and revitalizing—newspapers.”
—Kansas City Star
“No one serious denies the extraordinary threat that journalism in America faces today. Nor can anyone serious ignore this extraordinary account of its source and solution. In this beautifully crafted and compelling book, McChesney and Nichols show us that the problem is not just the Internet. Nor is the solution just the Internet. Instead, the real answer to challenges that media face today is the same solution our Framers chose: public support for public media.”
—Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law School
“The field of journalism is in such profound crisis that it cannot even summon the energy to make a case for its own existence. Nichols and McChesney make that case with great persuasiveness and clarity; indeed no two people are more dedicated to the transformative, democratizing power of journalism not as it is, but as it should be.”
—Naomi Klein
“This is an important book. It offers many new sunbursts of thought—some controversial but all adding to the dialogue about America and its free press crisis.”
—Dan Rather
“McChesney and Nichols convincingly argue that responsible and responsive democracies require treating journalism as a public good to be subsidized, that the founders of the American experiment understood this, and that current crisis brought on by reducing journalism to a corporate commodity is also an opportunity to not only return to our roots, but to finally get it right.”
—Michael X. Delli Carpini, Dean, The Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
“McChesney and Nichols are prophets of a free press for the digital age. Their book is the best depiction yet of the rapid disintegration of America’s old system of news. But this is a story of hope, not doom-and-gloom. The authors provide audacious yet wellcrafted solutions for how government tax and Internet policies can be used to bring about a new era of public service journalism, thus helping to save our democracy.”
—Juan Gonzalez, columnist for the New York Daily News, and co-host of Pacifica’s Democracy Now!
“In this landmark history/diagnosis of our current journalistic crisis, McChesney and Nichols raise exactly the right questions, and offer us a range of sound solutions that are not just convincing but invigorating. With impressive erudition and rare analytical sophistication, the authors make clear that what Americans and journalism now require is nothing short of revolution, squarely based on the ideals of Jefferson and Madison and Paine, and yet adapted to an age of widespread digital empowerment.”
—Mark Crispin Miller, New York University
“The stakes are huge, the time is now, read this book!”
—Phil Donahue
“If you are concerned about the future of journalism in America (and you should be), then this book will help you understand where we are, how we got here, and what we need to do to help the handmaiden of a democratic republic regain her strength before she collapses and dies.”
—Roanoke Times
“McChesney and Nichols make a case for media democracy—a case based on real political experience and plenty of knowledge—that no one else is likely to make as well. The Death and Life of American Journalism should set off alarm bells and also inspire a new generation of activism.”
—Tikkun