Getting It Wrong: Debunking the Greatest Myths in American JournalismMany of American journalism’s best-known and most cherished stories are exaggerated, dubious, or apocryphal. They are media-driven myths, and they attribute to the news media and their practitioners far more power and influence than they truly exert. In Getting It Wrong, writer and scholar W. Joseph Campbell confronts and dismantles prominent media-driven myths, describing how they can feed stereotypes, distort understanding about the news media, and deflect blame from policymakers. Campbell debunks the notions that the Washington Post’s Watergate reporting brought down Richard M. Nixon’s corrupt presidency, that Walter Cronkite’s characterization of the Vietnam War in 1968 shifted public opinion against the conflict, and that William Randolph Hearst vowed to “furnish the war” against Spain in 1898. This expanded second edition includes a new preface and new chapters about the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, the haunting Napalm Girl photograph of the Vietnam War, and bogus quotations driven by the Internet and social media. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 9 | |
2 Fright beyond Measure? The Myth of The War of the Worlds | 26 |
Timing Makes the Myth | 44 |
4 TV Viewers Radio Listeners and the Myth of the First KennedyNixon Debate | 67 |
5 The Bay of PigsNew York Times Suppression Myth | 83 |
6 Debunking the Cronkite Moment | 100 |
Bra Burning at Atlantic City | 116 |
The News Media and the CrackBaby Myth | 165 |
Mythmaking in Iraq | 179 |
12 Hurricane Katrina and the Myth of Superlative Reporting | 197 |
Swelling with a Digital Tide | 218 |
Conclusion | 231 |
Notes | 239 |
Select Bibliography | 317 |
| 327 | |
8 Picture Power? Confronting the Myths of the Napalm Girl Photograph | 130 |
Watergates HeroicJournalist Myth | 150 |
Other editions - View all
Getting It Wrong: Debunking the Greatest Myths in American Journalism W. Joseph Campbell Limited preview - 2017 |
Getting It Wrong: Debunking the Greatest Myths in American Journalism W. Joseph Campbell Limited preview - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
27 September American journalism anecdote April Associated Press Atlantic City attack Bay of Pigs Bob Woodward bra-burning bras broadcast burning Cited claimed cocaine columnist coverage crack babies Creelman Cronkite program Cuba Cuban David Davis debate debunking declared Deep Throat Drew Pearson editor February fighting headline Hearst Herald Ibid invasion Iraq Iraqi Jefferson Jessica Lynch John Johnson Journalism Review journalists June Katrina Kennedy Kennedy-Nixon Kim Phuc London lost Cronkite March McCarthy McCarthy's media myths media-driven myths Miss America Murrow Napalm Girl Nasiriyah National newspapers Nixon November October Orleans panic percent photograph political Post's President President's President's Men protest published quoted radio listeners Remington rescue Reston retrieved from www.lexisnexis.com Richard saying Senator September 1960 September 2005 South Vietnamese story Szulc television tion Trang Bang transcript retrieved Tribune Vietnam viewer-listener disagreement Walter Cronkite Washington Post Watergate White House Woodward and Bernstein Worlds wrote York Post