City of newsmen : public lies and professional secrets in Cold War Washington / Kathryn J. McGarr.
Material type:
TextPublisher: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2022Description: 313 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780226664040
- 022666404X
- Foreign news -- Washington (D.C.) -- History -- 20th century
- Journalists -- Washington (D.C.)
- Journalistic ethics -- Washington (D.C.)
- Journalism -- Objectivity -- Washington (D.C.)
- Cold War -- Press coverage -- Washington (D.C.)
- Government and the press -- Washington (D.C.) -- History -- 20th century
- United States -- Foreign relations -- 1945-1989 -- Press coverage
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | 070.4332 M145 | Available | 33111010917843 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
An inside look at how midcentury DC journalists silenced their own skepticism and shaped public perceptions of the Cold War.
Americans' current trust in journalists is at a dismayingly low ebb, particularly on the subject of national and international politics. For some, it might be tempting to look back to the mid-twentieth century, when the nation's press corps was a seemingly venerable and monolithic institution that conveyed the official line from Washington with nary a glint of anti-patriotic cynicism. As Kathryn McGarr's City of Newsmen shows, however, the real story of what Cold War-era journalists did and how they did it wasn't exactly the one you'd find in the morning papers.
City of Newsmen explores foreign policy journalism in Washington during and after World War II--a time supposedly defined by the press's blind patriotism and groupthink. McGarr reveals, though, that DC reporters then were deeply cynical about government sources and their motives, but kept their doubts to themselves for professional, social, and ideological reasons. The alliance and rivalries among these reporters constituted a world of debts and loyalties: shared memories of harrowing wartime experiences, shared frustrations with government censorship and information programs, shared antagonisms, and shared mentors. McGarr ventures into the back hallways and private clubs of the 1940s and 1950s to show how white male reporters suppressed their skepticism to build one of the most powerful and enduring constructed realities in recent US history--the Washington Cold War consensus. Though by the 1960s, this set of reporters was seen as unduly complicit with the government--failing to openly critique the decisions and worldviews that led to disasters like the Vietnam War--McGarr shows how self-aware these reporters were as they negotiated for access, prominence, and, yes, the truth--even as they denied those things to their readers.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction. Challenging the memories -- Building a city of gentlemen -- The newsmen's wartime networks -- Responsible reporters and the exclusive information economy -- The gentlemen of the postwar press -- Battling the "residue of isolation" -- Covering imperialism in the postwar world -- The breakdown begins -- Conclusion. Disruption and continuity.
"Kathryn McGarr reveals how the Cold War consensus was deliberately created, shaped, maintained, and protected by a coterie of influential journalists in Washington, DC, who calculated what they would do (or not do) for sustained access to information. The compact among journalists, elected officials, and other government operatives constrained knowledge for everyone in a time when political insight was centrally controlled and defined. Yet these reporters, many of them outsiders from the Midwest, did this not out of malfeasance but for social and political benefit, ever conscious of the need to cultivate, placate, and blend with their sources"-- Provided by publisher.