Description
Book SynopsisThis timely and engaging book challenges the conventional wisdom on media and scandal in the United States. The common view holds that media crave and actively pursue scandals whenever they sense corruption.
Scandal and Silence argues for a different perspective. Using case studies from the period 1988-2008, it shows that:
- Media neglect most corruption, providing too little, not too much scandal coverage;
- Scandals arise from rational, controlled processes, not emotional frenzies - and when scandals happen, it's not the media but governments and political parties that drive the process and any excesses that might occur;
- Significant scandals are indeed difficult for news organizations to initiate and harder for them to maintain and bring to appropriate closure;
- For these reasons cover-ups and lying often work, and truth remains essentially unrecorded, unremembered.
Sometimes, bad behavior stimulates an avalanche
Trade Review"This book combines insightful theoretical analysis with interesting empirical research, and is a major contribution to the field."
Discourse and Communication"This is the definitive work on political scandal in the modern American press. The reader will find engaging and richly detailed accounts of dozens of scandals, along with explanations of why in some cases they became so overblown, and, in others, did not develop at all despite available evidence. The book raises important questions about how journalists tell stories, and why those stories so often fail to embody the ideals we associate with a free press in a democracy."
Lance Bennett, University of Washington
"Robert Entman has long been one of the most insightful analysts of the news media. Scandal and Silence will add to his reputation. Anyone who thought they had a reasonable understanding of how the media handle scandal will have to think again. A brilliant book that is a must read for those in the classroom, the newsroom, and the political cloakroom."
Thomas E. Patterson, Harvard University
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Chapter 1: High Crimes or Misdemeanors?
Chapter 2: Analyzing Media and Presidential ScandalChapter 3: Private Lives in the Public Sphere. What Do Journalists Know, and When Do They Tell It?
Chapter 4: Secret Sins of 2008: The McCain, Edwards and Clinton Families' Values
Chapter 5: Dodging Scandals - and the Draft
Chapter 6: Rathergate: From a Scandal of Politics to a Scandal of Journalism
Chapter 7: Harkening to Other Matters: What News Looks like When a Scandal is Silenced
Appendix to Chapter 7: Harken Data Tables
Chapter 8: Silenced Scandals of Grave Misconduct
Chapter 9: Recalibrating Scandal and Silence
References
Notes
