Breaking News: How the Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else [Hardcover]

Associated Press (Author), David Halberstam (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1568986890 | ISBN-13: 978-1568986890 | Publication Date: June 17, 2007 | Edition: 1

The reporter who filed the last dispatch before falling with Custer at his "last stand" against the Sioux.The Honolulu bureau chief who looked up from his breakfast table to see Japanese planes flying low andcalled San Francisco, managing to dictate a single paragraph before all communications to the mainlandwere cut. The Saigon bureau chief who served Coca-Cola and pound cake to three North Vietnamesesoldiers before writing the bulletin announcing the fall of Saigon. These are but a few of the gripping anddramatic stories reported first by the Associated Press in the past century and a half.

In How the Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else, the Associated Press throws open its archives and invites readers into its news bureaus and out into the field to witness first hand its groundbreaking reporting on presidents, elections, wars, civil rights, trials and crimes, disasters, business, and major sports events. The book conveys, through personal accounts, archival materials, interviews, and Pulitzer-Prize-winning photographs, how the AP became the world's largest news organization and howit continues to play a vital role in providing the news to the American and international press. Breaking News makes an original and significant contribution to journalism history by shedding light on the nation's primary newswire service, one that reaches one half of the world daily and upon which virtually every serious newspaper and broadcast outlet in the nation has relied for decades.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In 1865, having learned from a 200-word story that ended in news of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, the Associated Press developed the inverted pyramid, putting the most important news first. From the use of carrier pigeons, Western Union, and typewriters to conventions of newswriting, the AP since 1846 has set the standard in news gathering. The wire service has been the first onto news scenes and the last to leave, from a reporter on Custer's "last stand" against the Sioux, to the bureau chief who called in a report of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, to the bureau chief who hosted three North Vietnamese soldiers before reporting the fall of Saigon in the Vietnam War. AP reporters recount coverage of wars, assassinations, the civil rights movement, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and stock-market crashes in this stunning perspective on history and news gathering of the last 160 years. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

It's an edge-of-the-seat account about those AP reporters who often risked their very lives to gather and report the news, revealing their insights and personal perspectives, along with on-the-spot photographs that provide a breathtaking front-row seat as history was being made. -- Clear Ridge Reporter, September 12, 2007

These days, in an era of media consolidation, when prominent newspapers like The Boston Globe are closing foreign bureaus and bloggers are proclaiming the demise of an out-of-touch mainstream media, it's refreshing to remember how significant moments in history were skillfully reported on, and quickly disseminated to the world. It's appropriate that the cover of Breaking News features a reporter racing to file the verdict from the Nuremberg trials, because the entire book sheds light on another well-worn journalism credo that's been an Associated Press staple these past 150 years: Get it first, and get it right. -- New York Observer, June 12, 2007

This fascinating collection of history-making photographs and behind-the-scenes text recount some of the greatest stories covered by the wire service during its 160-year history. Categories include war, sports, elections, civil rights and natural disasters. -- Sacramento Bee, June 3, 2007

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (June 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568986890
• ISBN-13: 978-1568986890
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,221,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Informative, Entertaining, Reminder of Moments in History, January 27, 2008

By 

Paul Eckler (princeton jct, nj United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Breaking News: How the Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else (Hardcover)

"Breaking News: How the Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else," by Reporters of the Associated Press, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2007. This is a very nicely done coffee table book telling mostly how news has been reported by the Associated Press over its history since about 1850. The book includes many first rate, quality photographs, often famous ones related to major stories. It also includes photo reproductions of telegrams and teletypes reporting famous news stories such as Lincoln's assassination, and even 9/11.

A section includes a glossary of wire service terms. We learn that AP's main national newswire is known as the A-wire, which is controlled from New York City. There is also an F-wire, which carries financial news, presumably in competition with the Dow Jones Broad Ticker and the Bloomberg News Service. There is also a Sports Wire, which carries sports news, and one suspects there are numerous regional wires, and probably international wires covering the news at various levels. We learn that for many years Reuters stories have been distributed in the US by the AP and Associated Press stories have been distributed in Europe by Reuters. The famous lead or "lede" is the first paragraph of the story intended to grab the reader's attention. A newsflash is a news alert of immediate importance. Though rarely sent by AP two were sent within two hours on 9/11. Five bells is the signal from the teletype alerting of incoming news usually a flash or bulletin. A bulletin is a major breaking news story; an urgent heading indicates an important story not quite of bulletin caliber.

Section titles gives some idea of the content. They are War I, Trials, Freedom of Information, Aviation, Sports, Elections, Civil Rights, War I I, Foreign Correspondents, Photographs, Disasters, and the White House.

The news business includes its share of blunders. Several famous ones are described. Shortly after the Union victory at Gettysburg, a spoof message was sent to New York papers announcing that Grant was giving up his Wilderness Campaign and Lincoln had declared "a national day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer." Most papers immediately recognized the story as false, but two published it.

At the end of World War I, United Press, a competitor, announced that the armistice had been signed on November 7 - 4 days before the event actually occurred. At the Lindbergh kidnapping trial in Flemington NJ, on September 20, 1934, AP had developed an elaborate code to signal the terms of the jury verdict before competitors could leave the courtroom. Confusion resulted in a misunderstood code and a false flash, announcing a verdict had been reached "guilty and life" rather than "guilty with the death sentence." As a result, AP fired one man, suspended another, and demoted a third.

To get ready for deadline, news stories are often written ahead with the name of the winner inserted at the last minute. In AP lingo, "Will Overhead" was a fill name for the winner to be sent by "overhead wire" later. At least once, a newspaper staffed by inexperienced personnel managed to publish Will Overhead in a headline as the winner of an event.

The addition of photographs to the AP wire service was an important development. In 1926 American Telephone & Telegraph Co. began commercial picture transmissions between major US cities. The pictures were of rather low quality, but Associated Press began using that service in 1928. However, AT&T discontinued their service in 1933 finding that the business was not profitable. AP began its Wirephoto service on January 1, 1935, with 47 newspapers in 25 states.

In March, 1959, China took over Tibet and forced the Dalai Lama to flee to India. AP and UPI were in competition to get a photo of the Dalai Lama sent by radio photo to newspapers around the globe. UPI won by almost 57 minutes, but they misidentified the man in the photo. Their photo was cropped and identified the Indian Foreign Ministry's press spokesman as the Dalai Lama. The AP photo came later, but with correct identification. The AP creed is timely, accurate, and unbiased.

The appendix includes a brief history of the Associated Press. According to the summary, news has always been highly competitive with papers using various means to get the story first. Originally it was a matter of racing horses, using carrier pigeons or whatever to get the story there a day sooner. Major stories often took a week to get to eastern newspapers. The telegraph changed all that. Now stories could be delivered to the paper within hours. The Associated Press grew out of coverage by competing New York City newspapers of the Mexican War in April, 1846. They realized they were duplicating efforts, and instead decided to cooperate and share the news stories from afar. Initially the news went only to the New York City newspapers. Only later did they agree to supply the news to outlet's across the country in return for fees.

For years, the Associated Press was "the" news service. By arrangement with Western Union, the telegraph company agreed to carry AP news reports exclusively so long as the news service spoke kindly of Western Union. In addition, any subscriber to the AP service could block any competing newspaper's participation in the service. Since there were few other telegraph companies that effectively meant no alternative. That is quite unlike today's networks when NBC and CBS, and later ABC, Fox, and CNN, provide competing services. In the heyday of AP and Western Union the combination told the Republican view and were said not to transmit the position of the other side.

A problem with the history summary is that the story of the beginning of the wire services told by AP differs somewhat from that told by Alexander Jones in his "Historical Sketch of the Electric Telegraph." According to Jones, telegraph companies formed news departments to report commodity pricing of materials like flour and grain in cities along the telegraph lines. How these services were ultimately combined with those of AP is not clear. However, AP admits that its early records are fragmentary.

The appendix includes a list of AP General Agents, General Managers, and CEOs dating back to 1849 as well as the locations of the Associated Press offices in New York City back to 1849. The volume includes extensive endnotes and is well indexed.

Overall, this book is very well done. Readers will appreciate its highly professional presentation. They will be reminded of moments in history, and they will find it informative and entertaining.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book worth reading, May 30, 2007

By 

A. Goldman "Nachal" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Breaking News: How the Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else (Hardcover)

This book is an important reminder of the tireless and many times anonymous job AP reporters do on a daily basis. The book is filled with rich details about the wire service. It's really a history of American journalism.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More of a text book than a coffee-table book, December 7, 2007

By 

Gina - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breaking News: How the Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else (Hardcover)

Very interesting, especially for those journalism junkies. However, it reads more like a text book than a casual read or coffee-table book. Photos are fabulous, though.