Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism [Paperback]

W. Joseph Campbell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 12, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0520262093 | ISBN-13: 978-0520262096 | Edition: 1

Did the Washington Post bring down Richard Nixon by reporting on the Watergate scandal? Did a cryptic remark by Walter Cronkite effectively end the Vietnam War? Did William Randolph Hearst vow to "furnish the war" in the 1898 conflict with Spain? In Getting It Wrong, W. Joseph Campbell addresses and dismantles these and other prominent media-driven myths--stories about or by the news media that are widely believed but which, on close examination, prove apocryphal. In a fascinating exploration of these and other cases--including the supposedly outstanding coverage of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina--Campbell describes how myths like these can feed stereotypes, deflect blame from policymakers, and overstate the power and influence of the news media.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Persuasive and entertaining."--Wall Street Journal

"Toting big guns and an itchy trigger-finger, Campbell flattens established myths that you were brought up to believe were true."--Slate Magazine

"It may be the best book about journalism in recent memory; it is certainly the most subversive."--Commentary Magazine

"This well-written and well-researched book will be of interest to historians, journalism scholars, and sociologists."--Library Journal

"The value of these studies is . . . in the detailed and illuminating research Campbell has applied to each."--Columbia Journalism Review

From the Inside Flap

"If daily journalism constitutes history's first rough draft, then Getting it Wrong certainly reveals how rough that draft can be. Joseph Campbell is a dogged and first-rate scholar."--Neil Henry, Dean, University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

"Dr. Campbell has done meticulous research that examines ten media myths in context. This book rightfully calls us to rethink some significant errors that have become a part of our history and our collective memories. It is just downright interesting reading."--Wallace B. Eberhard, recipient of the American Journalism Historians Association Kobre Award for Lifetime Achievement

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (July 12, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520262093
• ISBN-13: 978-0520262096
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #363,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars YIKES!!!!, August 27, 2010

By 

Jr Altfeld "Management Consultant" (Burbank, California USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism (Paperback)

If I gave any credence to the press prior to reading this book, it's completely gone now. The Jessica Lynch and Katrina stories alone were enough to make me scream, and I have a degree in Journalism. Not too long after reading this book, I watched ESPN's 30:30 documentary on Michael Jordan playing minor league baseball. I distinctly remember, at the time he was doing that, all I read and heard was what a mistake for him to be doing this and what a failure he was at it. Turns out all of that was untrue. Jordan applied the very same work ethic to baseball that he had applied to basketball and was actually succeeding in minor league baseball at the age of 31. The most disturbing thing about the documentary came when a Sports Illustrated writer said his story, explaining how much Jordan had improved as a ball player and why he may have what it takes to actually play in the Big Leagues was killed by Sports Illustrated because the press overall, wanted Jordan back in basketball. And if you recall, the story we were handed when he came back to Basketball was that he missed the game and that he had finally given up his stupid dream to play baseball. Turns out that wasn't true either. He came back to basketball because of the baseball strike putting him in a position where he would have to cross a picket line and he was not willing to do that. This book is filled with well known, historical events I'd read about and came to believe as fact, when in fact they were either fabricated out of thin air or greatly embellished. It's a book worth reading.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent primer on how the media gets it wrong., November 19, 2010

By 

Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism (Paperback)

I'm a news junkie. And, increasingly, a media critic.

Today I read nothing, hear nothing, see nothing from any news outlet that I am not skeptical of.

Objectivity in journalism, if it ever existed, is certainly rare today and many so-called journalists are quite skilled at mixing their personal opinions or editorial outlooks into what are supposedly news stories.

W. Joseph Campbell , a Professor at American University, takes apart "ten of the greatest misreported stories in American journalism" - and he does it wonderfully well.

This is not a dull book. Professor Campbell has a reasonably lively style for an academic.

He has chosen ten stories that have taken on mythical dimensions:

1. Press mogul William Randolph Hearst allegedly fomenting the Spanish-American War.
2. The panic engendered by Orson Welles' "War Of The Worlds" radio broadcast.
3. Murrow and McCarthy
4. The Bay Of Pigs
5. Walter Cronkite on the Vietnam War
6. Bra burning at Atlantic City.
7. Watergate and Woodward/Bernstein.
8. Crack-babies.
9. Creating the Jessica Lynch myth
10. Hurricane Katrina.

Using contemporaneous accounts, Campbell provides a solid basis for his claim that the underlying story was turned into a myth by the media - and, usually, without ever admitting or acknowledging it.

His chapter on the falsity of the Edward R. Murrow myth is particularly good. He demonstrates that Murrow himself and his producer Fred Friendly never claimed that they were the instigators of the downfall of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, whose reputation was already quite a way down the slope. In fact, as Campbell points out, Murrow was relatively late to the McCarthy bashing party. Campbell does an excellent job of showing how media myths become canonical truth once the entertainment industry gets hold of them as they did in "Good Night And Good Luck".

He also examines how the media is slow to admit its errors, if it ever does.

Anyone who consumes news will find this book worthwhile. Campbell has done a service to the public, if not journalism itself.

Jerry

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Having Fun with Some Journalism Myths, June 25, 2010

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R. Harris - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism (Paperback)

Joe Campbell loves to burst media bubbles, and in this fascinating volume he gets to pop 10 of them. For journalists, it's a fun read, and one that delivers some surprises. For non-journalists, it's a cautionary tale about how people so often pass along ideas that sound true, without checking out their veracity.

Some of his myths--notably the one that says Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein brought down President Nixon with their Watergate disclosures--are easily dispelled. Of course, there were official investigative, judicial and legislative processes that really led to Nixon's resignation after wrongdoing was uncovered. But exploring the case with Prof. Campbell summons as much thought out of the reader as it does from the author. "What do you know, and when did you know it," indeed!

In some cases--like the question of whether brassieres really were ever burned, to create the common notion of "bra-burning" by feminists--you may want to do your own research to validate his assertions. But even that would be a fun process, in the spirit he creates.

He doesn't like the idea of journalism prizes much. And his disapproval of them is one area where I'd disagree, as a student of the reporting that the Pulitzers recognize. One reason the Times-Picayune WON the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina--one of his 10 cases--is that the paper so effectively debunked untrue horror stories after the storm, for example. The fact that the Times-Pic originally carried some of those erroneous stories, and corrected them later, when reporters were back on the scene, makes its public service even greater in my book. (Actually, it IS greater in my book, which is a book Pulitzer's Gold: Behind the Prize for Public Service Journalism about the Pulitzers.)

But "Getting It Wrong" will get you thinking. And it's likely to have you identifying OTHER possible media myths for the Campbell to dig into. Did businessmen REALLY jump off ledges on Wall Street in 1929? I don't think that the reality fits the perception. Professor?