News and Culture of Lying [Paperback]

Paul H Weaver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1998

Reporters claim to seek and tell the truth in their news stories, but Paul Weaver maintains that news organizations regularly foster a haze of untruth that obscures the meaning of events and distorts our perception of reality. This distortion, which Weaver terms "a culture of lying", is the result of hidden structural relations, such as the media's need to serve the interests of advertising sponsors, and the "addict/codependent" relationship of reporters to their sources. Enlivening his account of how stories are assigned, reported, edited and published, Weaver shows how standard procedures that aim at revealing truth produce the opposite.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With media companies relentlessly snapping up properties, it's easy to forget that the values of journalism on the one hand, and business (and especially the entertainment business) on the other, are antithetical. The former should be about truth and understanding; the latter is mostly about moving product. Paul Weaver remembers. His argument is that contemporary journalism doesn't so much report on reality as it creates and markets the product called "news," that is, reality strained to the breaking point through a distorting lens of crisis and emergency response. This slant tends to reduce journalism to a handmaiden of such centers of power as activist presidents and public relations-minded corporations. The remedy, concludes Weaver, is for the press to reorient itself toward readers rather than advertisers and to emphasize deliberative stories over crisis-oriented ones. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Weaver, a former writer and editor for Fortune magazine, here argues that "journalists and officials fabricate an alternate reality." His censure of traditional journalism is itself a fairly traditional critique. His principal accusations--that the media lie by feigning objectivity, and that newsmakers lie by pretending to ignore media attention--have been voiced by numerous media critics. What distinguishes Weaver's contentions is that he frames his case in constitutional terms. To him, "Pulitzerian journalism" is "an engine of drift and decline" that obliterates the constitutional principles of law and community responsibility. The last chapter lists nine directions for pursuing constitutional journalism; among them, avoid crisis reporting and think of readers rather than advertisers. Despite such practical counsel, the book reads as a neoconservative harangue against a liberal media elite.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684863642
• ISBN-13: 978-0684863641
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,341,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book should be reprinted, October 24, 1999

By 

Dane S. Claussen "Dane S. Claussen, PhD, MBA" (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: News and the Culture of Lying: How Journalism Really Works (Hardcover)

An excellent, tell-it-like-is book about the mass media. It didn't receive nearly enough attention from reviewers or the general public. A couple of years ago, I planned on requiring my journalism students to read it but then found out it had just gone out of print. It should be reprinted.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but narrow....., August 16, 2003

By 

MSmith (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: News and the Culture of Lying: How Journalism Really Works (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book because I have long believed that we live in a "Culture of Lies" and modern journalism is one of the powerful contributors to the broader phenomenon. However, I disagree with the reviewer that described the work as one of careful analysis and an argument against big business, and I thought the author missed a far larger issue...

Weaver's arguments for the failure of modern journalism are persuasive, for sure, and he provides excellent historical context for how journalism has evolved from an objective, subscriber-driven presentation of news to the advertising-driven, editorialized news we have today (written in a style that pretends to objectivity but is anything but). However, Weaver's prescriptions reminded me of political platitudes in presenting a long list of "we shoulds" without a strong argument for why any of it is likely to happen or a persuasive road map of how to make it happen.

Weaver describes himself as a classical liberal, so one would not assume that he would impose change upon journalism through regulation, but why corporations would voluntarily switch their business models and change their editorial policies at the risk of making their products more boring just escapes me. More importantly, Weaver's book ignores (in his defense, probably on purpose) the other side of the "Culture of Lying" problem: why the demand for entertainment seems to exceed the demand for truth.

I would argue that we all know that our journalists impose their opinions upon the news without declaring their biases, just as we expect our politicians and our corporate leaders to spin information to their advantage without any disclaimers. Even in polite cocktail conversation, we have all become masters of reducing complex issues down to urbane soundbites and ascerbic witticisms--because there appears to be only one thing more criminal today than shading the truth and that is, apparently, to be boring. The more clever the soundbite, the more outrageous the headline, the more ridiculous the political platitude, the more we like it and the more life an idea takes on. Whether the underlying presumption is true or not is rarely challenged, in real-time, because (a) we don't have time, (b) to do so would destroy the rhythm of the conversation, or (c) we are so cynical that we don't assume anyone is telling the whole truth anyway and therefore don't care one way or the other.

Weaver's book is good because he provides excellent insider insight into how the news is determined and presented, but he fails to address why we all just eat it up anyway. The implication by omission is that the public is stupid (or tragically innocent) and therefore it is up to journalism to reform itself out of the goodness of its heart and for the betterment of humankind (because Weaver would not likely support coerced change). I don't think this is likely.

The more fundamental question would have been WHY we all choose entertainment over truth as the chief value we seek from journalism. With the internet and cable-driven proliferation of news sources and dilution of "brand integrity" that used to help us separate propaganda from truth, what can we do to put a stake in the culture of lies other than to become (and teach our children to become) better critical thinkers? Weaver's book describes a sad phenonemon from an entertaining, insider's point of view--but his analysis covers only the supply side of bad journalism.

In my opinion, this book starts strong and ends kind of weak, but it is definitely worth reading for anyone who wants some inside scoop on how the news really works. Buy this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book should be reprinted, October 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: News and the Culture of Lying: How Journalism Really Works (Hardcover)

An excellent, tell-it-like-is book about the mass media. It didn't receive nearly enough attention from reviewers or the general public. A couple of years ago, I planned on requiring my journalism students to read it but then found out it had just gone out of print. It should be reprinted.