Customer Reviews

Uncertain Guardians: The News Media as a Political Institution (Interpreting American Politics)

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Uncertain Guardians is exemplary! It is well-written, for one, and because it contains so many first-person accounts and quotes, it comes across as rather entertaining. Not to mention it offers important new information on stories that is simply incredible (while a picture develops of news media as a business vs. a public-minded venture). By the way, reading Uncertain Guardians felt like listening to a former professor from my undergraduate days. I would bet on this book growing into a benchmark piece. An excellent read.

If you are an alternative-media type who thinks the establishment media use biased methods to choose, frame, and deliver the news, you will enjoy this book. It is an extensive indictment of national news coverage. If, however, you are a middle-of-the-road media consumer, you may well be put off by the author's left-leaning viewpoint. He considers the news media a monolithic institution whose reporting is guided by two overriding priorities: advancing its own interests, and protecting the political and governmental establishment. The author compellingly critiques the quality of political reporting: it is often superficial; not investigative enough; obsessed with personalities; covers winners and losers instead of substance. But when moves from the issue of quality to the issue of bias, the author is far less persuasive. He disagrees with the methods and standards of journalists, so he infers an institution-wide establishment bias. Yet when the author begins citing examples (e.g. the media's failure to unmask how a military's conspiracy caused the downing of flight KAL007), readers might find they stop analyzing the media's bias, and start analyzing the author's. I'm biased too - I work in the political division of one of the networks. But that's how I come to know that the author misunderstands how news decisions are made and how political coverage is shaped.

Sparrow writes clearly and convincingly that the news media does act as an institution rather than as individualistic reporters, editors, and publishers. Since they all face the same constraints, they react in similar fashion. Sometimes they act as media "watchdogs" and sometimes they act as media "lapdogs." Sparrow gives clear evidence of both types of behavior and explains why the news media assume such radically different roles depending on the circumstances. His chapter on when the media fail to act as media watchdogs is chilling reading. It should make us all wonder whether the media, on whom we rely as guardians of our interests, is really up to the task.