Bestselling narrative history of American media that puts race at the center of the story
Juan González is a two-time winner of the George Polk Award for
commentary and former president of the National Association of
Hispanic Journalists. He is the co-host of the nationally
syndicated TV and radio show Democracy Now! and is a staff
columnist for New York's Daily News. His previous books include
Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America; Fallout: The
Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse; and
Roll Down Your Window: Stories from a Forgotten America.
Joseph Torres is the senior advisor for government and external
affairs for Free Press, the national media reform organization.
Before joining Free Press, he worked as deputy director at the
National Association of Hispanic Journalists and was a journalist
for several years. He lives in Silver Spring, MD.
Juan González and Joseph Torres have rendered a splendid public
service with this highly readable and engrossing story of how the
press sees-and doesn't see-who we are as a people. Race and
ethnicity, power and privilege, the visible and the invisible are
at the core of our democratic crisis today, and it's hard to
imagine a better way to face the challenge than to be armed with
the story this book tells so well.
*Bill Moyers, Public Affairs Television*
News for All the People is truly a masterpiece; I could not put it
down. After years of research, Juan González and Joseph Torres have
produced a book that will be nothing short of mandatory reading for
all who care about the media or democracy. It will change how you
think about media and American history.
*Robert W. McChesney, coauthor of The Death and Life of American
Journalism*
A 'first-of-its-kind' rendering of the causes, contexts, and
consequences of the American media system across the fault line of
race. Haunting and prophetic, this is a must-read for all the
people.
*Malkia Amala Cyril, executive director of the Center for Media
Justice*
With clarity, exquisite detail and strong scholarship, the authors
show us how the neglect of the mainstream press over the years
still haunts the nation's identity about who is an American.
*Arlene Notoro Morgan, associate dean at the Columbia Graduate
School of Journalism, coeditor of The Authentic Voice: Best
Reporting on Race and Ethnicity*
The historic inability of marginalized communities to control their
own images has been devastating. News for All the People
illustrates that this lack of control hasn't been by accident. It's
a part of a greater story of media control and ownership that
traces back to the creation of the United States. An essential
read.
*James Rucker, founder of ColorOfChange.org*
This is journalism history from an entirely fresh perspective, one
that challenges the old heroes and shines a sharp light on the role
of the media in revealing social inequities in a democratic
society.
*Booklist (starred review)*
Meticulously researched, adeptly written, and most important,
historically significant ... an important work.
*Buffalo News*
With vivid detail, González and Torres trace the history of
minority journalism in the United States from Colonial newspapers
to today's blogs. This important text should be required reading in
journalism schools.
*Library Journal (starred review)*
Examines some of the news media's dirtiest laundry-the media's
active roles in lynching Blacks, exterminating Native Americans and
brutally harassing Hispanics and Asian-Americans ... insightful
[and] awareness-expanding.
*The Philadelphia Tribune*
When journalists write history, there is always the danger of that
history being shallow, surface-level. This remarkable book is one
of the rare instances of such a problem being a positive, due to
its great, realized ambition. For this narrative successfully
weaves the history of Black media, Native American media, Hispanic
media and Asian media within the context of the history of
America's capitalistic media development. As 2011 ends, Gonzalez
and Torres provide not just a clear understanding of how the enemy
built the empire, but merge historical ideas on how to use the
new/old tools at our disposal to resist it.
*Whose Media/Drums in the Global Village*
[This] groundbreaking book takes the reader on a 400-year journey
from the past transgressions to today's democratic crisis, one
largely created by the deeds of those controlling the media and the
narratives our citizens are actually 'consuming.' It delves deeply
into why those narratives are slanted, misrepresented or scrubbed
altogether by the so-called liberal media.
*Real Change News*
Offers constant reminders that this conflict has been a true civil
war with serious casualties, lasting through many decades and
perhaps yet ended. The journalists portrayed here recognized that
journalism was a weapon of resistance. If there have been advances,
it is in good part because such journalism, bravely wielded, can
fight the good fight.
*Columbia Journalism Review*
[An] acclaimed history of race and the US media, which will be a
core book for readers in journalism and US history.
*Book News*
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