The Business of Journalism: 10 Leading Reporters and Editors on the Perils and Pitfalls of the Press

Edited by an ex-New York Times labor reporter and based on a series of talks given at the New York University journalism department, this book collects iconoclastic ideas about contemporary journalistic ethics. Contributors--who range from former New York Times columnist Sydney Schanberg to Mother Jones publisher Jay Harris--criticize both the knotty compromises they believe journalists often make, and newspapers' increasing entanglements with American business. Schanberg, for example, recounts his quixotic effort to persuade the mainstream press to cover itself more aggressively, and Harris warns of a ""master narrative""--""part ignorance, part arrogance, part bias, part laziness, and part the economic self-interest"" of publishers and reporters--that leads reporters to ignore corporate power. On the other hand, contributors like Tom and Pat Gish, owners and editors of the Whitesburg, Ky. Mountain Eagle, suggest that all is not lost--they tell an inspiring story about how their tiny paper has managed to spotlight local inequities. Similarly, former Times legal affairs reporter E.R. Shipp suggests that it's still possible to navigate newsroom shoals (such as in-house politics) and publish good stories. But the book is behind the times; because all the contributors--except John Leonard, of CBS's Sunday Morning--work in print outlets, the volume virtually ignores the electronic media, especially the Internet. Still, bucking convention and journalistic habit, this volume also offers up salutary nuggets of optimism, as well as ammunition for critics of status quo journalism. (June)