Provoking the Press

This is a complicated book about a complex magazine during a confusing time in American journalism. Kevin M. Lerner postulates that a younger generation of reporters chafed under the unbending leadership of editors and publishers out of touch with the 1970s. He argues that young writers turned to (MORE), a New York City journalism review that openly declared itself antiestablishment. Published between 1971 and 1978, (MORE) changed the philosophy of American newspapers, Lerner contends. In this microscopic examination of the magazine, Lerner, as the book's subtitle indicates, also finds time to dissect the entire field in the Watergate and post-Watergate eras. Beginning as a caustic critic of New York's daily newspapers, (MORE) evolved into an advocate for New Left causes and eventually became an advertising and broadcast news critic. However, its main focus over its seven-year existence was Gotham's dailies. The magazine trumpeted its distaste for objectivity, a point on which Lerner and (MORE) closely agree. They argue that the goal of objectivity was to stifle reporter creativity, shield editors from criticism, and pacify advertisers. Humans cannot be objective, and a writing style that pretends that they can is both stultifying and misleading, Lerner explains

Advertising · Criticism · Epistemology · Journalism · Media studies · Newspaper · Objectivity (philosophy · Political science · Sociology · History · Law · Literature, Film, and Journalism Analysis · Media Studies and Communication · Philosophy

• Addressing the “Error of our Ways” in Metajournalistic Discourse

  Amber Roessner, Brian Creech•Journalism Practice•2025

  Add to list