Author: Leonard Downie, Jr. and Robert G. Kaiser

Publisher: Alfred E. Knopf

Book Reviewed By: Dan Lynch

The Vietnam War was winding down. The hottest program on television was "All In The Family." Muhammad Ali was battling his way back to the heavyweight throne. Richard Nixon finally had clawed his way into the White House.

It was 30 years ago. American journalism was in the throes of a crucial cultural revolution. The opinionated, idiosyncratic press lords who'd ruled over their newspapers like imperial emperors were dying off. Utterly apolitical corporate executives were taking command of important news outlets all across the nation. The corporate suits were focused relentlessly on only one goal -- making money. To do that, they had to build circulation and audience. And, because the corporate suits seldom rubbed elbows with the power structure of the communities served by their far-flung newspapers, they were blissfully indifferent to howls of outrage at country club bars -- howls engendered by tough, courageous reporting on how the local establishment did or did not do its job.

It was, in short, the beginning of a golden age for American journalism and the democracy that journalism was empowered by the First Amendment to serve. The currency of any successful democracy is truth -- often harsh, unpleasant truth about the performance, or lack thereof, of people who run powerful public institutions. Thirty years ago, the news business was determined to peddle truth, even when that truth might make powerful people mad.

Fresh from active military duty, I was a fuzzy-cheeked young reporter, one of a new breed of college-educated journalists motivated not just by a paycheck or the opportunity to hang out with the powerful politicians we all saw on the six o-clock news. Most journalists of my generation were motivated by the desire to tell readers what worked and what didn't work in society's institutions and to see their performance improved as a result of that public education. The older, blue-collar-oriented journalists couldn't figure out why we worked so hard at finding flaws and infuriating the politicians the older reporters regarded both as personal pals and beneficent sources of news. They also suspected that all us long-haired kids were closet commies -- which, in fact, a few of us were, although most of us were motivated less by politics than by the glory of providing the audience with the best available version of important, previously ignored truths.

Three decades ago, as journalism entered that golden age, I was plying my trade at the Philadelphia Inquirer, a woefully inept morning newspaper formerly owned by Republican political contributor Walter Annenberg. The Inquirer had been recently acquired by Knight Newspapers. Knight was a classy chain that viewed editorial quality as a lure for new readers and the path to prosperity. In the ensuing years, the Inquirer won 18 Pulitzer Prizes before the culture of newspaper work, journalism in general and the Philadelphia Inquirer in particular degenerated into the disaster zone described in such chilling detail by Downie and Kaiser in this fascinating and important book.

If you believe, as I do, that the foundation of any successful democracy is a free, vigorous and fearless press, then you'll find this book profoundly disturbing. Downie, editor of the Washington Post, and Kaiser, a senior editor/writer for the Post, recount how the culture of journalism underwent an excruciating change in the late 1980s. That was when the suits decided that newspapers were a mature industry with no realistic prospects of growth. Consequently, they decided to abandon investigative reporting and the expense it entailed. Instead, they chose to milk their publications as cash cows -- all the while awaiting an Internet boom in mass news delivery that has yet to materialize and might not for decades to come.

The net result has been a reduction in audience share for newspapers even as profits rose. Who wants to buy a newspaper with nothing in it -- or, at least, nothing important that wasn't available on the TV the night before? As Downie and Kaiser make clear, the suits have fostered development of an artificial business bubble in the newspaper business that will burst at some point with a pop that will shatter the national eardrums. Ultimately, the slashing and burning in newspapering -- the root source of virtually all the important news Americans receive -- endangers the democracy that makes newspaper publication and profit possible in the first place.

Moreover, that horrific mindset on the part of news business managers has resulted in the wholesale resignations of skilled, experienced journalists who regarded serious investigative reporting not just a job but as professional calling. When publishers and craven editors openly fear that hard reporting will alienate the local power structure and possibly disrupt the flow of revenue, good people no longer want to work on newspapers.

Downie and Kaiser make clear that, despite an ever-increasing array of news outlets on both the Web and cable television, Americans receive less important reporting than ever. The authors make clear also that, when push comes to shove, only two newspaper organizations in the country really care about that sort of reporting any more -- the Washington Post and The New York Times, huge media companies controlled not by Wall Street but by families with a sense of duty toward their profession and to the system of government that has permitted them to thrive as businesses.

It's not all gloom and doom. Downie and Kaiser recount good, important stories still done on a scattered basis by news outlets around the nation. They express optimism that the current short-sighted mindset in the news business eventually will give way to a renewed desire for quality reporting on the part of the public and a new generation of news media managers. And -- who knows? -- these are smart guys; they might be right in their optimism.

They're certainly right in their diagnosis of the problem.

*******

Dan Lynch, a veteran of 30 years in newspaper work as a reporter, managing editor and columnist, is the author of seven books, including the recently released "Running With The Machine: A Journalist's Eye-Opening Plunge Into Politics." He's now the afternoon talk show host on AM-590, WROW, Albany, N.Y.

05/10/2002