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The Kingmakers: How the Media Threatens Our Security and Our Democracy | 
 enlarge | Authors: Mike Gravel, David Eisenbach
Publisher: Phoenix Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 574008
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 204
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 159777586X
Dewey Decimal Number: 302.230973
EAN: 9781597775861
ASIN: 159777586X
Publication Date: June 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
WHO PUT THE MEDIA IN CHARGE?
Why does the media always blow the big stories? From 9/11 to Iraq's WMDs, from Iran's nuclear program to the inevitable Hillary Clinton the divide between reality and the so-called news has never been more dramatic or dangerous.
In The Kingmakers Senator Mike Gravel and Dr. David Eisenbach argue that the media's failure to present the public with an accurate view of the world poses a greater threat to American lives than terrorism. They also show how the greatest threat to our democracy is not money. It's the media. Long before the majority of voters pay attention to presidential elections, the media Kingmakers filter the presidential field and anoint the leading candidates.
Gravel and Eisenbach propose a powerful antidote to the Kingmakers' poisonous influence on American politics participatory journalism. Blogs, chat rooms, virtual worlds and Internet contributions have empowered ordinary citizens to change the course of American history and inaugurate a new wave of democratization that America hasn't seen since the Jacksonian era.
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worthy of being read but needs a larger historical context September 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
For those who are interested in familiarizing themselves with how the media treats events and, especially, campaign issues, this book is useful. It balances out popular myths created by the media, in particular, by major news commentators ranging from Russert to Blitzer, et al. Through substantial exemplification, it exposes, quite correctly, bias, favoritism, neglect and the absence of objective and realistic analysis. As a major explanation for this, Gravel identifies, partially correctly, the concept of news commentators "following the story line" that habitually and temporarily excites the masses and is used for marketing and selling techniques.
To be sure, this is a major weakness in America's media, and Gravel and Eisenbach expose it with rigor and convincability. And it does pose a threat to security and democracy.
Unfortunately, this book has a narrow and limited focus. Its purpose is not to place the function and performance of the media into a larger comparative historical context. Had it done so, it could have offered the reader a profound and highly important insight into how overemphasizing and adulating democracy actually contributes in a major way to the very problem this book exposes. Overpoliticizing the masses and overadulating democracy erodes ethics and engenders what should be called "demofascism," i.e. people oppressing people.
Edward Bernays, the founding father of the modern public relations industry who wrote his famous book "Crystallizing Public Opinion" in the early '20s, though Jewish, had his book elevated to be the pride of Goebbels' library of propaganda books. Bernays was obviously shocked when he became of aware of this in the early '30s. His actions span more than 60 years, and he had presidents and major corporations as his customers. Advocating that all corps. need their pr depts., his advice contributed to the current nasty habit of having nearly all major bureaucracies devote a shocking percentage of their resources for selling themselves, for sugarcoating and whitewashing their actions and, generally, fooling the public. A fascist element is part of the media, of marketing, public relations and selling something. This has to be pointed out and would support the book's message.
Beyond this, Ernst Hanfstaengl, a well-connected Harvard political science graduate, who seems to have observed closely U.S. political party conventions, became Hitler's campaign advisor and introduced the Nazis to U.S. election techniques and pep rally hoopla as well as U.S. cheer leading and associated musical support to whip up the masses into hysterical frenzy which surfaces in both Nazi and U.S. political rallies par excellence. Hanfstaengl, in his autobiography, admits having introduced Hitler to America's electioneering method and associated media techniques and the custom of cheerleading the masses. He composed at least 12 storm trooper songs based upon the hyped up beat of American music, according to his own testimony. If Gravel and Eisenbach desire to point out how the media threatens security and democracy, including this could have cemented their case.
All of this and more is missing in Gravel's book and needs to be understood. Nevertheless, Gravel's book is very important insofar as it does raise the issue of America's neglect of a realistic domestic analysis of its socio-economic conditions, but it is only a necessary start.
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