The Chain Gang

This is the story of how small local papers have been driven out of business by Gannett papers. Richard McCord tells of his all-consuming battle to help two papers win against this mighty empire in precise detail. This fascinating tale is marred by several factors: The volume varies from side to side, section to section, and tape 8 has a mechanical echo. McCord's voice is tinny and quiet, becoming distorted the louder the volume and forcing the listener to choose between blurry words or lost ones. Worst of all, the author/narrator is so completely detached and unemotional that the listener wonders why he fought Gannett for 20 years. With technical difficulties throughout, only the most determined will learn of McCord's Pyrrhic victory. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine

April 29, 1996
McCord has battled the Gannett newspaper giant twice and lived to tell about it in this fascinating book. Frustrated with big-city life, McCord and his then-wife light out for the territory--Santa Fe, N.M., to be precise--and start their own weekly. But when the Gannett media empire buys the town's daily paper, McCord has cause for worry. Some of the freewheeling business practices he ascribes to Gannett, such as lying to advertisers and setting prices off the newspaper rate card, are ethically dubious, while others border on antitrust. But Gannett's influence on the rest of the newspaper world makes it difficult to get the word out as McCord fights first for the survival of his own weekly, and then for that of a daily owned by a friend in Green Bay, Wisc. McCord tells it all from the viewpoint of a small-town underdog, and as he travels from Salem, Ore., to Little Rock, Ark., and Green Bay, discovering how Gannett subverts the good journalism it claims to champion, readers won't be able to help but cheer him on. Be warned, however: McCord is a quirky character. When he digresses from his battles to talk about his inner feelings, the narrative turns slightly mawkish and underwhelming (the reader feels every mile of a road trip described in Chapter 15). Overall, however, this book is nearly impossible to put down, for the media curious or those who just like a good scrap.