News for All the People

Starred review from October 15, 2011
Despite the old dictum that the role of the press is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted, when it comes to race, the opposite has more often been true, according to journalists Gonzalez and Torres. Because most media owners are aligned with business and political interests, the press, through distorted and biased coverage, has often helped fan racial tensions and violence and perpetuated derogatory images of nonwhites. Drawing on archival research, Gonzalez and Torres recast the history of journalism in the U.S. from the colonial to the Internet era, along the way uncovering little-known history of the roles of Native Americans and those of African, Latin, and Asian descent in creating an alternative press that challenged the coverage of the mainstream press. Among the well-known and obscure figures in minority journalism, Jose Marti and Ida B. Wells are cast as crusaders for social justice long before the storied muckrakers of journalism history. Gonzalez and Torres detail how federal policies have supported the press and often undermined attempts by nonwhites to gain access. This is journalism history from an entirely fresh perspective, one that challenges the old heroes and shines a sharp light on the role of the media in revealing social inequities in a democratic society.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)