Getting It Wrong
eBook - PDF

Getting It Wrong

Debunking the Greatest Myths in American Journalism

  1. 368 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Getting It Wrong

Debunking the Greatest Myths in American Journalism

About this book

Many of American journalism’s best-known and most cherished stories are exaggerated, dubious, or apocryphal. They are media-driven myths, and they attribute to the news media and their practitioners far more power and influence than they truly exert. In Getting It Wrong, writer and scholar W. Joseph Campbell confronts and dismantles prominent media-driven myths, describing how they can feed stereotypes, distort understanding about the news media, and deflect blame from policymakers. Campbell debunks the notions that the Washington Post’s Watergate reporting brought down Richard M. Nixon’s corrupt presidency, that Walter Cronkite’s characterization of the Vietnam War in 1968 shifted public opinion against the conflict, and that William Randolph Hearst vowed to “furnish the war” against Spain in 1898. This expanded second edition includes a new preface and new chapters about the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, the haunting Napalm Girl photograph of the Vietnam War, and bogus quotations driven by the Internet and social media.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Getting It Wrong by W. Joseph Campbell in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & North American History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. List of Illustrations
  4. Preface to the Second Edition
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Introduction
  7. 1. “I’ll Furnish the War”: The Making of a Media Myth
  8. 2. Fright beyond Measure? The Myth of The War of the Worlds
  9. 3. Murrow vs. McCarthy: Timing Makes the Myth
  10. 4. TV Viewers, Radio Listeners, and the Myth of the First Kennedy-Nixon Debate
  11. 5. The Bay of Pigs–New York Times Suppression Myth
  12. 6. Debunking the “Cronkite Moment”
  13. 7. The Nuanced Myth: Bra Burning at Atlantic City
  14. 8. Picture Power? Confronting the Myths of the Napalm Girl Photograph
  15. 9. It’s All about the Media: Watergate’s Heroic-Journalist Myth
  16. 10. The “Fantasy Panic”: The News Media and the “Crack-Baby” Myth
  17. 11. “She Was Fighting to the Death”: Mythmaking in Iraq
  18. 12. Hurricane Katrina and the Myth of Superlative Reporting
  19. 13. Counterfeit Quotations: Swelling with a Digital Tide
  20. Conclusion
  21. Notes
  22. Select Bibliography
  23. Index