Whoever said long stories put off readers hasn't scanned the New York Times best-seller list lately. Even though newspapers and magazines have crammed their pages with Iraq reporting, readers seem insatiable on the topic. The current Times list features four heavily reported and lengthy books about the Iraq adventure: Hubris, by Michael Isikoff and David Corn; Fiasco, by Thomas Ricks; State of Denial, by Bob Woodward; and Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.
All four titles belong to the genre I call the "newsbook," which straddles the space between contemporary history and daily journalism and is usually hooked to Washington and politics....
So, if I want an up-to-date detailed analysis of the news, I don't buy a newspaper or watch a "news" programme on tv.
I gotta go buy a book?
Let's reserve the final credit for the newsbook's ascent to readers, that much-maligned group that is said to crave a diet exclusively composed of shorter news stories, gossip columns, and blog entries. Every time they buy a newsbook, they're voting with their dollars for complex, in-depth journalism. Isn't that good news?
I am perhaps well served with news background and analysis, provided that I am prepared to accept the limited cover from SST, and the occasional burst from Granny Herald.
And too, to what extent can one trust the honesty and objectivity of the authors of the newsbooks? No more so than the writers of the articles the papers dish up.
Hmm, is it any wonder that news and reportage these days is governed by confirmation bias rather than fact. Oh for the days of Stan Freyberg...
...the facts Ma'am, nothing but the facts...
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