Don't Shoot the Messenger: How Our Growing Hatred of the Media Threatens Free Speech for All of Us

by Bruce W. Sanford

Book Overview

Selected by Brill's Content as one of its sixteen all-time media classics, this lively and richly storied work documents the dangerous consequences of the disintegration of trust between the public and the news media. In a masterful twenty-year retrospective, First Amendment attorney Bruce Sanford explores the root causes of our growing hostility toward the media and warns that we are killing one of our most treasured natural resources--the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0742508374
• ISBN13: 9780742508378
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A riveting, must-read for anyone who cares about freedom.

"Don't Shoot the Messenger" is a triumph in every way. The writing is clear, strong and engaging. The message it carries should be required reading for every thinking American. With wit and passion, Bruce Sanford issues a sorely needed wakeup call to the press, the courts and we, the people. The devil of any book is in the details. Sanford names names and lays out his case -- our case, really -- with a clarity that makes plain the torturous complexities of cause and effect creating the growing gulf between us and our increasingly unfree press. Few messages could be as important in a democracy, where the truth is vital if the public is to choose wisely. Sanford unflinchingly outlines the weaknesses of the press that have led us to mistrust and even despise them. He points out how we, as consumers, tacitly contribute to the excesses we disparage, and how our increasingly negative attitude spills over into the courtroom for both juries and judges, resulting in verdicts that may feel right even as they eat away at our freedom and well-being. He shows the chilling effects of a number of recent lawsuits by the rich and powerful against the press and gives us a scary look at the road ahead if this trend continues. "Don't Shoot the Messenger" is riveting reading, but more than that, it is a passionate argument in defense of us all by what must surely be one of the nation's best and brightest lawyers.