A conversation with historian Kathryn McGarr about American journalism, foreign policy, and her new book, "City of Newsmen: Public Lies and Professional Secrets in Cold War Washington"
I am so glad you liked it, Caroline. I don't know what Kathryn would say, but I would hazard a guess that strategic leaking has taken the place of the old-fashioned backgrounders, for two reasons. One is that the exclusiveness of the institutions Kathryn writes about fell apart, beginning in the 1970s, and that World War II generation of white men was gone, or receding into the background, by the 1980s. I think Kathryn's story is very specific to a moment in history. And second, I think Watergate created a new fetish around the investigative journalist who was inside the system--as opposed to the Izzy Stone or Sy Hersch, who was outside the system, either digging into public documents or hunting down sources who would spill the beans. As I understood it from my book research, after 1972, everyone wanted to be Woodward and Bernstein, and it really changed what editors were prepared to countenance.
As to the Trojan Horse affair, thanks fo rthe link--I'll look into it!
I am so glad you liked it, Caroline. I don't know what Kathryn would say, but I would hazard a guess that strategic leaking has taken the place of the old-fashioned backgrounders, for two reasons. One is that the exclusiveness of the institutions Kathryn writes about fell apart, beginning in the 1970s, and that World War II generation of white men was gone, or receding into the background, by the 1980s. I think Kathryn's story is very specific to a moment in history. And second, I think Watergate created a new fetish around the investigative journalist who was inside the system--as opposed to the Izzy Stone or Sy Hersch, who was outside the system, either digging into public documents or hunting down sources who would spill the beans. As I understood it from my book research, after 1972, everyone wanted to be Woodward and Bernstein, and it really changed what editors were prepared to countenance.
As to the Trojan Horse affair, thanks fo rthe link--I'll look into it!