Laurel Leff, Buried by the Times (Cambridge, 2005) One of the unfortunate casualties of the media’s war on Donald Trump and his ‘fake news’ response is a clear-eyed assessment of the extent to which outside factors influence what newspapers choose to print or not print. As a case in point, consider Laurel Leff’s thorough analysis […]
Fitting the News: A Review of Jerold Auerbach’s “Print to Fit. The New York Times, Zionism and Israel, 1896-2016
Jerold S. Auerbach, Print to Fit, The New York Times, Zionism and Israel, 1896-2016, Academic Studies Press, 2019 When Adolph Ochs purchased the New York Times in 1896, he added a motto that demonstrated his marketing genius. “All the News That’s Fit to Print” became the industry standard and before long the Times became the […]
Catcher in the Rye: A 75-Year Look Back
J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye (1943) is one of the 20th century’s most controversial books along with Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. The controversy stemmed not only from the language which was raw, but also from Salinger’s depiction of an alientated 16-year-old’s point of view—both were unheard of […]
Slavery according to Colson Whitehead: My review of The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead The danger of Colson Whitehead’s fictional treatment of slavery and the system of people who jeopardized their lives to transport escaped slaves north to freedom which came to be known as the ‘underground railroad’ is that people will take as historically accurate his description of slavery and white society in […]
What Cost Diversity? A Review of Heather Mac Donald’s The Diversity Delusion
Heather Mac Donald, The Diversity Delusion; How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture. St. Martin’s Press, 2018 What are we to make of today’s university culture where students may not be subjected to spoken or written words that make them feel uncomfortable, where diversity is achieved by abolishing objective standards, […]