Book Review: Watergate’s Legacy and the Press: The Investigative Impulse by Jon Marshall and Beyond the Killing Fields: War Writings by Sydney Schanberg

Abstract

Synthesis Essay: Journalism's Crusading 1970sWatergate's Legacy and Press: The Investigative Impulse. Jon Marshall. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2011. 336 pp. $24.95 pbk.Beyond Killing Fields: War Writings. Sydney Schanberg. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2010. 242 pp. $27.50 hbk.In gripping final scene of All President's Men, Hollywood version of Watergate, two young reporters who broke story are told that nothing is riding on their investigation except for the First Amendment to Constitution, freedom of press and maybe future of country. Journalism in 1970s remains a perfect teaching moment for brave, dogged reporting that helped shape America's direction.Both of these books forcefully document its history-one by surveying origins and possible future of kind of investigative journalism of which Washington Post's Watergate stories were a paragon and other by putting together a compilation of writings from one of hardest-hitting war correspondents of era.Jon Marshall's history of investigative journalism is another gem in growing Visions of American Press series by Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern, and it is an eminently readable option for a textbook in undergraduate or graduate classes about history of American journalism. Famed Vietnam correspondent Sydney Schanberg's collection, centered on his 1970s articles from South Asia, makes for a page-turning read that anyone interested in war and media would find hard to put down. Read together today, when media landscape seems dominated by all non-public-affairs news that's fit to post, these two volumes offer a powerful snapshot of what journalism in public interest can accomplish.One of main strengths of Marshall's book is that it traces history of the investigative impulse from colonial news sheets to ProPublica, weaving in relevant aspects of changing journalism practices, structures, and sociopolitical pressures across more than three centuries. Marshall's central argument is a sad paradox- Watergate might have been both apex and undoing of kind of reporting that hinges on shining a spotlight on disturbing information that someone has tried very hard to keep hidden. And it is precisely that kind of reporting that has buttressed role of a free press in a democracy.Marshall, a former reporter and columnist who now teaches news writing at Northwestern University, starts his chronological narrative in 1600s, when American protojournalists were busy ferreting out information that colonial administrators wanted public to ignore. As concept of original reporting and interview developed in first half of nineteenth century, penny press journalists pursued cover-ups in everything from milk industry to brothels.Pulling together threads from a rich literature in investigative journalism, Marshall shows how, at turn of twentieth century, national magazines took up investigating with a vengeance, earning nickname of muckrakers while spurring government reforms of corporate giants such as those in oil and meatpacking industries. The world wars ushered in major press restrictions and increasingly sophisticated public relations operations, and journalism establishment put controversial digging on hold under veneer of expert objectivity.Outside mainstream, however, tradition continued. The Investigative Impulse helpfully reminds readers that advances in journalism history were not carried only by heavyweights like Washington Post but also by small underground publications, ethnic presses like African American newspapers, and countercultural outlets that never benefited from large budgets or institutional prestige.While book focuses on print, Marshall does not neglect other media, such as television in 1950s, where Edward R. …