by Bernard Goldman
(media)
Longtime CBS News insider Bernie Goldman committed the "unforgivable sin" by suggesting in a Wall Street Journal article what we all have known for years: that that U.S. newsmen have a "Liberal bias." Breaking the law of omerta and angering The Dan (Dan Rather!) lost him his job, but not his sense of humor. Goldman uses newsmens' & womens' own sometimes outrageous words to show how the news is systematically--and sometimes unconsciously--slanted in the preferred political direction. He writes about the exclusion of stories about racial minorities & poor people & even ugly people from infotainment shows, prejudicial treatment of men, marginalization of religious Christians & Jews, exclusion of opposing viewpoints on ostensibly objective news programs, suppression or modification of reporters' stories & films, and much, much more.
by Joseph Wambaugh
(true crime)
This was one of the most fascinating, frustrating true-crime books I've read in a long time. It was interesting to me personally, because my parents live in a South Coast town, so all the cities mentioned & a lot of the stores & locations were very familiar. Maybe you remember the series of brush & store fires along the West coast a few years ago, and the manhunt that turned up "one of their own," arson investigator John Orr? And how the case broke after the discovery of one, single fingerprint? Mr. Wambaugh has done a phenomenal amount of research on the whole story, from the first fires to the verdict through the sentencing & what happened afterward. The courtroom testimony is particularly heart-wrenching.
What I especially remember about this book are the conflicts between the fire department and the police department; between the feds & the local cops. You would think these groups would work together to solve crimes, but this isn't always so. You get the impression that they're often in competition; that sometimes it's a pissing contest of egos, and that information isn't always so readily shared.
The ego theme is certainly carried over to the prime suspect as well, and to be honest, because of psychopathic characters like him, I would never go on record as against the death penalty. There are some people who just deserve death...because, for no reason at all, they've deprived others of life, and never admit their guilt, thinking they can continue playing everyone for a patsy and continue using those who love them & have faith in them even after they're incarcerated for their crimes.