Greenberg, David. The Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency (2016) New York: W.W. Norton & Company, $18.95, 540 pages. In The Republic of Spin, historian David Greenberg provides the reader with a comprehensive summary and analysis of the development of public relations techniques used by U.S. presidents since the turn of…
BY CHRIS BURNETT / Roger Ailes, chairman of Fox News, is a man the media industry has learned to take seriously, even fear. Though much less well-known to the public than his boss, Rupert Murdoch, his considerable talent and work ethic is responsible for building Fox into the undisputed leader of cable television, leading the cable ratings wars the past 12 years over rivals CNN and MSNBC.
BY CHRIS BURNETT / The funerals of Tim Russert, longtime host of Meet the Press, and Richard Holbrooke, American diplomat and advisor to Democratic presidents, involved two men who would seem on the surface to have had little in common. Holbrooke, the hard-charging special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan at the time of his death in 2010 moved in the highest diplomatic circles, never shied away from controversy and made no attempt to keep his ego in check. Russert, who died two years earlier, was the avuncular everyman, known for his fair-minded but tough questioning of American political figures. He clearly had an ego too, but he kept it under check, preferring to talk and write about his affection for his father, Big Russ.