What do you think?
Rate this book
Covering Politics in a "Post-Truth" America
In a new Brookings Essay, Politico editor Susan Glasser chronicles how political reporting has changed over the course of her career and reflects on the state of independent journalism after the 2016 election.
The Bookings In the spirit of its commitment to higquality, independent research, the Brookings Institution has commissioned works on major topics of public policy by distinguished authors, including Brookings scholars. The Brookings Essay is a multi-platform product aimed to engage readers in open dialogue and debate. The views expressed, however, are solely those of the author. Available in ebook only.
The Bookings In the spirit of its commitment to higquality, independent research, the Brookings Institution has commissioned works on major topics of public policy by distinguished authors, including Brookings scholars. The Brookings Essay is a multi-platform product aimed to engage readers in open dialogue and debate. The views expressed, however, are solely those of the author. Available in ebook only.
- GenresNonfictionPolitics
20 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 6, 2016
24 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 12, 2020
"For the last two decades, the rules of political reporting have been blown up. And I've cheered at every step along the way".
Covering Politics in a "Post-Truth" America by Susan B. Glasser
I was very impressed with this Political work and will be recommending it to "Political Junkie" friends.
Susan B. Glasser is a journalist herself and was an editor at Politico during the 2016 Election.
She writes both eloquently yet in a deeply personal way of the changing faces of Journalism and Reporting.
She speaks of how Today's news is fast and sophisticated with so many digital news outlets, outstanding reporters, Policy Wonks and a Tech Savvy audience of readers.
But she also exposes the downside of all this News. She speaks of "Revolutionary Chaos". She asks important questions like just what have we, the people, given up for all this modern cutting edge news? Is there any accountability left?
And she goes into great detail about the 2016 election, the polling models and how wrong they were, the viral moment of the Trump Access Hollywood video and the realization of just how deeply our whole way of digesting news has changed.
I'd say this is a must read for any Political Junkie. It was written back in 2016 when Trump first won but is no less relevant now and I really enjoyed this essay including the look back at a more simple time and the reign of Print Journalism. I look forward to reading more of her work as this was excellent.
Covering Politics in a "Post-Truth" America by Susan B. Glasser
I was very impressed with this Political work and will be recommending it to "Political Junkie" friends.
Susan B. Glasser is a journalist herself and was an editor at Politico during the 2016 Election.
She writes both eloquently yet in a deeply personal way of the changing faces of Journalism and Reporting.
She speaks of how Today's news is fast and sophisticated with so many digital news outlets, outstanding reporters, Policy Wonks and a Tech Savvy audience of readers.
But she also exposes the downside of all this News. She speaks of "Revolutionary Chaos". She asks important questions like just what have we, the people, given up for all this modern cutting edge news? Is there any accountability left?
And she goes into great detail about the 2016 election, the polling models and how wrong they were, the viral moment of the Trump Access Hollywood video and the realization of just how deeply our whole way of digesting news has changed.
I'd say this is a must read for any Political Junkie. It was written back in 2016 when Trump first won but is no less relevant now and I really enjoyed this essay including the look back at a more simple time and the reign of Print Journalism. I look forward to reading more of her work as this was excellent.
February 28, 2021
This is a short pamphlet about journalism during the Trump campaign for the US presidency. It’s message is that journalism has never been better, faster, more detailed, but warns that the public no longer cares and cannot tell good journalism from partisan hackery.
But to me, this pamphlet is an example of why good journalism is actually on the wane. It fails to address what the real story actually is: *why* does the public no longer care? It only asserts that the public does not care. This pamphlet fails at a rather fundamental level.
In my view, current journalism fails to distinguish itself from hacks, as all it does is report *assertions* like the hacks. Assertions of truth are largely indistinguishable from lies, as they too are mere assertions. There is little or no *analysis* in the frenzy to attract attention with headlines, there’s little or no follow up, little or no revaluation. All assertions look alike to the public.
There’s no synthesis of information. The narrative is shattered into soundbites. News needs to slow down. Ours is a frantic world. Journalism ought to seek to calm the frenzy down, provide sense to all the noise, cut through to the trends and developments that matter rather than just try to keep pace with the scattergun.
It’s not surprising the public gravitates towards soundbites that comfort their biases, their groupthink, when it is suffering from information overload. The public is lured by comforting, familiar, recognisable narratives that reflect their opinions, emotions, and prejudices. They don’t like being challenged.
That’s why spin beats assertions: it’s easier to twist headlines to fit a covert narrative than to develop a overt narrative out of headlines. The latter involves some joining of dots. If the journalists fail to do that, their readers won’t be able to.
The pamphlet does get one thing right: in an era of information overload, editors become all the more important. *Correct!* Now’s the time for editors to step up and curate their narratives, openly, honestly, with accountability and integrity.
But to me, this pamphlet is an example of why good journalism is actually on the wane. It fails to address what the real story actually is: *why* does the public no longer care? It only asserts that the public does not care. This pamphlet fails at a rather fundamental level.
In my view, current journalism fails to distinguish itself from hacks, as all it does is report *assertions* like the hacks. Assertions of truth are largely indistinguishable from lies, as they too are mere assertions. There is little or no *analysis* in the frenzy to attract attention with headlines, there’s little or no follow up, little or no revaluation. All assertions look alike to the public.
There’s no synthesis of information. The narrative is shattered into soundbites. News needs to slow down. Ours is a frantic world. Journalism ought to seek to calm the frenzy down, provide sense to all the noise, cut through to the trends and developments that matter rather than just try to keep pace with the scattergun.
It’s not surprising the public gravitates towards soundbites that comfort their biases, their groupthink, when it is suffering from information overload. The public is lured by comforting, familiar, recognisable narratives that reflect their opinions, emotions, and prejudices. They don’t like being challenged.
That’s why spin beats assertions: it’s easier to twist headlines to fit a covert narrative than to develop a overt narrative out of headlines. The latter involves some joining of dots. If the journalists fail to do that, their readers won’t be able to.
The pamphlet does get one thing right: in an era of information overload, editors become all the more important. *Correct!* Now’s the time for editors to step up and curate their narratives, openly, honestly, with accountability and integrity.
April 9, 2019
I was so impressed by Susan's interview on The Putin Files https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUzz8... that I looked up her stuff on Google and came across this little masterpiece. As Editor of Politico Susan has been at the heart of the disruptive change sweeping the media in recent years. Add that to deep experience including resident status in Russia and here is a fascinating and incisive snapshot that helps us understand at a deep level some of the pressing issues in media and politics today.
It seems clear that we stand at a decisive moment in history. What seems clear is that it is no longer 'the end'. The remarkable possibility that conservative populism may be around for the long run is unsettling.
The anecdote as Susan and her husband left for Moscow from Don Graham that the Post would be fine 'if the classifieds don't go away' - and that four years later on their return - well - they were. That stuck with me. Very few businesses, teams and as we are now finding - probably institutions can survive under this kind of pressure. This powerful, evidence-heavy writing is one of the reasons I'm trusting it might. Thanks Susan. Oh and if you have thirty hours to spare - every second of those amazing Frontline videos is worth the time.
It seems clear that we stand at a decisive moment in history. What seems clear is that it is no longer 'the end'. The remarkable possibility that conservative populism may be around for the long run is unsettling.
The anecdote as Susan and her husband left for Moscow from Don Graham that the Post would be fine 'if the classifieds don't go away' - and that four years later on their return - well - they were. That stuck with me. Very few businesses, teams and as we are now finding - probably institutions can survive under this kind of pressure. This powerful, evidence-heavy writing is one of the reasons I'm trusting it might. Thanks Susan. Oh and if you have thirty hours to spare - every second of those amazing Frontline videos is worth the time.
November 2, 2017
This is a brief but interesting essay available free on Kindle.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews