Ran out to BookPeople and got myself a copy of On the Media Host Brooke Gladstone's The Influencing Machine! This book should be required reading for anyone who practices or consumes journalism. Her points about the news we see and read being a product of the public's demand is SPOT ON. There are so many ideas to discuss, I could burst. As she so aptly reminds us, American journalism has never been perfectly objective or noble. In fact, the "incivility" and "broken business models" we're seeing today have been around for a loooong time-- and our democracy has managed to survive. I still think we had a better sense of public interest news and what it means to responsibly use the public's airwaves vs. profit during the Murrow era, but even he saw what was coming. (Remember his 'lights and wires in a box' speech?)
BTW, most of the Gladstone's points are explained via cartoons illustrated by Josh Neufeld. Being the visual learner I am, I really dig this kind of storytelling. Check out the vid, too. Good stuff.