1968 Year of Media Decision [Paperback]

Thirty years ago American political life was all relentless, painful, and confounding: the Tet Offensive brought new intensity to the Vietnam War; President Lyndon Johnson would not seek re-election; Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated; student protests rocked France; a Soviet invasion ended socialism with a human face in Czechoslovakia; the Mexican government massacred scores of peaceful demonstrators; and Richard M. Nixon was elected president. Any one of the events of 1968 bears claim to historical significance. Together they set off shock waves that divided Americans into new and contending categories: hawks and doves, old and young, feminists and chauvinists, straights and hippies, blacks and whites, militants and moderates. As citizens alive to their own time and as reporters responsible for making sense of it, journalists did not stand aside from the conflicts of 1968. In their lives and in their work, they grappled with momentous issues--war, politics, race, and protest.

Preface

Part I: War

1. The Turning Point That Wasn't
Daniel Hallin
2. Justified Doubts
David Halberstam
3. Unfortunate Stupidity
Winant Sidle

Part II: Politics

4. Reassessing the Winners and Losers
Jules Witcover
5. Dumping Johnson
Curtis Gans
6. Good Copy
Dan T. Carter
7. Enemas for Elephants
Robert Shogan

Part III: Race

8. The Kerner Legacy
Pamela Newkirk
9. Goals for the Year 2000 and Beyond
Loren Ghiglione
10. Optimism, Pessimism and the Kerner Report
Randall Kennedy

Part IV: Protest

11. A Generational Divide at Columbia
Robert Friedman
12. A New Birtl3Ã