A public betrayed

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Mordechai Kedar

"The Syrian regime, ruled by the Ba'th socialist party and headed by presidents from the 'Alawi minority, faces problems of legitimacy vis-a-vis its people, which it tackles through powerful security organizations and the state media." "Text, photographs and cartoons are marshalled in support of promoting the consensus accepting the legitimacy of the state. Analyzing the political domestic message of the Syrian press - as well as the quotation of newspaper sources in the original Arabic, and their English translation - shows up the problems faced by the shapers of public opinion in Syria, revealing what they see as the weakness of their state, society, regime and president. The book also looks at the new "message period" of Bashar, Hafiz al-Asad's son and successor."--Jacket.

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Norman Solomon, Reese Erlich

The acclaimed political analyst offers an examination of the arguments for and against war with Iraq, and exposes the alliance between the news media and the Bush administration.

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Susan L. Brinson

The Red Scare at the FCC started when James Lawrence Fly led the agency in many important decisions that were inspired by the New Deal. These decisions outraged both the broadcasting industry and politically conservative legislators, causing them to accuse the FCC of Communist sympathies. This book analyzes the political transition taken by the FCC that turned it into an agency that fully participated in the Red Scare of the 1950s. This book analyzes many significant FCC cases and policies that have never been considered within the context of New Deal policymaking or its impact and is the first to look into the impact of the Red Scare on an executive agency. [Publisher web site].

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Dan Steinbock

The book opens with a discussion of the American economy and its macro-effects on changes and developments in media and entertainment generally. Then in Part I, Steinbock looks at broadcasting and cable, tracing the former's decline and the latter's rise, and then at the "multiplication" of conglomerates: the studios, talent agencies, home video and syndication companies, theme parks, and even the emerging producers of interactive multimedia and virtual reality. A full section is devoted to all of the major players, their corporate struggles with each other, including the Time Warner and Paramount M & A wars. In Part II, Steinbock discusses the electronic superhighway and other government-initiated policies that will have a significant impact on strategic industry alliances. The book concludes with an assessment of how all of the technological, economic, and political influences emerging today will radically reshape the media/entertainment complex, not only in the United States but throughout the world.