A short overview of the history of media in America showing that sensationalism has always been with us in one form or another.

Time defined it as "a cheesecake of innuendo, detraction, and plain smut." Here is the never-before-told tale of Confidential magazine, America's first tabloid, which forever changed our notion of privacy, our image of ourselves, and the practice of journalism in America. First published in 1952, its pages were filled with racy stories, sex scandals, and political exposés. In Confidential's pages, our most sacrosanct movie stars and heroes were exposed...

Questions whether the mass media, especially television, presents an accurate representation of the news or whether it is more concerned with the sensational story.

From the publisher. This offers a detailed and long-awaited reassessment of one of the most maligned periods in American journalism -- the era of the yellow press. The study challenges and dismantles several prominent myths about the genre, finding that the yellow press did not foment -- could not have fomented -- the Spanish-American War in 1898, contrary to the arguments of many media historians. The study presents extensive evidence showing that...

Sam is a misguided museum guard who loses his job, then tries to get it back at gunpoint. Max is a local TV reporter taken hostage with schoolchildren when Sam locks down the museum. It's a desperate move for Sam, a career move for Max. He's on the inside of a live exclusive. Now he must give Sam's story a heroic spin, keep a cynical network anchor at bay and above all, keep America watching. And as Max pulls the strings, the stakes grow higher, darker,...