W. Joseph Campbell recently appeared on C-SPAN to discuss his book, Getting it Wrong, in which he reveals how ten misreported news stories took hold and became media-driven myths — widely believed, but inaccurate stories by or about the news media. Campbell describes these tempting but insubstantial news tidbits as “the junk food of journalism”.
In the C-SPAN interview, he debunks ten of the greatest media-driven myths of all time, from William Randolph Hearst’s supposed vow to “furnish the war” with Spain, the “Cronkite moment”, and the Watergate hero-journalist myth, to the crack-baby scare, the story of Jessica Lynch, and news coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
Watch W. Joseph Campbell on C-SPAN:
