Richard Nixon hammed it up on Laugh-In, Bill Clinton hung out on MTV, and talk shows are now regular stops on the campaign trail. Television doesn't just affect politics - it is politics. In The Sound Bite Society, Jeffrey Scheuer argues that the rise of television is responsible for the decline of the American left. Political argument was simplified to quick, telegraphic sound bites as it shifted to television, and the more simplistic it became, the more the rules of engagement favoured the right wing. Television's visual and rhetoric conventions are biased towards simplicity, Scheuer...

Freedom of the press is the cornerstone of democracy. But, as countless recent examples of lapsed standards in the press since the Jayson Blair affair have shown, the First Amendment is no guarantee that American journalism will be first-rate.

A press in crisis is a democracy endangered, argues Jeffrey Scheuer--cultural critic and author of The Sound Bite Society. In his new book, The Big Picture, Scheuer argues that in order for a democracy to thrive it is not enough for its press simply to be free--the press must be exceptional. This book explores journalistic...