A fascinating look into four American media giants, and their once-unparalleled control over society and policy Pulitzer Prize–winning author David Halberstam turns his investigative eye to the rise of the American media in the ambitious and incisive The Powers That Be. First published in 1979, Halberstam's impressive volume focuses on the successes and failures of CBS Television, Time magazine, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.By examining landmark events such as Franklin D. Roosevelt's masterful use of the radio and the unprecedented coverage of the Watergate break-in, Halberstam demonstrates how the media has shifted from simply reporting the news to making it. Drawn from hundreds of in-depth interviews with insiders at each company, and hailed by the Seattle Times as a monumental X-ray study of power," The Powers That Be blends political ambition and the quest for truth in a page-turning read.
"[An] important and admirable book... The Powers That Be will remain stirring history."
The New York Times Book Review
"Halberstam deploys a stunning novelistic skill in showing how his scores of characters feel about one another.... Every page carries a graphic revelation of some piece of subtle delineation, flashes of insight struck off by the adjacencies of power."
