Mark R. Levin comes to a groundbreaking and enlightening book that shows how the great tradition of the American free press has degenerated into a standardless profession that has squandered the faith and trust of the American public, not through actions of government officials, but through its own abandonment of reportorial integrity and objective journalism.

Unfreedom of the Press is not just another book about the press. Levin shows how those entrusted with news reporting today are destroying freedom of the press from within: “not government oppression or suppression,” he writes, but self-censorship, group-think, bias by omission, and passing off opinion, propaganda, pseudo-events, and outright lies as news.

With the depth of historical background for which his books are renowned, Levin takes the reader on a journey through the early American patriot press, which proudly promoted the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, followed by the early decades of the Republic during which newspapers around the young country were open and transparent about their fierce allegiance to one political party or the other.

It was only at the start of the Progressive Era and the twentieth century that the supposed “objectivity of the press” first surfaced, leaving us where we are today: with a partisan party-press overwhelmingly aligned with a political ideology but hypocritically engaged in a massive untruth as to its real nature.

Not a particularly easy read, but one full of facts, figures, quotes and, most importantly, perspective. Even suffering for "news cycle" overload, I found "Unfreedom of the Press" filled with historical and political background that is routinely skirted by the 24/7 news outlets. ( )

Mark R Levin's hard hitting book on the collapse of the firewall between the press & government goes between the eyes. It is a careful expose of the press' inexplicable unity with one political party & against another political party. This unity, the author believes, endangers the press' original role expressed by the founding fathers to keep the public informed & to keep watch on abuse & corruption from government & its officials. By the use of propaganda, deliberate & intentional misinformation & selective journalism, Mr. Levin warns that the press' siding with one side only serves to divide the public from the real danger of the continuing abuse & corruption within the government. Thus the credibility of the press is unavoidably destroyed. The question remains, How & can the press restore confidence? The current situation existing in which journalism has become repeating talking points rather than attempting to get at the root of what is going on leaves the public skeptical of what is being portrayed on Cable, Internet, & Newspapers. One hint to the problem is that most of the press, according to the author is owned by less than 7 corporations. Another is that many so called journalists are actually partisan hacks with no training in journalism. The reviews on the book by the very press he excoriates, end up proving his point failing to read the actual book while writing reviews on the very book they are too lazy to bother reading in the first place. ( )

Case 7 shelf 4