About the Author

JOHN HESS is a veteran newspaperman and the author of Vanishing France, The Case for De Gaulle, The Grand Acquisitors, and, with his wife Karen, Taste of America. After leaving the Times Hess worked in television and radio journalism, wrote a nationally syndicated column, and freelanced for The Nation and Grand Street. Today he continues his role as media watchdog with a daily spot on WBAI's Pacifica, New York public radio. He is the holder of the Ordre National de Mérite and is the winner of the Meyer Berger Award of the Columbia School of Journalism.

Reviews

“[Hess's] remembrances should be required reading for journalism students, as he covers such topics as the importance of presenting a balanced view, how qualified a reporter must be in order to write about a subject, protecting sources, using press credentials and more. 'News is, after all, what the public does not know,' he writes. This memoir, while imparting information, is at once authoritative and engaging, and deserves a place alongside books by Gelb and other Times luminaries.” –Publishers Weekly


“John Hess's memoirs provide a rare, lively, highly informative picture of the internal workings of the world's most eminent and important newspaper, as it fills the space between advertisements that 'is charmingly known in the trade as the news hole,' so I learned. His rich and varied experience over many years also brings to life a good part of modern history, from a perspective that is hard to match.” –Noam Chomsky


“I've always admired John Hess for his bone-deep honesty as a journalist. Somehow, I learned more of backstreets from him than I did of boulevards. Even when it came to covering dining, he could detect the hype from the true flavor.” –Studs Terkel

“For most of his adult life John hess was an imperfect fear, even a monkey wrench, in the mighty crowd-control engine known as The New York Times.” –Kurt Vonnegut