Table of Contents

Introduction: When does death become news?
Whispers in the whirlwind
Taking it personally
Frustration on the wire
Sex, death, and good old gray
A killer on the cover
Controlling what we know
The unphotogenic epidemic
Chronicler of the Castro
A plague in the villages, by Robin Nagle
The AIDS channel
Third world correspondent
The second wave
Conclusion: mortal lessons for the media, and America
Timeline of the plague: a medical, political, and media history of AIDS

About the Author

James Kinsella, formerly an editor at the San Jose Mercury News and editorial pages editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, was a fellow at Columbia University's Gannett Center for Media Studies in 1987-1988. He is a graduate of Haverford College. 

Reviews

Insightful... a detailed, damning account of media insensitivity, indifference, and ignorance... interesting and provocative.
*LA Times Book Review*

Aptly catalogs journalism's sins in... AIDS coverage.
*Time*

An often scorching account of the media's indifference to a minority community's suffering.
*Newsday*

A perceptive... analysis of the media's reporting on the AIDS crisis... impressive... important for its questioning of how well - or badly - the media fulfill their obligations.
*Kirkus Reviews*

In this thorough, often gripping study, Kinsella... shows how the media and medical experts fumbled the AIDS story.
*Publishers Weekly*

A telling critique of the fourth estate's commitment to its vaunted ideal of objectivity. Cleanly and clearly written sociology as fascinating as its gets.
*Booklist*

Whenever AIDS seemed to pose a threat to ``the general population'' (i.e., non-intravenous-drug-using heterosexuals), the U.S. news media gave the epidemic prominent attention, argues Kinsella. But for the most part, he finds, the media avoided or trivialized the AIDS story in its early years, and even today betrays homophobic bias and a head-in-the-sand attitude. In this thorough, often gripping study, Kinsella, a former Los Angeles Herald-Examiner editor, shows how the media and medical experts fumbled the AIDS story. Randy Shilts, the gay San Francisco reporter who wrote And the Band Played On , is portrayed as an ambitious news-hound who sometimes overdramatized or misreported information. Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw get low marks for their handling or noncoverage of AIDS news. Illustrated. (Mar.)

Insightful... a detailed, damning account of media insensitivity, indifference, and ignorance... interesting and provocative. * LA Times Book Review *
Aptly catalogs journalism's sins in... AIDS coverage. * Time *
An often scorching account of the media's indifference to a minority community's suffering. * Newsday *
A perceptive... analysis of the media's reporting on the AIDS crisis... impressive... important for its questioning of how well - or badly - the media fulfill their obligations. * Kirkus Reviews *
In this thorough, often gripping study, Kinsella... shows how the media and medical experts fumbled the AIDS story. * Publishers Weekly *
A telling critique of the fourth estate's commitment to its vaunted ideal of objectivity. Cleanly and clearly written sociology as fascinating as its gets. * Booklist *