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Rod Tiffen

Rodney Tiffen is Emeritus Professor in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. His most recent book is Rupert Murdoch. A Reassessment (2014). He is co-author, with Ross Gittins, of How Australia Compares.

Rod Tiffen reviews 'Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the conservative media establishment' by Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Joseph N. Cappella and 'Why Democracies Need an Unlovable Press' by Michael Schudson

February 2009, no. 308 01 February 2009
One of the first books I read about news and politics was a lively British volume edited by Richard Boston, called The Press We Deserve (1970). In it, he quoted a recent speech by the Duke of Edinburgh reciting all the standard clichés about the role a free press played in sustaining democracy. On the contrary, Boston argued, a newspaper such as the News of the World is about as helpful to democr ... (read more)