All The Truth is Out; The Week Politics Went Tabloid
New York: Vintage Books, 2015. First Vintage Books Edition [stated]. First printing stated. Trade Paperback. xv, [1], 263, [3] pages. Illustrations. A Note on Sourcing. Index. Inscribed by the author on the title page. Inscription reads For Jason--Thanks for serving in government--hope this resonates with you! Matt Bai. Preface. Chapters cover Troublesome Gulch; Tilting Toward Culture Death; Out There; Follow Me Around; "I Do Not Think That's a Fair Question"; All the Truth Is Out; Exile; and A Lesser Land. Matt Bai is an American journalist, author and screenwriter. Matt Bai is the national political columnist for Yahoo News. For more than a decade he was a political correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, where he covered three presidential campaigns. He is the author of The Argument: Inside the Battle to Remake to Remake Democratic Politics, named a notable book by the New York Times. His cover stories in the magazine include the 2008 cover essay "Is Obama the End of Black Politics?” and a 2004 profile of John Kerry titled "Kerry’s Undeclared War". In May 1987, Colorado Senator Gary Hart--a dashing, reform-minded Democrat--seemed a lock for the party's presidential nomination and led George H. W. Bush by double digits in the polls. Then, in one tumultuous week, rumors of marital infidelity and a newspapers stateout of Hart's home resulted in a media frenzy the likes of which had never been seen before. All the Truth Is Out is a tour-de-force portrait of the American way of politics at the highest level, one that changes our understanding of how we elect our residents and how the bedrock of American values has shifted under our feet. Derived from a Kirkus review: A new look at a scandal that changed American politics. In 2002, former New York Times Magazine chief political correspondent Bai wrote an article about Gary Hart’s 1987 presidential bid, a campaign that ended with the media’s splashy coverage of Hart’s apparent adultery. The author arrived “at the same psychoanalytical conclusion on which a lot of Hart’s contemporaries had settled back then—that Hart had to have harbored some self-destructive impulse to begin with,” risking his reputation by getting involved with “some model.” Now, more than a decade later, Bai takes a far different view of the episode: “It was the story that changed all the rules” for journalists covering politicians; “the moment when the worlds of public service and tabloid entertainment…finally collided.” The author argues that the Watergate scandal “left the entire country feeling duped and betrayed”; political reporters wondered how Nixon, “a man whose corruption and pettiness were so self-evident,” could have won two presidential elections. Suspicion came to focus on candidate Hart because of his widely known womanizing and his aloof and detached manner. For this book, Bai interviewed Hart, as well as reporters and editors involved in publicizing the alleged affair. The Washington Post reporter who aggressively pursued the story told Bai that he had felt “relieved, then triumphant” when Hart withdrew from the presidential race. The way he saw it, writes the author, “he and his colleagues had managed to protect the nation from another rogue and liar.” As Bai sees it, however, the nation lost “one of the great political minds of his time.” Hart’s attempt at another run failed, and until recently, he was marginalized from politics. Hart once said that obsessive scrutiny of sex as an indicator of character would give America the politicians it deserved. In this probing narrative, Bai comes to another dismal conclusion: It would give America the news coverage it deserved—entertainment-driven, dominated by shallow pundits, and bereft of intellect and ideas. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Elections, Gary Hart, Campaigns, Infidelity, Monkey Business, Womanizer, Presidential Candidate, Sex Scandal, Adultery, Billy Broadhurst, Journalism, Donna Rice, Billy Shore, Paul Taylor, Washington Post
ISBN: 9780307474681
[Book #83234]
Price: $75.00