Just the Facts: How Objectivity Came to Define American Jounalism

Mindich, David. Just the Facts: How Objectivity Came to Define American Journalism. New York: New York University Press, 1998. 208 pp. $24.95.

Just the Facts is an examination of objectivity throughout the history of journalism. Actually, it is more than that-the book attempts to define objectivity through historical illustration.

David Mindich selectively illustrates events as covered by newspapers to reach for an interpretative definition of objectivity. Although Mindich does not defend his selection or offer any formula for his selection of events, the list is intriguing, and virtually every summary...