Rating: 
Summary: What's happened to truth, freedom & fair play in our country
Review: As usual, Mr. Bledsoe has done a masterful job in this book.
I could not put it down after I began reading.With so many needful things that need to be done in this country today, why would anyone with one grain of sense deliberately indulge in such deceitful lying behavior as this reporter did? No war has a simple reason for it's beginning. Neither did the Civil War. It happened, it's history, and we have to live with it, regardless of our opinion. We have no right to bash people over their opinions on this war, anymore than we would any other war. What is so frightening about this situation is that the lies traveled like wildfire, completely assassinating the truth. The young reporter who started this misinformation maelstrom should get a job with the National Inquirer. He would probably go far. And the editor who allowed him to do this, then cover up the truth in such a disgraceful manner, probably learned his craft under Richard Nixon.
Thank you.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must for Journalism Students and Media Watchers
Review: Bledsoe does an incredible job detailing the history and background of this media fiasco, including the toll it took on one seemingly honorable man. This is the true story of Jack Purdue, an amatuer civil war historian tapped to teach a community outreach course at a North Carolina community college, and his encounter with an ambitious young newspaper reporter. Bledsoe gives us a great feel for Jack's personal character and how that character was called into question by the reporter, who apparently fabricated much of his news story to further his career. This book should be required reading for every journalism student, not just for the specific lessons on how not to write a story, but to give that student a feel for the power he or she wields because of the public's trust in mainstream media. In the end this reporter's seeming misdeeds may very well have cost Jack Purdue his life. The only reason this book didnt get five stars is that at times it was a bit of chore to get through, and did get bogged down in details. This is not Bledsoe's fault though, as the nature of the subject matter doesn't really lend itself to a page turner of a suspenseful book and some people may really enjoy knowing every detail about this event. One last issue is that there were apparently videotapes of the class that were never released by Purdue, which could have conclusively exonerated him and his class. The fact those tapes were not released to the public (even when Purdue's character was being trashed in the media for something he apparently did not say), nor has Bledsoe seemed to have reviewed them, leaves the reader wondering whether he is getting the full story even from Bledsoe.
Rating:
Summary: Anatomy of a reporter's hubris
Review: Bledsoe's analysis of a journalist with an all-too-typical axe to grind is a case study consistent with Bernard Goldberg's "Bias". A North Carolina history buff, well-versed in local Civil War details, stands accused of offering a racist course at a community college. Along the way, Bledsoe surfaces these problems, most of them well-known to the public yet blind spots to mainstream journalists: 1. Assignment of stories is not based on an objective pursuit of the news. Rather, they reveal the well-documented liberal biases and desire to sensationalize from even the hometown or 'local' paper.
2. Many journalists want to write something that gets them attention from their peers. There is more ego and entertainment than education or integrity in such people.
3. "Quotes" in articles are not always the real words of the person to whom they are attributed. And paraphrases are even worse.
4. Once a story is printed, it takes on a life of its own, often picked up uncritically by other media outlets. This multiplies the injury.
5. The truth is no defense against a reckless, opinionated journalist. After the death of the instructor, with a case of libel in the works, there was little reason to show the videotapes of the class to the public. Perhaps that would have helped. But it is not an obligation of the person who organized the class. Apply this same lens to works like Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and dimed" and it becomes apparent why surveys show that Americans distrust journalists and why good people avoid speaking to them. In fact, there comes a time when the word "journalist" takes on a life of its own, far away from the profession. Sure, there are many hardworking, honest, journalists with integrity but as Harold MacMillan once said, the purpose of an education is to help you detect when a man is "speaking rot". Bledsoe found the rot.
Rating:
Summary: Al Guyant
Review: Jerry Bledsoe shows what happens when journalists misuse their vast power, sometimes by hitting too hard and then other times failing to act at all - - including failing to admit horrible mistakes and not doing much to offset the damage. Every reporter in the world should read this book and have it be a guide to prudent journalism.
Rating:
Summary: Should Be Required Reading in Journalism School
Review: Jerry Bledsoe's "Death by Journalism?" is a good book, but more importantly it is a book that does a great good. It sets the record straight about Jack Perdue, a good man who was unjustly vilified by an arrogant, wrongheaded newspaper. It's a book that warns of the abuse of power by the media, and should be read in journalism schools everywhere. An emeritus associate professor of journalism myself, I would certainly place it on my syllabus if I were still teaching. I give it an A-plus, and hope it is widely read by students, journalists, and the general public. Ernie Wyatt
Rating:
Summary: Bledsoe's book does a great good
Review: Jerry Bledsoe's "Death by Journalism?" is a good book, but more importantly it is a book that does a great good. It sets the record straight about Jack Perdue, a good man who was unjustly vilified by an arrogant, wrongheaded newspaper. It's a book that warns of the abuse of power by the media, and should be read in journalism schools everywhere. An emeritus associate professor of journalism myself, I would certainly place it on my syllabus if I were still teaching. I give it an A-plus, and hope it is widely read by students, journalists, and the general public. Ernie Wyatt
Rating:
Summary: THE DARK SIDE OF JOURNALISM EXPOSED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: My respect for journalism is great as it often gets the truth before us. However, it often does not! As an elected official and one who does "business" with the press on a weekly basis I can assure you that if a reporter has an opinion on an issue and if the reporter's paper is of like mind then many issues do not stand a chance for a fair review. With this in mind I am very excited about Jerry's recent book "DEATH BY JOURNALISM" and what I hope will be a wake up call for journalism and a "free" press!
Rating:
Summary: Should be required reading for every journalism student
Review: Rhonda Winters was the director of a satellite campus for a North Carolina community college who offered an adult community-outreach course on the Civil War, a course of studies organized by regional historian and preservationist Jack Perdue. The course was almost finished (and the students were both learning the material and enjoying experience) when a reporter wrote an article falsely claiming that Winters was teaching the slaves in the South were happy with their condition. Originally published in a local paper, the defamatory article was picked up by the Associated Press and reprinted worldwide, bring Winters a barrage of vituperative news coverage defaming both her and the college, and resulted in an investigation by the U.S. Commission on Civile Rights, as well as the cancellation of the course. Even when students, instructors, and college officials clearly proclaimed the article to be false, the newspaper's editors backed the reporter. In the end, the newspaper's deceptive view prevailed, despite a wealth of evidence laid out in the pages of Death By Journalism? Here is a focused spotlight on one of journalism's most irresponsible episodes, a scenario that did real harm to real people and discredited the profession to all who knew where the truth really lay. Put very simply, Death By Journalism? should be required reading for every journalism student in every college and university in this country.
Rating:
Summary: Should Be Required Reading in Journalism School
Review: This is an excellent book by Bledsoe. The research and feel for the subject by Bledsoe make this book one that should be required reading for all journalism students. The abuse of the First Admendment by the Greensboro News & Record in reporting this story is appalling and the editors should take a hard look at themselves. This book will create a strong sense of outrage by readers when you see how damaging shoddy journalism can be. Bledsoe is to be commended for giving us his side of the story.
Rating:
Summary: Deserving of more attention than Goldberg's Bias
Review: This is the outrageous story of a newspaper reporter that turned a continuing education class at a small community college into a controversial issue. Mr. Bledsoe, once a reporter on the same paper, has done a great job exposing the distortions and outright lies used by the paper in order get a class taught in the "politically incorrect" way closed down, while at the same time vilifying the school and the instructors. The primary instructor died of a heart attack during the "controversy." It is a book which will raise your blood pressure. Unlike the self congratulatory book by Mr. Goldberg, Mr. Bledsoe leaves himself out of the book almost completely. Whereas Goldberg only told us things we already know, Mr. Bledsoe details a story which few of us know and shows how the media deliberately destorts the "news." A must read for anyone interested in the media.
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