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When the News Broke: Chicago 1968 and the Polarizing of America

Heather Hendershot

Culture, humanities & social science

When the News Broke: Chicago 1968 and the Polarizing of America

By Heather Hendershot, professor of film and media in MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing

University of Chicago Press · 2022

Hendershot revisits TV coverage of the 1968 Democratic convention - the street violence and the tumultuous convention itself, where Black citizens challenged southern delegations that had excluded them, anti-Vietnam delegates sought to change the party's war policy, and journalists and delegates were bullied by Daley's security forces and party leaders. Hendershot reveals the convention as a pivotal moment in American political history when a mistaken notion of "liberal media bias" became mainstreamed and nationalized.

From Summer 2022 recommended reading from MIT (MIT News). Cover image via Google Books.