The following is the copy from the press release provided by Media Justice League. If you can, please come support this luncheon.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ is a two-time winner of the George Polk Award for commentary, is a former president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. He is a columnist for New York’s Daily News, and co-host of the nationally syndicated TV and radio news show Democracy Now! His previous books include Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, and Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the WorldTrade Center Collapse.
JOSEPH TORRES is the senior advisor for government and external affairs for Free Press, the national media reform organization. Before joining Free Press, he worked as deputy director at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and was a journalist for several years.
The Book: News for All the People offers a sweeping account of the class and racial conflicts in American news media, from the first colonial newspaper to the age of the Internet. Based on years of archival research and up-to-the-minute reporting by veteran journalists and media reform advocates Juan González and Joseph Torres, News for All the Peoplereveals how racial segregation in the media distorted the news and highlights numerous examples of how publishers and broadcasters actually fomented racial violence through their coverage.
Fast-paced, story-driven and replete with portraits of individual journalists and media executives, the book weaves back and forth between the corporate battles and government policies that built our segregated media system—as when Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover gave a radio license to the KKK—and those who rebelled against that system, such asPittsburgh Courier publisher Robert L. Vann, who led a national campaign to get the black-face comedy Amos ’n’ Andy off the air.
This event is being cosponsored by the San Antonio Current, Democracy Now!, Free Press, and San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists (SAAHJ). Reservations are encouraged. For more information contact DeAnne Cuellar, at 210-896-9141 or by emailing directly to deannec@texasmep.org.
