atheists, agnostics, long-haired, weirdos, short-haired widows, vandal,

the government, love the government, the government, love the government, the government,

the government, how to the politics, guys, a place for a bipartisan, rational, and civil debate on

American politics and policy. I'm Michael Baranowski, a political scientist at Northern Kentucky

University.

My guest today is media expert Matthew Pressman, an assistant professor of journalism at

Seton Hall University. Prior to earning his doctorate in history, he worked for eight years at

Vanity Fair, where his articles about the news media won the 2010 Mirror Award for Best Commentary,

digital media. He's the author of On Press, The Liberal Values That Shaped the News, media won the 2010 Mirror Award for Best Commentary, Digital Media.

He's the author of On Press, the liberal values that shape the news, which we'll be talking

about today.

Matthew Pressman, welcome to the show.

Thanks so much for having me.

You know, it was interesting how you chose to examine the media and the changes in the

media over the last, well, really kind of half

century or so, you focused on two specific papers, the New York Times and the Los Angeles

Times. And so I was curious, why did you decide on that approach and specifically those two

papers?

Well, I wanted to try to examine how the values that shape the contemporary news media emerged in the 1960s and 70s.

So I wanted to look at news outlets that really influenced the whole industry.

So I wanted to look at big, prominent newspapers because I'm trying to examine the values of the whole industry. So I wanted to look at big prominent newspapers because I'm trying

to examine the values of the dominant mainstream press mainly. So the New York Times certainly

...