Hold the press

Dubbed long ago the fourth branch of government, the American press remains to most of the general public an inscrutable enterprise whose influence and behavior are alternately welcomed and maligned. Neither civics courses in schools nor journalists themselves advance an adequate understanding of the complex workings of the press, and yet the proper functioning of a self-ruled society depends upon a media-literate populace - to act as the ultimate watchdog. Hold the Press serves that exalted, educative end in an emphatically entertaining way. With wit and authority, John Hamilton and George…