Provoking the Press

Kevin Lerner's spellbinding history of the last tumultuous moment in American journalism couldn't be more resonant for the one we're in now. This book uses the story of (MORE) magazine in the 1970s to urgently frame the most important questions swirling around the media today, from the duty of reporters to describe history as it really is to the debates around objectivity and personal identity. This isn't just a wildly entertaining read, but an undeniably important one, too. Kudos to Lerner for unearthing an rollicking moment of journalism history to help us make sense of where we are.

—Kyle Pope, Editor and Publisher, The Columbia Journalism Review

“This is a wonderful book—exceptionally well researched, filled with illustrative material supporting the author's various theses, thorough in the scholarly way but contriving to be lively and absorbing at the same time.

I came into the craft reading (MORE) in the early 1970s, so it is great fun to reach back. This is a book for any journalist of any generation interested in knowing the DNA of the craft, and for anyone else interested in understanding how our press got to where we find it (for better or worse) today. Big congratulations to author Kevin Lerner.”

—Amazon review by Patrick Lawrence

Q&A with author Kevin Lerner in Clio, the newsletter of the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass communication.

“‘Provoking the Press: MORE Magazine and the Crisis of Confidence in American Journalism. offers interesting slices of 1970s life, and shows that angst about our sickly news environment is habitual. Knowing this ought to help us put our worries in perspective.”

—“Book Review: Provoking the Press: Pointing out the biases and limitations of establishment journalism", by Lauren Weiner, in the Washington Times

"Anyone who cares about journalism, journalistic practices, ethics, and press (media) criticism, will want to read Kevin Lerner's meticulously researched Provoking the Press, the definitive biography of (MORE) Magazine, the late, much missed, short-lived journalism review. Not only will you learn much, but it's lots of fun, crammed with irresistible anecdotes."

—Victor Navasky, former editor and publisher of the Nation, chairman of the Columbia Journalism Review, author of Naming Names

“(MORE) guided journalists during the 1970s media crisis of confidence,” by Kevin Lerner, in the Columbia Journalism Review

“Provoking the Press is a welcome addition to the scholarly subgenre of press criticism/journalism history principally because its author provides a new way . . . to look at the more than sixty-year campaign against corporate mainstream news media’s Holy Grail of objectivity.”

—Arthur S. Hayes, Fordham University, author of Press Critics Are the Fifth Estate: Media Watchdogs in America

“Lerner’s work adds an important chapter to the history of press criticism as well as the broader history of 1970s journalism.”

—Christopher B. Daly, Boston University, author of Covering America: A Narrative History of a Nation’s Journalism

" Through engaging writing saturated in primary source evidence, Provoking the Press makes four central arguments. (MORE) served as a chronicle for the revolt against “objectivity,” showcased the importance of press criticism in shaping discourse on journalism practice, provided a voice for the liberal media in opposition to conservative institutions and critics such as Vice President Spiro Agnew, and developed from a newsprint review to a glossy magazine about the media. Lerner’s meticulous research exhibits revealing evidence of (MORE)’s central role in politics and culture.”

—From a review (paywall) in the journal American Periodicals, by David O. Dowling, University of Iowa

" Kevin M. Lerner offers a thoughtful assessment of (MORE) Magazine ’s cheeky critique of journalism in the 1970s, when “The Press” of the 1960s evolved into “The Media” of the 1980s. Provoking the Press  is a useful addition to the history of journalism that examines how the gadfly press review (1971–1978) shaped the profession during a key decade in journalism history.”

—From a review (paywall) in the journal Journalism History, by Linda J. Lumsden, University of Arizona

“The era also witnessed an explosion of press criticism and in-house ombudsmen, as editors realized that walking readers through journalists’ professional and ethical dilemmas made more sense than pretending those dilemmas didn’t exist. One of the period’s most influential new magazines was the journalism review (MORE), which, as Kevin M. Lerner recounts in his recent history Provoking the Press, grew out of the conviction of Times reporter J. Anthony Lukas and a self-styled “cabal” at the paper that its “emphasis on objectivity kept it from accurately reflecting the state of the world”—including with respect to groups like the Black Panthers.”

—”The New York Times Used to Be a Model of Diverse Opinion. What Happened?” by David Greenberg, in Politico

“What conservative critics get right—and wrong—about the media,” by Kevin Lerner, in The Washington Post’s Made by History section.

“Provoking the Press shines a light on a little-studied, shortlived publication that changed media criticism. And certainly, for any future study of media criticism, it is an important resource.”

—Book Review in American Journalism: A Journal of Media History, by Roy J. Harris, Jr.

“Provoking the Press author Kevin Lerner exhumes press-critical journal from the ’70s,” by Jeremiah Horrigan, in the Almanac Weekly/HV1.com

“Kevin M. Lerner speaks to students about distrust in journalism and mainstream media,” by Sarah Adewolu, The Montclarion