{"id":1997466,"date":"2023-08-11T05:18:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T09:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/six-books-every-young-journalist-should-read\/"},"modified":"2023-08-11T05:22:12","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T09:22:12","slug":"six-books-every-young-journalist-should-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/six-books-every-young-journalist-should-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Essential books for aspiring journalists."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">10<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsix-books-every-young-journalist-should-read%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1997466&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<p><h2>Column: The right way to learn a craft\u2014and \u200dthe landscape of\u200d Washington<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<figure>\n  <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Earlier this\u200c week, a student of mine \u2064in the <a href=\"https:\/\/tikvahfund.org\/hs\/tsp2023\/home\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tikvah Scholars \u200dProgram<\/a> asked if \u200cI had any advice for aspiring journalists. The first thing I told her was \u2062to read. Not\u200d only\u200d does reading furnish the\u200d background for news gathering, reporting, and opinion. It also makes \u2062you a better writer. Indeed, in my experience as an editor, the best prose\u2063 stylists are invariably well read.<\/p>\n<p>In\u2062 earlier columns, I&#8217;ve \u2063recommended books and\u200d resources for\u2062 wannabe <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/columns\/7-books-every-conservative-read\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wonks<\/a> and\u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2022\/07\/an-intellectual-starter-kit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pundits<\/a>. The following paragraphs are \u200cfor \u2062young people who want to enter the world \u2062of political journalism in Washington, D.C. \u200cAdults interested\u200d in U.S. history and \u2064literature may find them worthwhile too.<\/p>\n<p>I visit two websites every morning: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aldaily.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Arts &#038; Letters\u200d Daily<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RealClearPolitics<\/a>.\u2062 They are a great way to catch up on pressing \u200bissues \u2064in the realms \u2063of culture\u200d and\u2062 policy. Still, there&#8217;s no substitute for a great book. \u200cHere\u200b are six that every youthful D.C. journalist should read.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Out of \u200dStep<\/em> by Sidney Hook<\/strong>.\u2063 The philosopher and polemicist\u2063 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1989\/07\/14\/obituaries\/sidney-hook-political-philosopher-is-dead-at-86.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sidney Hook<\/a> (1902-1989) was\u200d a student of Pragmatist philosopher John \u200dDewey and an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/six-books-every-young-journalist-should-read\/\" title=\"Essential books for aspiring journalists.\">early <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-requiring-id-to-vote-is-not-like-jim-crow\/\" title=\"No, Requiring ID To Vote Is Not Like Jim Crow\">20th-century<\/a> socialist<\/a>\u200c who \u200dinfluenced two generations of anti-Communists. <em>Out of\u2062 Step\u200b <\/em>is the story of his intellectual and\u200d political development, but it also serves as an introduction to the history of the Cold \u200bWar between America and the Soviet Union. Hook \u2062interacted with\u200b everyone \u2063from Bertrand Russell \u200bto Albert Einstein\u2063 to Ronald Reagan, and learning about his arguments \u200cand exchanges with\u200c these eminences \u200cis a treat. He also has some withering observations about Herbert Marcuse,\u2062 the guru\u2064 of the cultural New Left. I\u200d can\u2063 only\u2062 imagine what he&#8217;d have \u200bto say about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.).<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Making It<\/em> by Norman Podhoretz<\/strong>.\u200d Podhoretz&#8217;s memoir\u200c is a\u2063 propulsive tale of smarts and ambition. The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Norman_Podhoretz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">longtime editor of <em>Commentary <\/em>magazine<\/a> recounts his youth as the child of immigrants in Brooklyn, his \u200beducation under literature\u2064 professors Lionel Trilling at Columbia and \u2064F.R. Leavis at Cambridge, his military service, and his membership in\u2063 the community of New\u200b York intellectuals who \u2062wrote for liberal\u2064 anti-Communist publications such as <em>Partisan Review<\/em>,\u200b <em>Encounter<\/em>, the<em> New \u2064Leader<\/em>, and <em>Commentary<\/em>. Podhoretz describes his involvement with <em>Commentary<\/em>,\u2064 and how he came to edit the magazine\u200b beginning in \u20621960. (He stepped down as editor in 1995.) Though <em>Making It \u2064 <\/em>doesn&#8217;t delve into Podhoretz&#8217;s break with the left\u2014that&#8217;s \u2064covered in his 1979\u2063 book <em>Breaking Ranks<\/em>\u2014the reader does get a sense \u200cof\u2062 the intellectual\u2064 independence, courage, and brilliance that he \u2063continues\u2063 to\u200d exhibit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/sections\/arts-letters\/articles\/norman-podhoretz-making-it-89\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">at<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/claremontreviewofbooks.com\/digital\/an-interview-with-norman-podhoretz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">age<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/claremontreviewofbooks.com\/present-at-the-creation-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">93<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The Prince of Darkness<\/em> by Robert D. Novak<\/strong> and <strong><em>Right from the Beginning<\/em> by Patrick J. Buchanan<\/strong>. These two conservative authors,\u200d who disagreed vehemently with Norman Podhoretz on foreign policy and support for the state of Israel, were D.C. fixtures during the second half of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/prager-trip-to-vietnam-reconfirmed-my-hatred-of-communism\/\" title=\"PRAGER: Trip To Vietnam Reconfirmed My Hatred Of Communism\">20th century<\/a>.\u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Robert_Novak\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Novak<\/a> (1931-2009)\u200d was a legendary journalist who specialized \u200cin insider political reporting. He also pioneered television punditry.\u200c He appeared\u2063 on <em>Meet the Press <\/em>more than any other reporter, became famous on <em>The <\/em><em>McLaughlin Group<\/em>, and was a longtime host of\u200b CNN&#8217;s <em>Crossfire <\/em>and <em>Capital Gang<\/em>. His autobiography is filled \u2062with details from \u2063a half-century of covering\u2063 politics, and through close reading you \u2063learn how \u2063Novak operated\u200c at the highest levels of government and media. Take notes.<\/p>\n<p>Buchanan, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/pat-buchanan-retires-gop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">retired from writing<\/a> \u2064earlier this year \u2063at age\u200c 84, went from composing punchy \u200ceditorials for the \u2063 <em>St. Louis Globe-Democrat<\/em> to advising Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. His stints in campaigns and \u2064government were interspersed with column\u2063 writing and \u2063radio and television punditry. This first memoir covers his youth \u200bin \u200bthe Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., his time at the Columbia School of Journalism, and his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lincoln-project-founder-used-donor-cash-to-shore-up-shoddy-finances\/\" title=\"Lincoln Project Founder Used Donor Cash to Shore Up Shoddy Finances\">early years<\/a> as a\u2064 writer. It culminates in his joining Nixon&#8217;s political operation in 1965. (Buchanan discusses what happened next in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/240963\/the-greatest-comeback-by-patrick-j-buchanan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Greatest Comeback<\/em><\/a>  and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/249080\/nixons-white-house-wars-by-patrick-j-buchanan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Nixon&#8217;s\u200c White\u200c House Wars<\/em><\/a>.) Above all, <em>Right\u2062 from the Beginning <\/em>is a personal \u200cnarrative that \u2063longingly evokes a distant past. The\u200b book only hints \u200dat\u200c the conspiratorial direction Buchanan would take in his three campaigns for president, and his \u2064formulation\u2064 of the &#8220;America First&#8221;\u2064 ideology that would come to\u2064 dominate the \u200cGOP. \u00a0It also has one of the best first lines ever: &#8220;&#8216;Let the bloodbath begin!'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The Controversialist<\/em> by Martin Peretz<\/strong>. Born \u200din 1938 in the Bronx, Peretz went to Brandeis University and Harvard, where he remained as a \u200dlecturer for\u200b several decades.\u200d An \u2064anti-Communist, Zionist liberal Democrat, \u2063Peretz&#8217;s involvement in\u200c politics grew\u200d when he married heiress Anne Devereux Labouisse. In 1974 he\u2064 bought <em>The\u2062 New Republic<\/em>, the venerable journal of Progressive liberalism, and slowly \u2062began to transform it from a sleepy and\u2062 predictable magazine into a crackling destination read. Peretz has an incredible eye for \u2062talent, bringing on editors Michael Kinsley, Hendrik Hertzberg, Leon\u2063 Wieseltier, and \u2062Andrew Sullivan, and writers such as Charles\u200b Krauthammer, Mickey \u200bKaus, and Fred Barnes. In the 1980s, Peretz&#8217;s <em>New Republic<\/em> was \u2064known\u200d as\u2062 the &#8220;inflight magazine of Air Force One&#8221;\u2014an oddity,\u2062 considering \u2064that the \u2062president at the time was a conservative Republican. Peretz&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/michael-knowles-doubles-down-on-trans-cpac-comments-that-set-internet-ablaze\/\" title=\"Michael Knowles Doubles Down On Trans CPAC Comments That Set Internet Ablaze\">editors understood<\/a>\u2064 the\u2063 best periodicals are unpredictable, slick, intelligent, and \u200cstylish, no matter who occupies the Oval Office.\u200d This memoir is a gripping read \u2063filled with \u200dinsight. It restores to\u2064 life a\u200b Washington that is gone.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Up in the Old Hotel<\/em> by Joseph Mitchell<\/strong>. This collection of\u200d writing\u2064 by the 20th-century <em>New Yorker \u2064 <\/em>journalist may seem out of place \u2063on this list. It is neither a memoir nor political. Yet anyone who wants \u2062to write needs to find this book. \u2062Mitchell (1908-1996) \u200cwas a newspaper writer who joined\u200d the<em> New Yorker <\/em>in its heyday under founding editor Harold Ross. He specialized in\u2064 long character profiles \u200bthat start on the surface and\u200b delve\u2064 deep into history, psychology, and the nature of cities. His sentences are hypnotic. They are simple, direct, and \u2062clear, and\u2064 they somehow draw you into\u2062 a subject\u2062 until you can think of nothing else.\u2063 You may not want to \u200bemulate Mitchell completely\u2014his characters often speak \u200bin monologues that last for pages, and he suffered from the worst cases of writer&#8217;s block in history. But you will learn\u200c something \u200cimperishable from him about language and empathy.<\/p>\n<p>So what are you waiting for? \u2064Start reading. And perhaps, as a\u2064 first \u200dassignment, you will let this writer know \u200dwhat you\u200d think.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Tikvah Scholars Program, a student asked for advice on becoming a journalist. I emphasized the importance of reading, as it provides the foundation for news gathering, reporting, and forming opinions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"featured_media":1997467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1997466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1997466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1997467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1997466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1997466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1997466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}