Just the Facts: How "Objectivity" Came to Define American Journalism (NYU Press, November 1998)

The paperback version of Just the Facts is in print. Contact  NYU Press at 212-998-2575 or buy directly through your local bookstore or Amazon.

"Mindich begins Just the Facts with the observation that while objectivity has become `the supreme deity' of American journalism, no one has ever explored what it really means or how it came to occupy this position. He goes on to do just that, with chapters on different key elements such as `Detachment,' `Nonpartisanship,' and `Balance.' Rather than wallowing in abstraction, however, each chapter traces the historical roots of these terms and their influence." --Publishers Weekly

"Mindich offers an engaging discussion of how each of these characteristics [of objectivity] emerged in nineteenth century journalism.... Mindich shows a conversance with current scholarship rare among journalism historians." --James Boylan, Columbia Journalism Review

"There is a growing unhappiness about the direction of news coverage. Readers and viewers want `objectivity' back. The first step toward doing that is to understand where `objective' journalism came from in the first place. Just the Facts is a good place to begin." --Jonathan Alter, The Washington Monthly

"Superb. . . . Mindich links history to contemporary practice by examining the current debate about objectivity through his 100-year-old lens." --Steve Weinberg, The Christian Science Monitor

"Slim, readable . . . could double as an introductory text." --Library Journal

"A rare combination of well-footnoted scholarship blended with a highly accessible and well-edited narrative style." --Choice