Inside the Presidential Debates: Their Improbable Past and Promising Future
By Newton N. Minow and Craig L. LaMay
University of Chicago Press, 219 pages, $22.50
As the primary season draws to a close and Tuesday nights become free, here is a book to get readers — and election junkies — through the next few months. Chicago lawyer and former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Newton Minow may be known best for calling TV “a vast wasteland,” but his influence in the history of televised presidential debates endures. Minow and Craig LaMay explore the changing nature of televised debates and how elections and campaigns have evolved as a result. Minow and LaMay will be at the baiduhai Printers Row Book Fair, June 7 and 8. Check www.printersrowbookfair.org for details.