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When the News Broke: Chicago 1968 and the Polarizing of America
A riveting, blow-by-blow account of how the network broadcasts of the 1968 Democratic convention shattered faith in American media.
“The whole world is watching!” cried protestors at the 1968 Democratic convention as Chicago police beat them in the streets. When some of that violence was then aired on network television, another kind of hell broke loose. Some viewers were stunned and outraged; others thought the protestors deserved what they got. No one—least of all Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley—was happy with how the networks handled it.
In When the News Broke, Heather Hendershot revisits TV coverage of those four chaotic days in 1968—not only the violence in the streets but also the tumultuous convention itself, where Black citizens and others forcefully challenged southern delegations that had excluded them, anti-Vietnam delegates sought to change the party’s policy on the war, and journalists and delegates alike were bullied by both Daley’s security forces and party leaders. Ultimately, Hendershot reveals the convention as a pivotal moment in American political history, when a distorted notion of “liberal media bias” became mainstreamed and nationalized.
At the same time, she celebrates the values of the network news professionals who strived for fairness and accuracy. Despite their efforts, however, Chicago proved to be a turning point in the public’s trust in national news sources. Since those critical days, the political Right in the United States has amplified distrust of TV news, to the point where even the truest and most clearly documented stories can be deemed “fake.” As Hendershot demonstrates, it doesn’t matter whether the “whole world is watching” if people don’t believe what they see.
“The whole world is watching!” cried protestors at the 1968 Democratic convention as Chicago police beat them in the streets. When some of that violence was then aired on network television, another kind of hell broke loose. Some viewers were stunned and outraged; others thought the protestors deserved what they got. No one—least of all Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley—was happy with how the networks handled it.
In When the News Broke, Heather Hendershot revisits TV coverage of those four chaotic days in 1968—not only the violence in the streets but also the tumultuous convention itself, where Black citizens and others forcefully challenged southern delegations that had excluded them, anti-Vietnam delegates sought to change the party’s policy on the war, and journalists and delegates alike were bullied by both Daley’s security forces and party leaders. Ultimately, Hendershot reveals the convention as a pivotal moment in American political history, when a distorted notion of “liberal media bias” became mainstreamed and nationalized.
At the same time, she celebrates the values of the network news professionals who strived for fairness and accuracy. Despite their efforts, however, Chicago proved to be a turning point in the public’s trust in national news sources. Since those critical days, the political Right in the United States has amplified distrust of TV news, to the point where even the truest and most clearly documented stories can be deemed “fake.” As Hendershot demonstrates, it doesn’t matter whether the “whole world is watching” if people don’t believe what they see.
396 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 27, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 10, 2024
Heather Hendershot's When the News Broke offers an incisive look at the media's coverage of 1968's Democratic National Convention in Chicago, when antiwar protesters clashed with Chicago police, the convention descended into political chaos and the media's coverage led to a fierce, unexpected backlash. Hendershot notes that prior to 1968, the main networks were almost universally trusted by Americans, receiving occasional criticism for specific stories but rarely blanket accusations of bias or deceit. In that year's heated climate, however, attempts at neutrality (however sincere) tended to backfire, alienating either end of the political spectrum and leaving the press open to charges. Much of the book recreates the major networks' broadcast coverage of the conventions, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses: Walter Cronkite struggling to remain detached amidst the chaotic floor battles, Dan Rather shrugging off violence by Mayor Daley's security forces, Roger Mudd and Art Buchwald performing bizarre comedy sketches, Mike Wallace alternating condescension and disbelief when confronting delegates refusing to support Hubert Humphrey's nomination. Hendershot is quite critical of the media for ridiculing Eugene McCarthy's supporters, many of them young, Black or both, and offering only passing, and largely dismissive attention towards battles within delegations that upended the convention; she also spotlights Cronkite's groveling interview with Daley after the worst of the violence unfolded, surely one of the low points in the anchor's career. What people remembered, though, was the "police riot" in the streets, and Hendershot shows the admirable attempt by all networks to cover the violence and chaos with minimal commentary, but also no false attempts at "balance" to excuse the violence. This very objectivity, however, enraged conservatives who viewed the networks as being unduly sympathetic to the protests, and critical of police - providing a gift to Richard Nixon's campaign, both in showing the unvarnished chaos of the Democratic Party and allowing the "Silent Majority" to rally around the police against the hippies, Blacks and uppity dissenters. Hendershot argues, quite convincingly, that the overwhelming backlash to Chicago was the key inflection point in our modern media wars: while Cronkite and others wrung their hands over whether their coverage had been fair, conservatives ignored their attempts at contrition and retreated into their own media bubbles, leading to a television viewership who seemed to inhabit separate realities. Hendershot offers no solutions, merely a discerning, critical portrait of how journalism both captured history and shaped the political battles to follow.
February 17, 2025
The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago was perhaps one of the most chaotic weeks in American political history. Millions watched as the democratic party self-immolated inside the convention floor with frequent chair challenges, a contentious Vietnam War plank, and the news of what was happening outside the convention. Outside the Convention Hall, thousands of young protesters of every stripe were beaten by Chicago policemen in a "police riot" under the watchful eye of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. It remains a poignant moment, recently revisited as the Democrats held the 2024 convention in Chicago.
Author Heather Hendershot takes the reader back to the jam-packed convention hall and the bloody Chicago streets as she examines the convention through the lens of the network TV stations there to cover it. Her book is part narrative of events and part analysis of the media coverage and how the 1968 Convention gave birth to the "liberal news" bias we see today.
In the days following the convention, the networks were lambasted by the American public as "liberal" for their portrayal of the protests. Many decried that the networks were slanted toward the perspective of the protesters and smeared the police. Even though evidence (and modern understanding) portrays the violence as almost entirely driven by the actions of the aggressive police force, many Americans had the perception that the protesters had been beaten because they "deserved it". So when the networks failed to show this trigger (when there was one), they were smeared as being "liberal" and biased. The backlash from the 1968 convention opened the way for Nixon/Agnew to go after network TV as biased and opened the door to the "fake news" apparatus of the Trump years.
In a readable account, Hendershot shows how this happened through the eyes of CBS & NBC (ABC, a distant third in ratings, gets comparatively little attention). She examines what the networks covered (and failed to cover), from the delegate battles, the unreported racial battle inside the convention, how the networks handled the protests outside and reaction inside, and much more. Within this examination lays the challenges faced by the networks in the face of Mayor Richard Daley, who did everything in his power to deny the networks access to many aspects of the convention; the electric telephone strike that made it difficult to communicate; and the treatment of reporters & cameramen by Daley's boys. All of this culminates in an entertaining, thought-provoking, and informative story.
My only heads-up is that in coverage of the TV side of the convention, much of the political background is left out. For uninitiated readers into Chicago 1968, it may be wise to begin with a more politically-driven narrative of the events so you have the ground work for Hendershot's book. However, this book should be included in the bibliography of Chicago 1968.
Author Heather Hendershot takes the reader back to the jam-packed convention hall and the bloody Chicago streets as she examines the convention through the lens of the network TV stations there to cover it. Her book is part narrative of events and part analysis of the media coverage and how the 1968 Convention gave birth to the "liberal news" bias we see today.
In the days following the convention, the networks were lambasted by the American public as "liberal" for their portrayal of the protests. Many decried that the networks were slanted toward the perspective of the protesters and smeared the police. Even though evidence (and modern understanding) portrays the violence as almost entirely driven by the actions of the aggressive police force, many Americans had the perception that the protesters had been beaten because they "deserved it". So when the networks failed to show this trigger (when there was one), they were smeared as being "liberal" and biased. The backlash from the 1968 convention opened the way for Nixon/Agnew to go after network TV as biased and opened the door to the "fake news" apparatus of the Trump years.
In a readable account, Hendershot shows how this happened through the eyes of CBS & NBC (ABC, a distant third in ratings, gets comparatively little attention). She examines what the networks covered (and failed to cover), from the delegate battles, the unreported racial battle inside the convention, how the networks handled the protests outside and reaction inside, and much more. Within this examination lays the challenges faced by the networks in the face of Mayor Richard Daley, who did everything in his power to deny the networks access to many aspects of the convention; the electric telephone strike that made it difficult to communicate; and the treatment of reporters & cameramen by Daley's boys. All of this culminates in an entertaining, thought-provoking, and informative story.
My only heads-up is that in coverage of the TV side of the convention, much of the political background is left out. For uninitiated readers into Chicago 1968, it may be wise to begin with a more politically-driven narrative of the events so you have the ground work for Hendershot's book. However, this book should be included in the bibliography of Chicago 1968.
September 27, 2023
A story for our times
What does 1968 have to do with present times? This book gives a compelling account of the Chicago DNC and uses it to shed light on current divisions in our country.
What does 1968 have to do with present times? This book gives a compelling account of the Chicago DNC and uses it to shed light on current divisions in our country.
March 29, 2025
This book is about how news media covered the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. The author details the efforts of TV journalists and anchors to report what is happening in the convention hall and in the streets and parks of the city while maintaining integrity and balance on air. These efforts came into conflict with the efforts of the first Mayor Daley to control how his city was presented to the nation. The book covers the preparation for the convention, what happened each of the four days, and the aftermath, and presents an argument that this event was key (along with the efforts of Richard Nixon) in sowing distrust in the public’s perception of the news media, leading up to the news environment we have today.
I liked this book, and I thought the author did well at presenting facts and analysis about the convention. Being from the Chicago area, I grew up hearing about the ‘68 convention, and this is the first book I’ve read about it. Because the focus of the book is media coverage, there is not as much attention paid to some of the initial days of protest or other events that did not get media attention. The book provided great context about the environment at the time—the big three networks and their standard practices, different groups and their interests inside and outside the convention hall, media technology used at the time, and big events that factored into the national consciousness. It was also interesting to read briefly about how the news media environment has evolved since, with the introduction of cable TV and political talk radio to 24-hour news and “fake news” allegations (though I’d be interested in reading a full book on that topic).
I liked this book, and I thought the author did well at presenting facts and analysis about the convention. Being from the Chicago area, I grew up hearing about the ‘68 convention, and this is the first book I’ve read about it. Because the focus of the book is media coverage, there is not as much attention paid to some of the initial days of protest or other events that did not get media attention. The book provided great context about the environment at the time—the big three networks and their standard practices, different groups and their interests inside and outside the convention hall, media technology used at the time, and big events that factored into the national consciousness. It was also interesting to read briefly about how the news media environment has evolved since, with the introduction of cable TV and political talk radio to 24-hour news and “fake news” allegations (though I’d be interested in reading a full book on that topic).
August 9, 2025
Ms. Hendershot's theory is novel to me, at least: that the television coverage of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago sewed the seeds for our current hyperpolarized media environment She makes a fairly decent case, but I'm not sure if I'm convinced. Her analysis excludes ABC entirely, focusing on CBS and NBC's anchors and correspondents and how they responded to events inside and outside the Amphitheatre. She argues that their strenuous neutrality offended right-wingers when the major networks did not immediately endorse their worldview. Yes, I believe that happened, but am not sure it started in 1968. More compelling, I thought, was her depiction of how Mayor Daley turned the city of Chicago into a police state before the convention even started, and exercised that authoritarian control inside the Amphitheatre. I hadn't known that before I read this book. Maybe that's the benefit of reading a book about the '68 Convention that only mentions Abbie Hoffman once.
July 2, 2023
America was forever changed in 1968 when Chicago cops bashed the heads of demonstrators on the streets while the Democrats held their presidential convention inside. The country was already reeling from the RFK and Martin Luther King Jr assassinations and the counterculture revolution, including the magical summer of love. In the pre-Internet, network era, the reaction is quite different than what it would be in today's world. This very readable, well-researched analysis explains how the backlash sided with Mayor Daley's police force and accused the media of liberal bias.
June 17, 2023
3 1/2 stars. A bit wonky, but an enjoyable deep dive into the week of the DNC convention, with some interesting political insights. (My only complaint is that it is repetitive, with some key points constantly reiterated.)
September 8, 2023
A lot to think about…great dive into background and history.
October 12, 2024
1968 and the affects of media and elections can be tied a lot to todays actions and outcomes
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews