MEDIA Edwin R. Bayley, Joe McCarthy and the Press (Pantheon Books, 1981). $6.95, paper, 270 pgs. “Stand up, Ed, and let the people see what a communist looks like”–so went Joe McCarthy’s introduction of the author to a Wisconsin audi- ence. Bayley’s painstaking survey–of 129 dailies, 40 reporters who covered McCarthy and the voluminous body of literature on the phenomenon-4s enriched by his eyewitness insight. Believing that “McCarthy’s tactics produced lasting changes in the media,” Bayley says one legacy is “the redefinition of the principle of objectivity.” “[A] performance as spectacular as [McCarthy’s was required] to move the guardians of ob- jectivity to admit that the meaning of an event is as important as the facts of an event.” Interesting reading, and especially important now as echoes of McCarthyism ring through current “debate. (Pantheon Books, 201 East 50th Street, New York, NY 10022.) Ariel Dorfman, The Empire’s Old Clothes: What the Lone Ranger, Babar and Other Innocent Heroes Do to Our Minds (Pantheon Books, 1983). $6.95, paper, 222 pgs. This com- prehensive and compelling collection of essays deals with the role of cultural politics in the mass media. Dorfman begins with a discussion of the children’s character, Babar the Elephant, as a prototype for the naive, euphemistic ideal of imperialism in the Europe of the 1930s. A chapter on the Lone Ranger explores the issues of conservation and natural rights of ownership and leads into a particularly interesting piece on heroes in popular culture. Dorfman covers more familiar ground in essays on the vulgar infantilism of the world of Disney and its grown-up relative, the Reader’s Digest. A final chapter illustrates the anti-socialist manipulation of children’s literature in Allende’s Chile. Dorfman tends to use specific examples to abstract vast conclusions-but these essays are fascinating and provocative, if not thoroughly convincing. (Pantheon Books.) Ana Maria Ezcurra and Cayetano De Lella, La U.P.I. en Pue- bla: Manipulacidn ideol6gica de la III Conferencia General del Episcopado Latinoamericano (CELADEC, 1980). Write for price, paper, 351 pgs. Ezcurra and De Lella present a text analysis of 470 UPI dispatches released during a one month period in 1979, coinciding with the Pope’s visit to Mexico and the Bishops’ Conference. Through an elaborate structure of evaluations, the authors examine UPI’s ideological impact, and in particular, its impact on the Latin American press. UPI has a formidable transnational influence; over 2,000 of its 6,500 subscribers are foreign publications, many of them Latin American. (A representative study attributed 39% of all for- eign news items in the Latin American press to UPI and 21% to AP.) The authors’ discussion of the “war of ideology,” in reference to the controversy surrounding the theology of liberation is edifying, especially in view of the Pope’s recent visit to Nicaragua. (CELADEC, Gral. Garzon 2267, Lima, Peru.) July/Aug 1983 UNITED STATES Richard Feinberg, The Intemperate Zone: The Third World Challenge to U.S. Foreign Policy (W. W. Norton & Co., 1983). $17.50, cloth, 287 pgs. A critical view of present U.S. foreign policy toward the less developed countries by one of the brightest of the new generation of foreign policy analysts, Feinberg’s book argues that the United States overstates its ability to control change in the third world, fails to appreciate the influence of emergent states like Venezuela and Mexico and is too ready to assume that leftist movements and govem- ments are “irreconcilably hostile” to the United States and inevitably drawn to the Soviet Union. Feinberg urges a “neo- realist” foreign policy that accommodates change, welcomes nationalism and “deflates ideology.” His book responds to the growing disquiet within traditional internationalist ” policy circles about the confrontationalist style of the Reagan Admin- istration and rearticulates the “accommodationism” of early trilateralism and the first years of the Carter Administration. (W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110.) CENTRAL AMERICA Jonathan L. Fried, et al., Guatemala in rebellion: unfinished History (Grove Press, 1983). $17.50, cloth; $7.95, paper, 334 pgs. The editors of this lucid and timely book, second in a series of Grove political readers on Central America, certainly know the country well. Their introductions to each section– stretching from the 1500s to Rios Montt-manage to be both scholarly and committed. Focus lies with the local roots of the conflict. The work is certain to prove a valuable reference, as Guatemala joins Salvador in the spotlight. The anthology is supplemented by a brief historical chronology and a selected bibliography. (Grove Press, 196 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014.) James R. Brockman, The Word Remains: A Life of Oscar Romero (Orbis Books, 1982). $12.95, paper, 241 pgs. James Brockman has meticulously pieced together a vivid and mov- ing portrait of Oscar Romero during his brief tenure as arch- bishop of San Salvador. Nominated as the conservatives’ safe choice for archbishop, Romero was abruptly swept into the political arena, and gradually came to regard himself as a “politicized priest.” Clashes with the upper classes, the gov- ernment and Church hierarchy ensued, leading Romero to play a central role in Salvadorean politics. As Brockman illus- trates, Romero showed a remarkable shrewdness in dealing with the opposition-particularly for a political novice. Romero was a profoundly religious man, and Brockman emphasizes his strong ties to the papacy, beginning with the seminarian’s devotion to Pius XI, the Pope “who stood up to Hitler and Mussolini.” Brockman’s sensitive depiction of the violence and suffering that wrack El Salvador dramatically illustrate Romero’s tremendous work and influence. (Orbis Books, Maryknoll Fathers, Maryknoll, NY 10545.)
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