Finding the News - (From Our Own Correspondent) by Peter Copeland (Hardcover)

About the Book

The author's account of becoming a reporter is an honest and revealing description of how he learned the craft, starting as a night police reporter in Chicago, then as a war correspondent in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, and finally covering national politics in Washington, D.C.

Book Synopsis

Finding the News tells Peter Copeland's fast-paced story of becoming a distinguished journalist. Starting in Chicago as a night police reporter, Copeland went on to work as a war correspondent in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa before covering national politics in Washington, DC, where he rose to be bureau chief of the E. W. Scripps Company. The lessons he learned about accuracy and fairness during his long career are especially relevant today, given widespread concerns about the performance of the media, potential bias, and the proliferation of so-called "fake news." He offers an honest and revealing narrative, told with surprising humor, about how he learned the craft of news reporting.

Copeland's story begins in 1980, when a colleague hastily declared him a full-fledged reporter after barely four days of training. He went on to learn the business the old-fashioned way: by chasing the news in thirty countries and across five continents. As a young person entering journalism and reporting during some of recent history's most fraught military situations-- including Operation Desert Storm and the US invasions of Panama and Somalia--Copeland discovered the craft was his calling. Looking back on his career, Copeland asserts his most important lessons were not about reporting, writing, or the latest technologies, but about the core values that underlie quality journalism: accuracy, fairness, and speed.

Replete with behind-the-scenes stories about learning the trade, Copeland's inspiring account builds into a heartfelt defense of journalism "done the right way" and serves as a call to action for today's reporters. The values he learned as a cub reporter are needed now more than ever, he argues, as the integrity and motives of even seasoned journalists are called into question by political partisans. Copeland admits that those critics are not entirely wrong but contends that exciting new technologies, combined with a return to old-school news values, could usher in a golden age of journalism.

Review Quotes

Copeland provides a compelling tale of a young reporter who uses smarts and wits to learn the ropes of newspapering during the Golden Age of American journalism, eventually rising to head a major news bureau in Washington, DC. In addition, his book offers valuable, relevant lessons for young multimedia journalism students in the art of gum shoe reporting, solid human sourcing and impeccable fact checking, the kind of brilliant reporting that toppled a former US president and is needed more than ever in today's digital age.--Zita Arocha, professor of Practice and director of Borderzine at the University of Texas-El Paso

Gorgeous prose, great details, lovely story telling voice.--Barton Gellman, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Washington Post

Peter Copeland is not only a first-rate journalist but an incredible mentor. As a cub reporter in Washington, I learned from him how to dig deeper, ask better questions, write better ledes and break news. These are all skills that made me a better journalist and author. I'm forever indebted to Peter. My career would have been a lot bumpier without his journalistic guidance.--Amie Parnes, author of #1 New York Times best-seller Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign

Peter Copeland knows where the bodies are buried. Not just the literal bodies, and the entertaining tales they produce of cops and robbers, but the figurative ones as well. He's a journalist who got it early and got it right. As the newspaper industry fought for its future, he knew that a blend of enduring values and new tech could light a way forward. And his work in digital, in magazines and in TV, all provided early models in an industry that still needs them. His voice matters now and to the next generation of news.--Ken Doctor, media analyst and author of Newsonomics

About the Author

Peter Copeland has been a journalist and author for nearly forty years. He is the former editor and general manager of Scripps Howard News Service and is the coauthor of four books, including Living with Our Genes and The Science of Desire.