Product Overview
Author: Giles, Robert
Paperback: 354 pages
Publisher: Mission Point Press
When Truth Mattered is a gripping, authoritative account of a young editor and his staff painstakingly pursuing the truth of the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970 – a tragedy that has haunted the nation for 50 years and significantly changed the debate about the Vietnam War.
The editor, Robert Giles, takes you inside the turmoil and drama of the Akron Beacon Journal newsroom on that fateful day, and on campus at Kent State University, a Midwestern college under siege. The heart-pounding story captures the flash of National Guard rifles, the bloody aftermath of four students killed and nine wounded, and the stress of reporters hurrying to sort fact from fiction for a horrified world wanting to know “what” and “why.”
The Beacon Journal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage created a truthful narrative that has stood unchallenged and unchanged for five decades. It also provides an urgent lesson for today: What is the role of truth in media? Can you trust the news that you’re hearing and seeing? If not, how do you equip yourself? When Truth Mattered shows how journalism was done right … and how those standards must still be applied today.
Robert Giles has crafted an absorbing and meticulous story of how one newspaper –– The Akron Beacon Journal –– told the truth about a national tragedy in a time, like our own, when Americans were deeply divided. I’ve never seen a better demonstration of why good journalism matters. — James Tobin, author of Ernie Pyle’s War: America’s Eyewitness to World War II; professor of journalism, Miami University
From the editor who led his newsroom through one of the nation's saddest moments comes this story of a painstaking pursuit of the truth — and a searing reminder of how sorely we lack it today. — Geneva Overholser, Pulitzer Prize-winning editor, journalism consultant and advisor
When Truth Mattered is a newsroom thriller that truly uplifts and educates. Giles’ genius as the consummate reporter and brilliantly paced storyteller offers us a front row seat to an American tragedy. We see news — truth — reported as history is being made. Giles’ reflections on a lifetime spent reporting and editing offer all of us lessons on reading today’s headlines. This is an essential and dramatic book. — Doug Stanton, #1 New York Times best-selling author
