Archives: Ronald Reagan

A journalist needs something to write about: Richard Ben Cramer, Alex Rodriguez and the book that did not get written

January 22, 2014 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, Home, reporters, reporting, writers, writing.

In 2006 Cramer sold both his publisher and his subject on a book about Alex Rodriguez, the star of the New York Yankees who was recently banned for a year by Major League Baseball for taking banned substances. The book had the title, The Importance of Being Alex: A Life with the Yankees. He had a $550,000 advance from the Hachette Book Group. Rodriguez had agreed to cooperate fully. In fact, he welcomed Cramer into his entourage. What happened after that is a sad tale but, unfortunately, not unique.

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RecentReads: Subversives: A sad, enraging tale

September 28, 2012 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism.

The story here is that J. Edgar Hoover and Ronald Reagan betrayed the nation. They weren’t agents of a foreign power. Instead, they became what they said they were fighting — subversives. They (and many others with them) actively undermined the laws and values of America to advance their own political agendas and to gain and maintain their political power.

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