Robert G. Kaiser
Author of The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril
About the Author
Image credit: Julian Wasser
Works by Robert G. Kaiser
So Damn Much Money: The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government (2009) 128 copies, 3 reviews
Act of Congress: How America's Essential Institution Works, and How It Doesn't (2013) 106 copies, 3 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Kaiser, Robert G.
- Birthdate
- 1943
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Washington, D.C., USA
- Education
- Yale College (B.A.|1964)
London School of Economics (M.A.|1967) - Occupations
- journalist
- Relationships
- Jopling, Hannah (wife)
- Organizations
- The Washington Post
- Short biography
- Robert G. Kaiser, with The Washington Post since 1963, has covered Congress, the White House, and national politics; reported from abroad as the Post's correspondent in Saigon and Moscow; served as the paper's national editor and managing editor; and is now associate editor and senior correspondent. He has written for Esquire, Foreign Affairs, and The New York Review of Books, and is the author or coauthor of six books, including Russia: The People and the Power. He has received awards from both the Overseas Press Club and the National Press Club. He lives in the town where he was born: Washington, D.C.
Members
Reviews
Robert Kaiser's analysis of life and politics in the Soviet Union during the '70s makes a good companion piece to Hedrick Smith's "The Russians." While Smith concentrated on the day-to-day interactions of Russians with each other and with foreigners, Kaiser takes a look at the everyday politics of life in the Soviet Union. He analyzes how its political life affects all aspects of a person's life from the most personal to world politics. He, like Smith, also spent years in the Soviet Union as a reporter, became intimate with many people, both famous and not. He makes predictions about the future of the Soviet Union which were interesting in light of what we know has happened. Well worth reading for people interested in the Soviet Union and its way of life. Read together, Smith's book and Kaiser's book presents the reader with penetrating and fascinating insight into the Russian people during the apex of the Communist era.… (more)
Robert Kaiser was granted rare access to the action behind the scenes of the creation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Act of Congress is an enjoyable study of the enactment of that law, used as tool to explore how Congress works, and largely how it it doesn't work.
Kaiser was already an associate editor and senior correspondent with the Washington Post and had just finished a book on lobbying and money in Washington. He proposed to Congressman Frank that Kaiser become the historian of the congressional response to the Great Crash of 2008. Frank was planning a big legislative changes to the financial services industry and the new president shared this goal. Senator Chris Dodd and Representative Barney Frank let Kaiser talk on the record with staff.
Act of Congress lives by the famous remark "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." The book's goal is to be both entertaining and educational as it sneaks behind the curtain to watch the sausage production.
"Of the 535 members of the House and Senate, those who have a sophisticated understanding of the financial markets and their regulation could probably fit on the twenty-five man roster of a Major League Baseball team."
Kaiser lets the stupidity of some Congress make it to the pages. He lets their public statements stand for themselves, although he tosses the phrase "intellectual lightweight" at a few. I sense he had a lot of personal perspective some of the congressmen that did not make it to the pages.
I found the book to be well-written and interesting. I suspect the interesting part may be governed more by my interest in the Dodd-Frank Act. It's an enormous piece of legislation with profound impact on the financial services industry. In places it is poorly written and in others it's full of exemptive holes. This books will enlighten you to some of the compromises that were made to get the law enacted.
I suspect those who have that interest may be limited. If you have made it this far, perhaps you share that interest. In which case you should add Act of Congress to your reading list.… (more)
Kaiser was already an associate editor and senior correspondent with the Washington Post and had just finished a book on lobbying and money in Washington. He proposed to Congressman Frank that Kaiser become the historian of the congressional response to the Great Crash of 2008. Frank was planning a big legislative changes to the financial services industry and the new president shared this goal. Senator Chris Dodd and Representative Barney Frank let Kaiser talk on the record with staff.
Act of Congress lives by the famous remark "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." The book's goal is to be both entertaining and educational as it sneaks behind the curtain to watch the sausage production.
"Of the 535 members of the House and Senate, those who have a sophisticated understanding of the financial markets and their regulation could probably fit on the twenty-five man roster of a Major League Baseball team."
Kaiser lets the stupidity of some Congress make it to the pages. He lets their public statements stand for themselves, although he tosses the phrase "intellectual lightweight" at a few. I sense he had a lot of personal perspective some of the congressmen that did not make it to the pages.
I found the book to be well-written and interesting. I suspect the interesting part may be governed more by my interest in the Dodd-Frank Act. It's an enormous piece of legislation with profound impact on the financial services industry. In places it is poorly written and in others it's full of exemptive holes. This books will enlighten you to some of the compromises that were made to get the law enacted.
I suspect those who have that interest may be limited. If you have made it this far, perhaps you share that interest. In which case you should add Act of Congress to your reading list.… (more)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 15
- Members
- 563
- Popularity
- #44,421
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 10
- ISBNs
- 33
- Languages
- 1
Newspapers rise and fall, but the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal continue to prevail. Mom and pop newspapers of the past that did so well have given way to chains like Gannett and Knight Ridder. From the early 1960’s to the 2000’s there have been cutbacks in staff and coverage of major stories. News has given way to entertainment, commentary, and fluff. And the line of what’s news has been blurred.
The same is true of television. Anchors Tom Brokaw of NBC, Peter Jennings of ABC, and Dan Rather of CBS are all not happy with the quality of news delivered to the public. This downward trend has been noticed since the passing of broadcasting Golden Age when networks had bureaus in major capitals of the world. But now even the local TV stations are struggling with formats that focus on headlines, accidents, crime, weather, traffic reports, happy talk, and entertainment pieces. “If it bleeds it leads.”
The coming of mass media’s New Technologies has further complicated matters. Although these have resulted in a greater diversity of channels, news coverage with ENG, communications satellites, cable networks, and Internet services there’s still exists more uncertainty. Large and traditional media audiences of newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio have given way to less lucrative forms of news and information. Existing today is a multiplicity of niche audiences that are greatly impacting traditional ways of advertising. What this will mean to the existing traditional media systems is still debatable. Many of these media have incorporated Internet Websites, but are still to determine how these ventures could be profitable.
Yet Downie Jr. and Kaiser explained how the terrorists’ attacks of September 11, 2001 pumped new life into print and electronic news coverage. But it was speculated that this might not necessarily mean that the spiraling downward of journalism had stopped. But it could well be that the mass media would begin to give more attention to foreign news, and not focused on predominately local events, of crime, accidents, celebrities, weather reports, and natural disasters.… (more)