Because Baron had published no previous books and hardly any articles, I had no idea of what kind of writer he would be. Editing and writing are related but separate skills, like directing and acting. Baron turns out to be good at both ... Offers something scarcer and far more interesting than most arguments over theory, which is a vivid and detailed chronology of how his part of the press actually did its job ... The barbed portraits along the way keep the book lively. I’ll leave them for readers to discover, and I’m sure some of those criticized will respond ... As the book ends, Joe Biden is being sworn in as president, and Marty Baron steps aside as an editor, presumably to his next role as a writer. This book is an excellent start.
Media junkies will find both books indispensable. But like Robert Caro’s biographies, they should appeal to anyone interested in power: how it operates, and how it is lost ... Tells us little about Baron’s life and career prior to the Post. Nevertheless, the book is revealing of the man.
Baron dishes his media stories, most of which involve Trump, largely chronologically. Those of us so inclined will be re-enraged, but not in any new way, about Trump’s threat and how journalism responded. It doesn’t help Baron that much of the ground he covers has already been thoroughly dissected ... I had to fight off the impulse that living through all of this had been bad enough; without any additional revelations, I didn’t relish reexperiencing it in these pages ... About two-thirds of the way through, Collision of Power becomes a memoir of aggrievement, an unexpected turn for a titan of journalism who stood up to some of the darkest forces in American history ... Too often, he portrays himself in his own book as uncharitable and finger-pointy.
It’s a promising setup, but Baron offers very few juicy or even semi-juicy tidbits about his experience with Bezos ... It’s a grim story about Trump’s imperviousness to journalistic truth.
Baron...clearly has researched extensively and thought deeply about how to cover the unprecedented presidency of Donald Trump ... Serves as a reminder throughout of how fragile democracy is, and how the social media era has made it easier to commandeer public opinion.
Making an engrossing debut, Baron recounts in candid detail his more than eight-year tenure as executive editor of the Washington Post ... An impassioned argument for objective journalism.
