Copper Chorus: Mining, Politics, and the Montana Press, 1889 - 1959 » (1ST)

For twenty-five years, Dennis L. Swibold has worked as a Montana newspaper editor and teacher. Swibold holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Montana, and for the past fifteen years has taught in the School of Journalism at the University of Montana. In his career, he as served as editor for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and the Sidney Herald. In 2001 Swibold received the Montana Newspaper Association’s President’s Award. Swibold lives in Missoula, Montana with his wife Julie and son Colton.

This is the first book devoted to Montana’s long history of industrial newspaper ownership and the consequences for democracy. The work also reveals the costs paid by owners and their journalists, whose credibility eroded as their increasingly constricted newspapers lapsed into ambivalence and indifference. The story offers a timeless study of the conflict between commerce and the notion of a free and independent press.

Introduction: The Scribblers’ Ball (1); Raising the Standard (2); Slinging Ink (3); The Longest Purse (4); Reform and “The Reptile Press” (5); The “Community of Interests” (6); The Copper Press at War (7); The Anvil Chorus (8); Clark’s Challenge (9); The Copper Curtain (10); The Captive Press (11); Emancipation (12); Epilogue