An intimate history of the journalists who covered Canadian history,
and made some of their own.
The history of the press gallery is rich in anecdotes about the people
on Parliament Hill who have covered 23 prime ministers and 42 elections
in the past 150 years.
Mining the archives and his own interviews, Robert Lewis turns the
spotlight on the watchers, including reporters who got too close to
power and others who kept their distance.
The Riel Rebellion, the Pacific Scandal, two world wars, the Depression,
women's liberation, Quebec separatism, and terrorism are all part of the
sweeping background to this lively account of how the news gets made,
manipulated, and, sometimes mangled. Since Watergate, press gallery
coverage has become more confrontational -- a fact, Lewis argues, that
fails Canadian democracy.