Covering Government A Civics Handbook for Journalists

Covering Government: A Civics Handbook for Journalists is the only single source of quick and concise information on the workings of American government at all levels. Spurred by recent, highly charged political events such as the contested Presidential election, Armstrong, a 25-year CBS News radio and television correspondent, has compiled the information journalists need to understand and report the stories that are breaking all around them. Covering Government is, above all, an invaluable tool -- portable, user-friendly, and with enough text to cover each subject without becoming a scholarly tome. Through annotated listings, comparative tables, and explanatory text, the author employs an array of methods to present the key information on governmental processes at federal, state, and local levels. Ideal for working newspeople in all media, Covering Government also serves as a secondary text and resource for students in journalism and political science.

Rob Armstrong covered all facets of government during his thirty-two years as a reporter. He spent nearly twenty-five years with CBS News and from 1989 to 1998 was senior radio correspondent. His principal beats were the U.S. Congress and national politics. Armstrong covered nine presidential nominating conventions, four presidential campaigns, major trials from Watergate to Iran-Contra, and such political benchmarks as the resignation of House Speaker Jim Wright and the Republican sweep of the House and Senate in 1994. He is the author of four other books and is on the faculty of Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida