{"id":5382,"date":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=5382"},"modified":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","slug":"dont-stop-the-presses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=5382","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Stop the Presses"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>As the novel opens, Ben Roberts is a whip-smart wise guy with commitment issues (\u201cI needed to see a therapist, but I didn\u2019t trust them because I\u2019m a reporter and I don\u2019t trust anybody\u201d) but driven by a fierce loyalty to his profession. When he\u2019s laid off by the San Diego Sun, he changes from a man with a mission into an ordinary Joe \u201cwho happened to have above-average typing skills,\u201d he notes. \u201cBig whoop.\u201d The Sun\u2019s recent acquisition by a private equity firm leaves no room for the newsgathering zeal of old, which has given way to website videos of live animal births and puff pieces on the mayor\u2019s weight-loss campaign. Compounding Ben\u2019s troubles, the new editor, Aaron Pock, spiked an explosive story he\u2019d been writing about Becky Strand, an ambitious city councilmember who was ready to cast the swing vote for a new football stadium in return for a $500,000 campaign contribution. However, Ben can\u2019t take his story elsewhere without staring down a lawsuit, so he hatches a plan involving a handgun\u2014stolen from Anne Porter, and ex-colleague\u2014and duct tape, caffeinated drinks, and energy bars from Walmart. He plans to take over the newsroom and force the Sun to publish his dream story. What could possibly go wrong? Coming out ahead will require an A-game like no other, and after he sets his plan into motion, Ben is swapping hostages like Judy Pillow, whose section brims with pieces about \u201cspinach, new fashionable purses, and zip lines,\u201d for like-minded castoff colleagues. At Ben\u2019s instigation, the reporters will write their own hard-hitting pieces that management has stifled and publish them in an insurgent edition on Sunday, the Sun\u2019s last major moneymaking day of the week. They only need to keep the police at bay until the presses stop rolling. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Stetz\u2019s repetition of this central idea\u2014from his novel\u2019s title to Ben\u2019s reminders to the befuddled police negotiator, Sally Torres, of his intent\u2014ensures a powerful unity of purpose. For Ben, the hostage-taking enterprise isn\u2019t about money or commandeering a jet to Cuba, but about his determination to prove, if only for a day, that newspapers can still make a difference if they return to their roots. They aren\u2019t dying because of \u201cwhatever latest Silicon Valley\u2013created platform they\u2019re not on,\u201d Ben declares. \u201cThey\u2019re dying because they don\u2019t kick ass anymore.\u201d Ben\u2019s steely resolve makes for an effective contrast with the cold pomposity of Pock and the Sun\u2019s aptly named publisher, Edmond Crust. The latter don\u2019t see themselves as bad actors but simply as pragmatists, determined to save what remains of their decaying fiefdoms. Ben\u2019s heated dialogues with these nemeses offer a ringside seat to a debate whose story isn\u2019t over yet\u2014a point underscored by the novel\u2019s twist ending; it\u2019s a realization that shatters and reinforces Ben\u2019s idealistic instincts, by turns, and one that readers will find memorable and relatable in an age of corporatist interference.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the novel opens, Ben Roberts is a whip-smart wise guy with commitment issues (\u201cI needed to see a therapist, but I didn\u2019t trust them because I\u2019m a reporter and I don\u2019t trust anybody\u201d) but driven by a fierce loyalty to his profession. When he\u2019s laid off by the San Diego Sun, he changes from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5382"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}