This book analyzes the newspaper coverage of one of America's most famous and dramatic
trials-the trial of the Chicago 8. Covering a five month period from September 1969 to February
1970 the book considers the way eight radical activists including Black Panther leader Bobby
Seale antiwar activists Tom Hayden David Dellinger and Rennie Davis and leading Yippies
Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin are represented in the press. How did the New York Times
represent Judge Hoffman's decision to chain and gag Bobby Seale in the courtroom for demanding
his right to represent himself? To what extent did the press adequately describe the injustice
visited on the defendants in the trial by the presiding Judge Julius J Hoffman? The author
aims to answer these questions and demonstrate the press's reluctance to criticize Judge
Hoffman in the case until the evidence of his misconduct of the trial became overwhelming.
