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Bai, Matt. All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. 263 pp. $26.95
People who remember Gary Hart probably think of him as the politician whose career ended after a photograph was published of him with Donna Rice sitting on his lap. They were aboard a boat named Monkey Business. It all unfolded, according to the received account, because Hart had challenged a reporter to follow him around. Matt Bai presents a detailed report of the events of 1987 and argues that it was a turning point for political journalism "that changed all the rules."
As it turns out, Hart did not cavalierly tell journalists to follow him around before Miami Herald reporters staked out his house and then reported what they saw. Bai's research also reveals who tipped off the Heralds reporters, and who was paid for the photograph of Hart with Rice. The presumed Democratic nominee for president did, in fact, say to a New York Times Magazine reporter, "Follow me around, I don't care." Hart's comment, however, was not published until after the Herald, acting on that tip, had staked out Hart's home. Later, after the photograph of Hart with Rice was published, he suspended his campaign and eventually...