That being said, these readings were difficult for me in several ways. The most significant issue I had with the book was the consistent downplaying of Jessie Jackson's anti-semetic remarks during his presidential campaign. While I can somewhat understand Larson's point that the media overly focused on this single issue, as a Jewish person, it's hard for me to see media coverage of his comments as unfair. I'm originally from Chicago (Jackon's hometown), and I've seen a lot of friction between African-Americans and Jews there, especially in regards to politics and various city issues. It's not surprising that the contention that exists there would find its way into Jackson's campaign. Still, I think presidential candidates need to be held to some standard of decency, and I feel that Jackson's anti-semetic comments were (and are) inappropriate. It's hard for me to agree with Larson that the media overstated this element of Jackson's campagin, because frankly, the media blows everything out of proportion. They have a tendency to focus on the most irrelevant elements of any campaign; the fact that they caught on to Jackson's comments and used them (along with the Farrakhan video clip) to essentially end Jackson's presidential run isn't something that I'm terribly broken up about.
Another problem I had with the readings was my bias against politics in general. On a personal level, I'm pretty skeptical of politicians; they all seem similarly inauthentic to me, regardless of their background. Still, it was interesting to read so much Chicago-centric information, as I know quite a bit about these figures.
Reading this book, I kept wondering how it might be different if it included information about President Obama's campaigns. I think Larson could probably write an entire book about the whole "terrorist fist jab" comment, for example (if you're unfamiliar with what I'm talking about, it's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_vmQrTi3aM)
Speaking of racism in Chicago, as a native Chicagoan, I was surprised by this book's treatment of Harold Washington's campaign; I would not have thought that his candidacy had received "balanced" coverage as the book states. Even today, I think most people recall Washington as being a terrible mayor, which is probably related to the fact that he has been to this date the only African-American mayor of the city. Still, I guess it says something for the Chicago press than even in the 1980's, they were giving an African-American reasonable coverage.
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