Getting It Wrong (2010) debunks 10 prominent media-driven myths, among them several of the most cherished stories American journalism tells about itself.

From a review by Edward Kosner, Wall Street Journal:
"Persuasive and entertaining ... With old-school academic detachment, Mr. Campbell, a communications professor at American University, shows how the fog of war, the warp of ideology and muffled skepticism can transmute base journalism into golden legend."

From a review by Jack Shafer, Slate.com:
"Toting big guns and an itchy trigger-finger is American University professor W. Joseph Campbell, whose new book Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism flattens established myths that you were brought up to believe were true: that Orson Welles sparked a national panic with his 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast; that the New York Times suppressed news of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba at the request of the White House; that Edward R. Murrow destroyed Sen. Joseph McCarthy; that publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst told an illustrator, "You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war," before the Spanish-American war started; and more. ...

"The best tonic for the brain fever caused by media myths is an open mind and a free inquiry. I especially admire the disciplined way Campbell corrects so many flawed records without taking cheap shots at the perpetrators ... Of course when you do such a good job punishing the error, as Campbell does, you don't need to bother with the errant."

From The Year That Defined American Journalism (2006):

"American journalism faced the riptide of profound change in the late nineteenth century, and emerged the stronger for it. The turbulence of 1897 helped give rise to a newsgathering model that has served American journalism well for more than 100 years.

"To read the lessons of 1897, therefore, is to take encouragement. The angst and despair so commonplace in journalism today are quite likely misplaced. The story of 1897 suggests as much."

From a review in Journalism Studies:
"This is a lively and fascinating book, beautifully written and thoroughly researched. It effectively captures the American fin-de-siècle, providing a snap-shot yet admirably convaying the dynamism and anxieties of the period."