-Paul Taylor, Executive Vice President, Pew Research Center

"J.H. Snider offers an extremely comprehensive and well-documented look 'behind the curtain' at how the National Association of Broadcasters drives its national legislative agenda. This is must reading for not only political scientists but for all who are interested in media policy and how it gets made in Washington."

-Chellie Pingree, President and CEO, Common Cause

"This astute book is a first-rate work of original scholarship. It also provides an unsettling description of broadcasters' policy influence. When their own interests are involved, broadcasters cannot be trusted to act in the way they demand of all others in society. Readers will no doubt question whether J.H. Snider's recommended solution is a practical one. But no reader will question his call for new measures."

-Thomas E. Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press, Harvard University

"Having played a role in the mad-cap drama of telecommunications legislation Snider documents, I can tell you he has captured the essence of the machinations, strange bedfellows, and almost single-minded, righteous self-interest that drives the telecommunications debate. Like it or not, this is how the power game is really played."

-Stephen R. Effros, Former President (1976-1999), Cable Telecommunications Association

"J.H. Snider's Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick is one of the most important books on media policy and governance that I have read in years. With rare thoughtfulness, Snider combines a rigorous and detailed examination of how policymaking works in the United States with a provocative and intellectually imaginative proposal for reform. This book not only deserves, it demands, the attention of policy makers and concerned citizens who wish to see a free press and a free society."

-Robert W. McChesney, Professor and Author, The Problem of the Media

"This is a theoretically rigorous and meticulously researched examination of the growing conflicts of interest embedded in our communications policymakers and the media institutions that cover them. Snider's documentation of the various means by which broadcasters can influence policymakers -- and the extent to which they use such influence -- on behalf of their own economic self-interest is a wake-up call to any citizen concerned about the future of our media system and our democracy."

-Philip Napoli, Professor and Director, Donald McGannon Communication Research Center, Fordham University

"It's a great book."

-Lawrence Lessig, Professor, Stanford Law School

For more information on the author and Speak Softly, see