"The first director of the Spanish newspaper El País, offers his reflections on the state of the press in pithy essays peppered with quips and aphorisms" (The New Yorker).

For veteran journalist Juan Luis Cebrián, there is wisdom in the old joke that it is better to be anything other than a journalist, including a piano player in a brothel. In this incisive collection of essays, Cebrián discusses the importance of journalism through modern history, its imperiled state in today's media landscape, and what will be required to maintain an independent press in the years to come.

Cebrián explores the significance of journalism on the world stage, discussing topics that range from the Watergate scandal to modern terrorism. Recalling the repression of newspapers in Spain under Francisco Franco, and the struggle to rebuild a free press when democracy was restored, Cebrián offers an analysis of the new challenges facing the journalists of today, for whom censorship is less a matter of political strong-arming than the structural realities of the Internet.