nyone who watched Soviet television before 1985, thecontrast between then and now could not be more striking.As with all Soviet media, television was centrally controlledand used by the Communist Party to communicate only theinformation deemed necessary by its leaders. The news wassanitized, dreadfully dull, and politically correct. The collapseof communist rule in Russia opened up space for alternativesources of political information to develop. News contenttoday is certainly more lively and attractively packaged, butthe emergence of autonomous, multiple sources of informa-tion has only partially been realized, as Ellen Mickiewiczmakes clear. Furthermore, an unfortunate legacy of theSoviet period remains alive in contemporary Russian practice.It is the principal thesis of this remarkably well-informedand readable book that now, as then, television news is a"zero-sum" game: Whoever controls the news, wins. Consequently,control over television news remains the criticalmechanism for gaining and holding political power, and it isthe consuming goal of those who would do so.