In between, Richard McCord's "Chain Gang" is provocative, part autobiography, part broadside. His target is Gannett, America's largest newspaper group and, in McCord's view, an evil empire.

McCord's personal tale engages, despite lapses into melodrama. Idealistic, passionate, obsessive, McCord recounts his boyhood in rural Georgia and early years as a Newsday reporter. It was all preparation for combat with Gannett - first as publisher of a Santa Fe, N.M., weekly competing against a Gannett daily, and later as "a hired gun" brought in to save the Green Bay (Wis.) News-Chronicle, owned by a friend struggling against the larger, Gannett-owned Press-Gazette.

A crisp writer, McCord gives his life story a novelized sheen. He milks drama from every turn. In 1981, while investigating a lawsuit against Gannett's Salem, Ore., newspaper operation, he convinces an innocent courthouse secretary to let him see sealed court records - and then describes his feelings, drip by drip. Scribbling notes, he savors his discovery, yet fears exposure. For reporters, the fluctuating emotions ring true.

McCord is less convincing when he assails Gannett. His allegations of predatory practices run the gamut - falsifying circulation figures, threatening advertisers, spreading lies about the competition. He partly supports his denunciation, notably with documents from the Oregon court case that ended in a settlement. Yet often McCord's attack seems loosely woven.

Certainly his description of Gannett under the leadership of Al Neuharth is disquieting, but the rhetoric overheats. As a businessman, Neuharth proved he could be ruthless; his autobiography was entitled "Confessions of an S.O.B." But rapaciousness beyond the law is another matter.

Much of the book is a prelude to the main event - McCord's 1989 trip to Green Bay at the behest of publisher Frank Wood, who describes Gannett as "the devil incarnate." McCord begins a reluctant warrior. After surviving his Santa Fe battle, marked by a strident series on Gannet's practices in Oregon, he had sold his weekly. "I had no desire to become a full-time Gannett basher," he writes. Yet, he relents and heads to Wisconsin.

The highlight of McCord's effort to rescue the News-Chronicle is his prize-winning series called "It's Now or Never." The pieces explore Gannett's business practices and urge Green Bay to rally behind the paper. There is no pretense of balanced journalism. Alleging illegal or unethical actions by Gannett, McCord calls his series "undisguised bias."

And so is the book. Too often, it feels long on accusation or sinister interpretation and short on irrefutable evidence. McCord suggests that Gannett has learned to conceal misconduct. Perhaps, but that still doesn't justify lopsided journalism.

In fairness, McCord notes some Gannett achievements - employing many "dedicated journalists," improving "some dreadful newspapers," diversifying white-male newsrooms. He even credits Neuharth with a touch of virtue. After retiring, he converted the Gannett Foundation into The Freedom Forum, which has since tackled a range of media issues. [In 1993, it should be noted, I was a Freedom Forum fellow.]

Looking back, McCord evinces pride and bitterness. He relished his crusades, yet is angry at news media neglect of what he wrote. He worries about the "ruling values" in America. He wonders if the little Green Bay paper can endure. His spirit is diminished. The book ends with another call for help - from a Georgia weekly facing a Gannett daily. McCord's melancholy final words: "I said I was not available. But I wished him well."

Gissler, retired editor of the Milwaukee Journal, is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. The Chain Gang, $24.95, University of Missouri Press, 1996, 304 pages.