Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press

In various ways, all the submissions in this book prove how the "Free Press" in America is not always so free. With a few exceptions, most of the essays here are by ace investigative journalists who have had their stories crushed by economic or political pressure from the power elite. This has more to do with the elite holding onto power, rather than inaccuracies in the always professional reporting. In recent times, this pressure increasingly comes from corporate media owners. As a bonus, this book also offers several actual investigative stories, including two with hard-to-dismiss conclusions about friendly fire and TWA flight 800.The high points in this book are the powerful submissions by Monika Jensen Stevenson, covering the preposterous injustices heaped by the US government onto Vietnam POW Bobby Garwood; Michael Levine, covering the mainstream media's complicity in the drug war's ethical and practical failures; and Gary Webb, concerning his travails after exposing CIA drug trafficking operations (the "Dark Alliance" story). All of these stories, and others in the book, were crushed by government pressure in order to protect the power elite. Theory and media watchdog pieces by Carl Jensen and Robert McChesney are also very enlightening. However, this is an uneven collection with some dismal low points that come close to sinking the overall effectiveness of the book. Kristina Borjesson (the editor) and Jane Akre are unprofessionally bitter in their essays, concerning TWA 800 and Monsanto abuses, respectively - their travails with wimpy editors and official harassment notwithstanding. Severe low points of the book include directionless and self-aggrandizing biographies from Maurice Murad and April Oliver, while Karl Idsvoog's piece is little more than a windy sales pitch for his media consulting firm. But overall, if you can stomach some bitterness and inconsistency, this revealing book will both damage your respect for the modern journalism business, but give you faith that there are still courageous journalists out there who are striving for the truth. [~doomsdayer520~]

The eighteen essays in this book will dismay even those who have watched investigative journalism co-opted on TV by talking heads and road accidents or who look up from a newspaper story with more questions than answers. The contributors are distinguished career journalists, most of them award winners, most of them gung-ho about journalism - until their run-in with the buzzsaw of corporate or government displeasure. They may not persuade you (though most probably will) but they will make you think.Taken individually the essays are emotionally charged, well-organized exposés of blunders, greed, incompetence and ruthlessness. Taken as a whole the book paints a depressing picture of the state of big, mainstream media. Expensive investigative journalism is the first to go in a corporate climate where profit stands above the public's right to know. Beholden first to the bottom line, media giants are also swayed by advertising dollars, government intimidation and fear of lawsuits. And the book paints a disturbing picture of the lengths our government and corporate giants are willing to go to quash negative stories.Most of these stories are familiar: the investigation of TWA flight 800, the CIA and drug running/ assassinations/ incompetence, civilian Koreans massacred by US troops, MIAs in Vietnam, and the election of 2000. On the corporate side there's rapacious DuPont, bovine growth hormone, and the state of psychiatric hospital care.Which story is the scariest? Well, everyone eats so Monsanto's push to get bovine growth hormone into all our milk comes to mind. Jane Akre details the process (i.e. the longest test for long-term human toxicity lasted 30 days on 30 rats - and although the FDA was told there were no adverse effects, one third of the rats suffered cysts and lesions) and then the demise of her story, orchestrated by Monsanto lawyers and abetted by her station's new owners, Rupert Murdoch.Or how about Michael Levine's (former DEA undercover operative, turned author and journalist) surreal but all too believable piece on long-term CIA involvement with politically expedient drug runners and killers, which segues neatly with Gary Webb's piece on CIA collusion with Contra drug dealers who introduced vast amounts of crack to gangs in South LA who then spread it to the rest of the country. Remember that one? Discredited? Gary Webb tells how and why and he's very believable.But the saddest, most chilling story of all is the case of returning Vietnam POW Bobby Garwood who was vilified and court-martialed in 1979 as an enemy collaborator because his story conflicted sharply with the government line that all POWs and MIAs had been accounted for. Writer Monika Jensen-Stevenson spent 20 years working to clear Garwood's name and her account of our government's deliberate, well-orchestrated destruction of a loyal, traumatized soldier would be hard to believe if it wasn't so well-documented. Memorial Day 1998 Garwood was embraced by three Medal of Honor w

As a professional journalist, who studied under Fred Friendly at the Columbia U. School of Journalism, I find this the most important (and in light of recent 9/11 FBI revelations, timely) book about American journalism in many years. I read through its 381 pages in just a few days, amazing since I'm not an especially fast reader. I could hardly put it down. Why?-First, these are great tales written by great writers.-Second, these are accomplished pros and their experiences span a wide range of media outlets and topics.-Third, this book makes a pusuasive case both that investigative reporting is essential to an informed American public & the survival of American democracy *and* that it is being sabotaged, by either intention or default, by media companies that (I deduce) are so profit-driven and risk aversive that they can barely be considered as practicing serious journalism.Anyone who is bored by this book is either sleep deprived, on a controlled substance, or is predisposed against it. After reading this book, it became evident to me that it is now up to journalists ourselves to defend our work and democracy. We are truly America's last hope for an informed public.

If you, like myself, have stopped watching TV news, and question the reason any article appears in the print media, this book is for you. Here are the news stories that were deliberately withheld. Here are the important stories written by true heros that this country seems to be looking for. I considered myself well informed until I read this book. I am grateful to all who contributed to its content.This book should scare any thinking adult into taking their citizenship and future seriously enough to pay careful attention and take some action.

There has been much talk about the supposed liberal bias of the media. I find this absurd. The true bias is pro-establishment, pro-free trade (a misnomer if ever there was one), pro-rich, and anti anything that contradicts these. This is a book for those who wonder why, who question authority, and demand truth. I was introduced to a word in this book; to "privish" is to print too few copies to make a book financially viable. I hope that this is not the fate of this book, as it is a true eye-opener. We live in Orwellian times: Peace is War, Truth is ignorance, etc. To know the inner machinations of journalism is a necessary part of being informed. To read the stories of those who refused to lie down is to remember what "fight" means. Don't be a sheep, even if you believe that the saviour of the human race is a lamb.