Media Wars: News at a Time of Terror

I would normally consider myself conservative, politically speaking, and I wasn't sure what I would think of Danny Schechter's book. Prior to reading it I had never heard of him, or mediachannel.org. That said, I found this book very thought provoking and I don't watch the news in the same way anymore. Schechter provides important questions for a news consumer to ask, and makes even a casual news watcher more critical of any inherent bias in the media. Perhaps because Schechter would call me a victim of American media, I found some of his Middle East commentary difficult to follow. I am probably not educated on those topics enough. Instead, I most appreciated the critiques of domestic 9/11 coverage. I also thought that at times the book seemed to be overly "selling" the author's website (mediachannel.org). After reading the book, I can appreciate why he is trying to popularize the site, but I thought there were just too many mentions of the site...it got in the way of what may have been more salient points. The book seemed a little long, toward the end.In a weird tangental way, this book is an interesting partner with Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine, as it asks many touchy questions regarding the media's role in US culture.In the end...it's worthwhile reading regardless of your political views, as long as you don't mind taking a critical eye toward the media.