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 | | Feet to the Fire: The Media After 9/11, Top Journalists Speak Out by Kristina Borjesson (Editor) ISBN-10: 9781591023432 ISBN-10: 1-59102-343-2 ISBN-13: 9781591023432 ISBN-13: 978-1-59102-343-2 Hardcover 2005-10-18 Prometheus Books Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description In her latest book, Kristina Borjesson once again leaves pundits, media critics, and Monday-morning quarterbacks behind. Zeroing in on a stunning lineup of first-hand sources, she presents a unique and utterly fascinating record of self-examination by some of America’s top working journalists. Focusing on the post 9/11 crisis period, Borjesson has interviewed ABC’s Ted Koppel, Hearst Newspaper’s Helen Thomas, Paul Krugman of the New York Times, Barton Gellman and Walter Pincus of the Washington Post, Associated Press President/CEO Tom Curley, Harpers publisher John MacArthur, Peter Arnett, and many others. This collection of masterful interviews unveils a journalistic environment that rivals any long-running soap opera on television. Filled with astonishing personal stories, conflict, and drama, Feet to the Fire gives readers the rare opportunity to walk a mile in the shoes of this nation’s most powerful journalists and news executives. Most of them have spent long stretches of their professional lives in what can only be described as pressure-cooker environments ranging from deadly war zones to high-rise corporate offices. As a serious, first-hand account of contemporary mainstream journalism, the book has no equal. Mindful of the broader historical context and the value of comparing the coverage of recent conflicts to Vietnam War coverage, Borjesson has included long interviews with Vietnam-era reporters who are still working today, like Peter Arnett. Arnett won a Pulitzer Prize as an Associated Press reporter in Vietnam, was CNN’s star war correspondent during the first Gulf War, and became a lightning rod while reporting on the second Gulf War. As an oral account of the current era of crisis, as a deeper and far more insightful view of this nation’s most accomplished messengers and the landscape in which they operate, Feet to the Fire is nothing short of a tour-de-force. Interview subjects include: Ted Koppel, Helen Thomas, Tom Curley (President/CEO Associated Press), Peter Arnett, Paul Krugman (New York Times), Barton Gellman and Walter Pincus (Washington Post), Deborah Amos (NPR war correspondent), Jon Alpert (independent producer/cameraman), John MacArthur, Tom Yellin (executive producer for Peter Jennings), Chris Hedges, and James Bamford (National Security reporter). | ||
Reviews | ||
Very insightful, fascinating This is quite an interesting book, comprised of in depth interviews with many of the leading reporters who have covered Iraq and other wars over the years. The focus is on the following: Why did nearly all the US media roll over liked whipped puppies and regurgitate the Bush administration's bulls**t in the run-up to the disastrous Iraq war? Not only that, why did so many of them behave like cheerleaders for the effort, going so far as to report the opening days of the war as if they were at a spectacular fireworks extravaganza? The 'answers' are few but the indications are many - commercial considerations, laziness, a pathological fear of being painted as 'liberal' or 'unpatriotic' - all of these things played a role. Having been played like a fiddle by the Bushies, the media predictably began to get its revenge in Bush's second term. And while Bush and the gang are unlikely to ever be able to manipulate the media at such a scale again, what's to prevent it from happening with future administrations? Unfortunately, this book does not have those answers. | ||
Valiant Effort I must say, I had higher expectations when I read this book. Nevertheless, we can't blame editor Kristina Borjesson. The book consists of a number of chapters divided by individual interviews of 21 "most distinguished" journalists. The questions, centered around the media drumbeat for the Iraq War, are all asked by KB, and while they are fairly tough enough, the responses are, quite frankly, lame. These journalists have no iota of a notion of holding themselves accountable for one of the biggest atrocities that mankind is capable of committing-War! KB probes and probes, but most of these shills just don't get it. I was particularly disgusted at the raw naivety of Ted Koppel. This guy is NOT looking out for America. He's looking out for his paycheck. There were a few journalists who gave some good genuine answers like James Bamford and the Harper's reporter, John MacArthur. But more importantly, there is a lesson here, and that lesson is that YOU, American citizen, have to use your OWN critical thinking and ask the tough questions because the mainstream media has profits to make and they don't maximize those pathological profits in an era of peacetime status quo...Now, take a look back in history and notice the same irresponsible journalism surrounding WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, etc...infinity...hundreds of thousands of American soldier deaths (and civilian)...for nothing... | ||
Very demanding, but read it nonetheless Quite frankly, I don' think I've ever read a books as important as Feet to the Fire. At least not while trying to make sense of the contemporary conflict between the West (i.e. North America) and the Middle East with its numerous Muslim countries and inhabitants. In this thorough 627 pages long book, Kristina Borjesson interviews the key players in the North American journalism and media scene. And she does so using straight-forward and honest questions. Except the current war against Iraq, which dominates the greater part of the book, other things such as the Bush administration, news reporting in the aftermath of 9/11, censorship in the media, and much, MUCH more. She's never afraid to ask both controversial and troubling questions, in other words those very questions that many people have been thinking about but never given an answer to. And luckily for us, the interviewees are willing to answer. Of the book's more than 600 pages, most contains paragraph after paragraph of useful information. It goes without saying that a complete summary of a book with a scale as massive as this one can never be accomplished in a short book review, but one thing is certain: in case you do manage to read the entire thing you'll get a new and sometimes very troubling look at the state of world politics and warfare. Forget the impersonal images you've seen in the news and never mind the stale reporting coming out of most newspapers: here you'll hear from the people who've actually been there, who've been in the heat of gruesome battle; the people who'll tell you just how tragic this reality really is. I could spend the rest of the night talking about all the big names and all the important stories found in the book, but then this review would probably never come to an end. Instead, I must emphasize the importance of Borjesson's work. Because that's really what's so great about this book. Both Americans and Europeans (and, of course, the people in the Middle East) will learn things from reading it, but they will learn DIFFERENT things. Americans will learn how much of what they're being told by their own media often is just incorrect, but not only that, they'll also come closer to an understanding as to why people all over the world tend to hate them as much as they really do. It's a tough thing to learn, but reality is seldom beautiful, and it won't get a whole lot better with ignorance. It's well-known that a great deal of the European population (along with the rest of the world) look at Americans as a whole as arrogant, fanatically patriotic, and extremely close-minded (even though all of us who've visited that country know this is not the case with every single American), and Feet of the Fire will help explain why these twisted images have become so prevalent. You won't finish this book in an afternoon while relaxing under the sun at your local beach. It's a very demanding book that you'll have to devote a lot of hours to, but please, don't let this scare you from buying it and reading it. It's much too important to miss. | ||
A Rare Look at the Media As a broadcast journalist I read this book to understand how my colleagues could have been so laxed in reporting and investigating the issues, post 9/11, that led to war with Iraq. I came away not only with a greater understanding of those issues, but with insights both sobering and frightening about the profession I work in. This book is not just for journalists, but for anyone who believes in freedom of the press and for people who care to understand how things really get (or do not get) reported. | ||
A must read for anyone puzzled by reporting in the USA Author Borjesson strings together fascinating interviews. The words of David Martin(CBS) and Ted Koppel(ABC) go a long way to explain how most big media FAILED us in the march to war in Iraq. Conversely, John MacArthur of Harpers, Chris Hedges at the NY Times, Juan Cole and James Bamford (among many) give insightful perspectives on US reporting. Bamford is especially worthy of praise. His brutal honesty on the topic of Israeli misdeeds will irk some, but Bamford's words and his terrific piece of CURRENT reporting on efforts to start a war with Iran shows us that all is not yet lost when it comes to reporting what the public NEEDS to know. | ||