Blogged

“Want Political Truth? Buy a Book”

The June 16 issue of Publishers Weekly takes note of something engaged readers have noticed for a while: the poor record of the mainstream press in covering the war in Iraq in anything more than a stenographic fashion. PW’s Dennis McEvoy says that the void has been filled, in a way, by the book publishing industry and the cottage industry of books on the war, usually written by former players in the Bush administration.

Since 2001, the press and Congress have acquiesced to the White House on the most important topic of this decade—the war in Iraq. Access to war zones was restricted; journalists were issued subpoenas by federal prosecutors; more than one major journalist was thought to have done the White House’s bidding in justifying going to war. … Some journalists, like ABC’s Charlie Gibson and NBC’s Brian Williams, have insisted they were doing their jobs, but Katie Couric of CBS disagreed and said the media’s collaboration in the run-up to war “was one of the most embarrassing chapters in American journalism.”

As we look back over the past several years, it isn’t just McClellan’s book that has been changing the journalistic landscape. There were books by Richard C. Clarke, Thomas Ricks, George Packer, Lawrence Wright, George Tenet, Douglas Feith, Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, Ron Suskind, and Bob Woodward that exposed, albeit well after the fact, the sleight-of-hand that the administration used to rally the public in its march to war.

The usual caveats apply, of course: just about all of these authors have some personal stake in the telling of their tales of the war and occupation - reputations to burnish or repair, past actions to rationalize. Also, public discussion of most of these titles will likely be limited to book reviews in your daily paper. Still, the wealth of published material - with more on the way! - provides more substantial food for thought on Iraq than you’re likely to find in the daily press. It’s up to us, citizens, to do the work of actually reading it, and separating wheat from chaff.

Also: Don’t miss the lengthy list of upcoming political titles - Iraq-related and otherwise - at the end of the article.

Similar posts:
“Incremental news”
Bet the other way
Tim Russert
“A strong sense of unease”
More on the AP vs. bloggers story

© 2008 Philip Barron.  Log in  Monitored by SiteUptime