Danny Schechter. New York: Select Books, 2006.

Schechter is is a television producer and independent filmmaker, and is a veteran of the news business. He had stints as a producer at ABC and CNN, and was an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.

When News Lies: Media Complicity And The Iraq War is a disturbing book that is accompanied by the feature-length DVD of Schechter’s prize-winning film “WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception).” The author condemns the roles played by American mainstream media in both promoting and misreporting the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

While Schechter has a clear antiwar bias, his book and film are less concerned with the questionable reasons for the Iraq war so much as the sort of collusive, incestuous relationship that has evolved between the media and the US military. Even ardent supporters of the war should be disturbed by the author’s sober details of the failings of American media to act as journalists and not as cheerleaders.

Schechter convincingly argues that the military actively engaged in a campaign to control media coverage of the Iraq war, and quoted General Tommy Franks as describing the management of the media as a “fourth front” in the war.

The author raised unsettling questions about an American corporate media that must choose between criticizing a government’s military plans, while simultaneously beseeching the same government for regulatory plums. Schechter also looked at the phenomenon of embedded reporters; the net result of this new wartime coverage seems to be the destruction of objectivity.

The book and film have interviews with a wide assortment of media, military, and government figures whose collective insights lend credence to Schechter’s thesis. Of note to Toledo readers: Schechter singles out the Toledo Blade and reporter James Drew for their willingness to cover topics ignored by the mainstream media.

Irrespective of one’s position on the justification for war in Iraq, this book is a must read for anyone concerned about democracy, journalistic integrity, and transparent governance. Buy it, borrow it, and tell everyone you know to read this important critique of American mainstream media.

Michael Brooks is a Clamor contributor, historian, and writer currently residing in the Rust Belt

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 2nd, 2006 at 12:37 pm by Michael Brooks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.