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

Rating:
Summary: Who do you trust?
Review: 'Into the Buzzsaw' is a book that purports to expose an underlying phenomenon of censorship in the media - censorship of stories which question the government or large and prominent corporations. It is composed of contributions from a number of journalists (some former journalists) describing stories that they were involved in which went 'into the buzzsaw' - which met with such resistance from those corporations or the government that they were not allowed to be fully reported, or reported at all. The stories range from recent to relatively old, including the use of hormones to increase milk production, an expose of the Du Pont family, the U.S. government's behind the scenes involvement in the international drug trade, the case of Vietnam-veteran and accused turncoat Bobby Garwood, the TWA flight 800 disaster and more.

I found 'Into the Buzzsaw' troubling, but not for the reasons you might think. The primary source of uneasy tension I felt while reading the book sprouted because I just wasn't sure whether I could believe the assertions of the various contributors or how far I could trust their veracity. It's not an easy question to wrestle with, and there is no solution between the covers of the book.

In his book 'Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion', Robert Cialdini shows how we take our cues about credibility from symbols of authority and that we look for reinforcement of our opinion from others who believe the same as we. Such a system gives a high level of credibility (though not an unimpeachable one) to major papers such as the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times. It also leads us to add weight the opinions and statements of people who hold elected office or some other government position - an official imprimatur of authority. It does not, however, lend itself automatically to a high level of credibility for a book put together by a loose band of journalists and other media figures who buck the conventional wisdom - (another source of anonymous authority - who decides what that wisdom is and where do they hold the convention?).

Further difficulty arose from the fact that a few of the contributors appear to have an axe to grind. Vindictiveness can come through in writing, and when it occurs, it can lead the reader to the credible alternative theory that the author is slanting facts to support a pre-determined, biased conclusion. This undercuts the argument that these authors are attempting to make. Also, in one or two instances, there appeared to be significant questions about the situations that were not explored fully enough to rule out alternate explanations for the events described. Finally, in reading this book I also began to have questions about the limits journalistic expertise when it comes to various subject matters. There were one or two times when I didn't trust the reporter to know enough about the subject to be able to draw correct conclusions from the limited evidence they presented, particularly in the 2nd chapter regarding bovine hormones.

That said, this is an important book and well worth reading. Most of the authors are credible and appear to be primarily concerned with shedding light on the workings of the modern media, not with promoting their bias. You don't have to believe everything that the individual contributors assert to understand and recognize the validity of the primary point - that there is an underlying form of censorship (including self-censorship) that acts to protect powerful interests. There are innumerable examples independent of this book that show how such organizations, in a position of influence, use that influence to shape or suppress, distort or obfuscate coverage of their activities. Watergate and Travelgate come to mind for starters. This book does a good job of breaking down the credibility lent by cues of authority and reinforcing the healthy and appropriate skepticism that should accompany assertions by 'official sources'.

Had I proofed this book before publication, I would have advised a few of the authors to tone down their writing - to make it more serious. I'm no fan of plodding writing and I enjoy a good Dave Barry column as much as anyone - but loose language is sometimes inappropriate when your credibility is at issue. Nevertheless it is an entertaining read and will make you think, in more ways than one, about an issue that is at stake in any healthy democracy - who do we trust to give us our information? I gave it 4 stars to reflect the tension I felt in reading 'Into the Buzzsaw', but if the subject of the media, government, bias and censorship at all interests you, this is an excellent book to read.

Rating:
Summary: The most important book about journalism in years
Review: 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.

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Summary: Courageous Journalists (and a Few Bitter Ones) Fight Back
Review: 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~]

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Summary: Every american citizen should read this book...
Review: This an extremely frightening book.

What's so frightening in it? Not the fact that it claims to reveal some disturbing truths.

Actually, many books are claiming to do just that.

No, what scared me most is the fact that not only most of the contributors are respected journalists, but all the contributions are extremely well documented and precisely, seriously presented to the reader.

It has nothing to do with any "conspiracy theory" book. All the information inside is very valuable in itself, but it also serves as a clinical description of the sorry state of the american media. Since all the accounts are written in the first person, you share all the difficulties of these reporters who commited that completely unusual sin: they actually did their job properly.

As a swiss citizen who fancy the american culture and media a lot, I wonder how the citizen of that beautiful democracy can stand such scandalous behaviour from the mass media.

The story of the involvement of the CIA in the emergence of the crack epidemy in L.A. was particularly shocking. But most of the stories are equally amazing. DO read this book. And trust me: I don't like reading the work of lunatics either, but this is serious journalism.