Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
News hound Schechter (Media Wars; The More You Watch the Less You Know; etc.) opines on WMDs ("Weapons of Mass Deception") in this impassioned indictment of the news media's coverage of the recent war in Iraq. Among his beefs are the civilian casualties that were "rarely shown in the western media," the way the coverage "sold the war even as it claimed to be just reporting it," and the media's poor-and in some cases absent-portrayal of the war protests, which he says were "the largest global protests in history." Calling the President "Daddy Bush" and using other colloquial terms, Schechter presents his thoughts in a diary-like form, dating his thoughts as the war progresses and interjecting questions (for himself and for readers) throughout. For skeptics and those unhappy with the way Americans learned of what was happening in Iraq, this is an energetic but deeply discouraging study. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Review by Library Journal Review
Globalvision, a New York City-based television and film production company, has produced several books on the media and their failings, including cofounder and executive producer Schechter's Media Wars: News at a Time of Terror. Here, Schechter once again critiques American media, this time focusing on their lack of objectivity owing to undue influence by government and corporations. As he observes in the introduction, "This book focuses on the campaign that involved co-opting and orchestrating the news media" during Gulf War II, principally through "the effort to embed reporters whose work was subsidized by the Pentagon." A veteran journalist with 30 years' experience, Schechter presents his case in a series of reverse-chronology blogs (web logs) that are a pastiche of many sources, plus additional personal commentary. The criticism can be unrelenting but is certainly shown to be justified in the context of events. However, the book's format is so geared to the moment that its future usefulness as a source for those researching this topic is questionable. Recommended for larger public libraries and academic journalism collections.-Ari Sigal, Puckett Inst., Morganton, NC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
