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

Kristina Borjesson; Gore Vidal

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1573929727 ISBN 13: 9781573929721

Publisher: Prometheus Books, 2002

Synopsis

Featuring a foreword by Gore Vidal, a penetrating collection of powerful essays, from award-winning print and TV journalists, details the perilous state of American journalism in today's world by revealing their own personal experiences with censorship and concerted corporate and/or government efforts to destroy their controversial stories and their careers.

About this title

About the Author

Kristina Borjesson, an Emmy and Murrow Award-winning investigative reporter, has worked for CBS and CNN.

From the Inside Flap

Here for the first time in the history of American journalism, almost two dozen award-winning print and TV journalists have collaborated to produce a book of devastating essays about the dangerous state of American journalism today. Writing in riveting, often gut-wrenching detail about their personal experiences with the "buzzsaw"--concerted corporate and/or government efforts to kill their controversial stories and their careers--the contributors to INTO THE BUZZSAW reveal the awesome depth and breadth of censorship in America today. Their essays portray a press corps that regularly engages in self-censorship and attacks reporters who come under fire for not doing so. They describe a Fourth Estate that has largely relinquished its watchdog role and that has been coopted by corporate and government powers. The bigger picture is that of a press actively contributing to the demise of democracy in America.

Collectively, these essays paint a picture that is as vivid and shocking as it is utterly credible. Riveting first-person accounts detail what these investigative reporters risked and what they uncovered about the government's investigation into the crash of TWA Flight 800; the CIA's involvement in the War on Drugs; the U.S. military's efforts to cover up the massacre of hundreds of civilians during the Korean War, and the conspiracy to court-martial a returning POW from Vietnam; the writing on the wall foreshadowing the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; and much, much more.

If you want to know what's really going on in our nation's corridors of power, or if you read or watch the news on a regular basis, this book is indispensable. One thing is certain: after finishing INTO THE BUZZSAW, you will never again see or hear the news in the same way.

Reviews

Adult/High School-The buzzsaw, explains Borjesson, is what journalists encounter when they attempt to reveal information that the nation's "large institutions-be they corporate or government-" prefer to keep secret. She presents 18 firsthand accounts by authors and print and television producers and reporters who challenged the media structure, often with devastating results to their careers. While Borjesson's and David Hendrix's narratives on the 1996 TWA Flight 800 disaster alone are worth the price of the book, other contributors chronicle their experiences with everything from books suppressed by the publishing industry to drug-war "shills" (those hoping to convince an audience that the "game is honest") to Bobby Garwood, who spent 14 years as a POW in Vietnam. Self-censorship is rife, they say, forcing limits on what constitutes news and whose voice is being heard. This desperate state of modern journalism relates directly to the fact that while good investigative reporting demands time, money, and risk, news executives are more concerned with profitability. Suggested reforms include providing "news that matters" and a return to the First Amendment's promise of a "free press." Many of the essays are blunt; all are provocative, substantiated by examples and evidence. The issues each one raises should spark lively debates in journalism and government classes and stimulate the critical thinking of news consumers. A brief biography and photograph of the contributor prefaces each chapter.
Dori DeSpain, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

In this uneven yet illuminating anthology, editor Borjesson succinctly explains the journalist's predicament: "The buzzsaw is what can rip through you when you try to investigate or expose anything this country's large institutions be they corporate or government want kept under wraps." Indeed, if members of the general public read this book, or even portions of it, they will be appalled. To the uninitiated reader, the accounts of what goes on behind the scenes at major news organizations are shocking. Executives regularly squelch legitimate stories that will lower their ratings, upset their advertisers or miff their investors. Unfortunately, this dirt is unlikely to reach unknowing news audiences, as this volume's likely readership is already familiar with the current state of journalism. Here, Murrow Award-winning reporter Borjesson edits essays by journalists from the Associated Press to CBS News to the New York Times. Each tells of their difficulties with news higher-ups as they tried to publish or air controversial stories relating to everything from toxic dump sites and civilian casualties to police brutality and dangerous hospitals. Some, like BBC reporter Greg Palast's, are merely rants against "corporate" journalism, but others, like New York Observer columnist Philip Weiss's, will serve as meaningful lessons to nascent and veteran writers alike. Most of the sentiments here are especially relevant given the current reports of the war in Afghanistan and questions of their validity, making this timely and essential reading for students and scholars of journalism. (Mar.)Forecast: With Bernard Goldberg's Bias riding high on bestseller lists, Borjesson's offering on news media manipulation is bound to attract serious attention and sales.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Significant stories by investigative reporters do not always reach the air or find their way into print; some of them get caught in "the buzzsaw" that rips through both their reporting and their reputations. Borjesson, an Emmy Award-winning reporter, pulls together 18 essays written by journalists who have either personally experienced this buzzsaw or who have closely observed the media industry. Her own reporting on TWA Flight 800 for CBS made her a target of the FBI, who interfered with her investigative work. She was harassed, her computer and reporter's notebook were stolen, and in the end CBS fired her. The experience changed her perception of the media establishment. Her colleagues here detail accounts of their own buzzsaw encounters covering such stories as Florida's voting in the recent presidential election, Tailwind, a massacre during the Korean War, and CIA involvement with the drug trade. A biographical sketch precedes each piece. This book would have benefited from a more substantial introduction to provide adequate context, but Robert McChesney's closing essay on the history of professional journalism does underscore the fragile state of reporting. Recommended for all academic journalism collections and public libraries where media books circulate well. Judy Solberg, George Washington Univ. Lib., Washington, DC
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Award-winning journalists reveal the disturbing fact that the press in the U.S. isn't as free as the public would like to believe. Nearly two dozen reporters, at some risk to their careers, disclose run-ins with corporate or government powers-that-be which have prompted them to reevaluate the significance of journalism in a free and open society. Greg Palast, an American working for the Guardian in Britain, recounts his paper's investigation of voting irregularities in the 2000 U.S. presidential election, long before the lethargic U.S. press took up the story. Borjesson, an independent producer and the editor of this collection, recalls efforts to disclose the cause of the explosion of TWA Flight 800 in New York in 1996. Jake Akre, a television reporter, recounts actions taken by milk producers to thwart a report on the questionable quality of milk from cows fed with growth hormones. These reporters see a troubling trend toward self-censorship as more of their colleagues fear reprisals for the content of their reporting. This is a disturbing but fascinating collection that will appeal to readers interested in the media. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1573929727
• ISBN 13: 9781573929721
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 392