The Piper

	.American Free Press
	...Volume V... #47... Nov 21, 2005.....americanfreepress.net

 

P. 17, AMERICAN FREE PRESS * November 21, 2005... First Amendment Book Review with Michael Collins Piper

Prominent Writers
Hold Neo-Cons’ Feet to Fire

By Michael Collins Piper

Several years ago Emmy-winning investigative reporter Kristina Borjesson outraged the media elite in America when she published the highly acclaimed book, Into the Buzzsaw — a book which proved quite (and justifiably) popular with readers of American Free Press. Her book was a fascinating anthology of articles by respected mainstream journalists who told their own revealing stories of how they witnessed major broadcasting networks and leading magazines and newspapers manipulating or otherwise suppressing important news stories. Miss Borjesson and her colleagues told shocking tales of massive cover-up and corruption by the owners, producers and editors at the highest levels of the networks and publications that provide Americans what they are told is “the news.” If anyone, for any reason, had any doubt that the behind-the-scenes masters of the media are powers unto themselves who have the capacity to mold public opinion by distorting or burying the facts about important events of the day, the work of Miss Borjesson (a former CBS and CNN reporter) put such skepticism to rest.

Now Miss Borjesson is back and in her new book, Feet to the Fire: The Media After 9/11, she has brought together another diverse group of 21 media figures (some quite well known) who have sharp critiques of the American media and its coverage of the news, particularly, as the title suggests, in the wake of the 9-11 terrorist tragedy and its impact on the American political arena.

In each of 21 chapters Miss Borjesson provides a brief overview of the work of each of the journalists in question, then provides them the opportunity to make brief introductory comments. Then she follows up with fascinating question-and-answer exchanges that often touch on some “controversial” subjects. And the book is carefully annotated with detailed footnotes that are interesting reading themselves.

Of particular focus — and necessarily so, considering the precarious position of the United States in the world today, thanks to the misrule of George W. Bush and his neo-conservative handlers — is the relationship between the Bush administration and the media and the conduct and news coverage of the war in Iraq and of Bush foreign policy in general. In that regard, one chapter of special interest to AFP readers is the interview with James Bamford, author of Body of Secrets, another volume popular with AFP readers. Bamford talks frankly of the lies told by the Bush administration and discusses the influence of hard-line pro-Israel agitators in the president’s inner circle.

Although some of the media figures who speak out in the pages of Feet to the Fire are themselves, in some respects, perceived as “villains” in the minds of many AFP readers, precisely because some of these folks are part of the elite media, what these figures have to say is often quite revealing. Love him or hate him, Ted Koppel of ABC, for example, has some insights well worth reading.

The book might very roughly be described as “insiders exposing insiders” but it’s much more than that: the depth and breadth of the material and personalities covered in Feet to the Fire, especially in the contextual backdrop of the Iraq war, 9-11, and the misdeeds and lies of the Bush administration is so widely encompassing and certainly will be of interest to anyone who is concerned with public affairs and our world today. This hefty 627 page book will keep you occupied on cold evenings or at
your Florida vacation house — wherever you’re spending your winter. Highly recommended. 

 

Illustration of book cover of FEET TO THE FIRE: The Media After 9/11. Also on upper cover: "Edited by Kristina Borjesson, Editor of the award-winning Into the Buzzsaw." On lower cover:"Top Journalists Speak Out."

 

Feet to the Fire: The Media After 9/11, hardcover, 629 pages, #1205, $28 can be ordered from FIRST AMENDMENT BOOKS, 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100, Washington, D.C. 20003. No charge for shipping & handling. Call 1-888-699-NEWS (6397) toll free to charge your copy to Visa or MasterCard. See page 16 for coupon.

. . ..A journalist specializing in media critique, Michael Collins Piper is the author of Final Judgment, the controversial “underground bestseller” documenting the collaboration of Israeli intelligence in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He is also the author of The High Priests of War, The New Jerusalem, The Judas Goats, and Dirty Secrets, all available from America First Books and FIRST AMENDMENT BOOKS. He has lectured on suppressed topics in places as diverse as Malaysia, Japan, Canada, Russia and Abu Dhabi.

(Issue #47, November 21, 2005, American Free Press)