Media Wars

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY APR 7, 2003

Schechter, formerly a mainstream journalist, now a producer for Globalvision, a television and film production company, has collected some of his own post-September 11 reportage, in addition to articles written by colleagues at Media Tenor (a firm that analyzes media content), the Project for Excellence in Journalism and other critical outlets. Schechter believes the American media (here, mostly television, some newspapers and magazines, but not radio) have failed the American public by not providing meaningful coverage of world news, largely due to government and corporate pressure. Even after September 11, the question the media addressed wasn't "why terrorism?" but "who to blame for it?" After several introductory essays, Schechter's opinion takes over, as he shares his own reactions to world news post-September 11, interrupted by flash-forwards or backwards, and intercut with charts categorizing the content of various television shows or newspapers, as well as analyses by other media "dissectors." The concluding section reviews Schechter's own career, describes the formation and mission of Globalvision and his other endeavor, Mediachannel.org, and even reprints sections of the introductory materials, notably Walter Cronkite's remarks on the need for dissent. While there is some excellent material here-notably Independent correspondent Jake Lynch's "Tips for Covering Conflict"-the book overall is disorganized and repetitious, making it hard to read cover-to-cover. All the same, Schechter's call for journalists to stand up to pressure and start reporting on the world again is vitally important.