Includes bibliographical references and index.

Crisis coverage and the candy bar imperative / Ted Koppel -- The view from inside the ratings vise / Tom Yellin -- Chasing eyeballs and remembering Jessica Lynch / Tom Curley -- Everybody wants to be at Versailles / John MacArthur -- Grande dame, persona non grata / Helen Thomas -- Inside the house of power : a gatherer of unmanaged glimpses / Ron Suskind -- The revolution is being televised : you just don't want to believe what you're seeing / Paul Krugman -- Accountability's coroner / Barton Gellman -- Guerrilla at the Washington post / Walter Pincus -- Sound bite's truth / David Martin -- Dangerous nonsense and the Nuremberg rule / James Bamford -- Burrower-in-chief / John Walcott -- "The Vice President is lying" and other things the Deep Throats said / Warren P. Strobel/Jonathan S. Landay -- Blogger hits the hundredth-monkey phase / Juan Cole -- Democracy and Islam : the dreams and nightmares / Anthony Shadid -- "It's mine, the whole Goddammed story is mine!" / Peter Arnett -- "What do you mean you're telling them to kill me?" / Jon Alpert -- "We're not Mother Teresas in flak jackets" / Chris Hedges -- Marhaba Keefik! : "Two American soldiers died today" / Deborah Amos -- "You have two ears and one mouth, so you should listen twice as much as you speak" / Hannah Allam -- "Omar, what's going on?" / Tom Lasseter.

Twenty-one distinguished US journalists, beginning with Ted Koppel and concluding with Knight Ridder's war correspondent Tom Lasseter talk candidly about what's happening to journalism in America as a result of the trend toward junk information and misinformation. Their comments shed light on fundamental changes in the relationship between the government and the governed, and the government and the press. The veteran insiders see a widespread failure to cover government mistakes and malfeasance and a growing willingness of the media to play the role of the administration's propaganda arm. Editor Borjesson, an investigative reporter who has worked for CBS and CNN, is also the author of Into the Buzzsaw. Annotation #169;2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, In