Africa A Biography of the Continent

"Polls show that a sizeable portion of the American population believes troops found WMD in Iraq and that Saddam Hussein was somehow responsible for the attacks of September 11. Even after the 9/11 Commission Report and numerous other reports concluded that our intelligence was flawed, people in the freest nation on earth continue to be misinformed about something that could not be more vital to understand - the reasons for sending troops into harm's way. This analysis argues that the media should have done a better job of performing its traditional role of skeptic and watchdog, and it examines what went wrong." "David Dadge explores why the media did not aggressively investigate the claims made by the administration and intelligence agencies; in short, why they did not do their job, which was to fully inform the citizenry to the best of their ability. He examines pressures from the Bush administration, pressures from corporate consolidation of media ownership, patriotism and self-censorship, and other factors. He concludes with recommendations for ways in which the media can improve their reporting on government so that they do not "fail us" again."--BOOK JACKET.

John Reader lives in London.