Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism That Changed the World

by John Pilger (Editor)

Overview

Prison scandals, terrorism, corporate fraud, election rigging — most likely you have heard something of the sort in the last ten minutes. But what is truth and what is part of the great "washout" of biased reporting? A celebration of lucid investigative reporting, selected by titan of the craft John Pilger, could come at no better moment. Pilger's book travels through contemporary history, from war correspondent Martha Gelhorn's wrenching 1945 account of the liberation of Dachau to Edward R. Murrow's groundbreaking excavation of McCarthyism to recent coverage of the war in Iraq. This homage to brave, often unsettling coverage features a range of great writing, from Seymour Hersh's Vietnam-era muckraking to Eric Schlosser's expose of the fast-food industry to preeminent theorist Edward Said's writing on Islam and terrorism. Unrepentant in its mission to expose the truth behind the messages that politicians, warmongers, and corporate-run media inculcate, Tell Me No Lies is essential for anyone who wants to understand the world around them objectively and intelligently. It's not just a collection of high-quality reporting, but a call-to-arms to all who believe in honesty and justice for humanity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781560257868
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	08/23/2005
Pages:	656
Sales rank:	413,450
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

John Pilger is a two-time winner of British journalism's highest award, Journalist of the Year, and has won the United Nations Association Media Peace Prize. For his broadcast journalism he has won an Oscar, an Emmy, France's Reporter Sans Frontières, and Britain's Richard Dimbleby Award. He lives in London but makes frequent trips to Cornell University, where he holds a Frank H. T. Rhodes Professorship.

Editorial Reviews

As these two collections reveal, editorial writing and investigative reporting are among the most powerful and engaging forms of journalism. Veteran newspaper editor Gartner, working with the staff of the Newseum, the museum of news due to reopen in Washington, DC, in 2007, explores the importance of the newspaper editorial in American history. Winner of the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing, he has gathered 50 of what he considers the most lively, informative, and persuasive editorials written from 1842 to 1998, ending there because he finds editorials written since compromised by corporate pressures. The editorials are organized into thematic categories, each with an overview. The section on slavery in the United States includes a piece by Horace Greely of the New York Tribune, considered by Gartner (and most historians) one of the greatest editorial writers in America. Amply illustrated with photographs, newspaper images, and other archival artwork, the collection reveals the traditions and contentions of the eras represented. On the whole, this interesting and well-organized book is suitable for all libraries. British journalist Pilger's collection also explores the passionate and influential side of journalism, as seen in investigative reporting from World War II to the present. Pilger (The New Rulers of the World) chooses excerpts from articles, books, and radio transcripts that took reporting beyond the simple stating of facts. He explains how these pieces serve as tools to bring about awareness of a lurking danger, such as the debilitating drug Thalydomide, or a political scandal like the 2000 U.S. election. International in scope, the anthology also provides a chilling testament to some of the most horrific crimes against humanity, such as the Dachau concentration camp, the bombing of Hiroshima, and the My Lai massacre. While these investigative works stand alone as examples of fine writing and attention to societal injustices, and while Pilger's analysis offers insight into the importance of investigative journalism to a free society, the anthology is hampered by the excessive length of each excerpt and the editor's frequent editorializing, in his introductions, about the current war in Iraq. Best for academic or large public libraries, especially those with communications collections.-Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal