New Book Holds Media's 'Feet to the Fire' on Iraq, Middle East Reporting

In her latest book, author Kristina Borjesson goes straight to the sources -- 21 of war journalism's heavy hitters. "Feet to the Fire: The Media After 9/11," published Nov. 8 by Prometheus Books, is an exhaustive collective critique -- by the likes of Walter Pincus, Ted Koppel, Ron Suskind, Anthony Shadid, and Chris Hedges -- of the way American media covered recent U.S. involvement in the Middle East.
In her introduction, Borjesson, author of the earlier "Into the Buzzsaw," laments that "there is less hard news and real information on television than ever" and hopes her book will persuade people to turn their attention back to the hard-working journalists in other news formats. Her defense of the journalism community is tempered, however, by hard looks at where and why it failed, especially in covering military actions precipitated by the Sept. 11 attacks. Each Q&A is introduced by a description and summary of the interview, which, along with biographies, endnotes and a detailed index, make this hefty tome feel all the more like a text book.
While the subtitle suggests Sept. 11 as a watershed moment, Borjesson's questions more often center on the Iraq war and continuing Middle East conflicts. And although she can't help occasionally asking the media figures to reiterate specific facts that were downplayed when originally unearthed, she constantly refocuses her inquiries toward uncovering the paradigm shifts in media that have proven undeniable in recent years.