Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism and Its Triumphs - Hardcover

Pilger, John (Ed)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224062883 ISBN 13: 9780224062886

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 2004

Synopsis

Over the past few decades, 'investigative journalism' has come to mean the kind of brave reporting that exposes injustice, wrongdoing and, above all, the abuse of power. At a time when journalism is under attack perhaps as never before, this celebration of the very best of investigative journalism, and some of the greatest practitioners of the craft, could not be more timely. In selecting for this anthology articles, broadcasts and book extracts that have got behind the facade of official silence to reveal important and disturbing truths, John Pilger is paying his own professional tribute to some of the men and women he most admires. Here are the famous muckrakers (Seymour Hersh on the My Lai massacre), as well as the less well known (Wilfred Burchett, the first Westerner to enter Hiroshima in September 1945; Israeli journalist Amira Hass, reporting from the Gaza Strip in the 1990s). Here, too, are the mavericks (the great German undercover reporter Gunter Wallraff; Jessica Mitford on 'The American Way of Death'). The book ranges from across many of the critical events, scandals and struggles of the past fifty years, from the scenes witnessed at the liberation of the death camp at Dachau in 1945, to the bloodshed caused by the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Along the way it bears witness to epic injustices committed against the peoples of Vietnam, Cambodia, East Timor and Palestine. John Pilger sets each piece of reporting in its context, often offering personal insights into the writer, and introduces the collection with a passionate essay arguing that the kind of journalism he celebrates here is being subverted by the very forces that ought to be its enemy. Taken as a whole, the book tells an extraordinary 'secret history' of the modern era, through the stories filed by some of its finest journalists. It is also a call to arms to journalists everywhere - before it is too late.

About this title

Product Description:

626 pages // 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 exposé 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.

Review:

"'Genuine objective journalism not only gets the facts right, it gets the meaning of events right. It is compelling not only today, but stands the test of time. It is validated not only by 'reliable sources' but by the unfolding of history. It is journalism that ten, twenty, fifty years after the fact still holds up a true and intelligent mirror to events.' T. D. Allman, Journalist"

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0224062883
• ISBN 13: 9780224062886
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 656