In the elite levels of American journalism, it's all about going along to get along. That's why official censorship isn't needed in the United States. The editors and reporters do a fine job of it on their own.
The most disturbing thing to come out of the Scooter Libby trial was the extent of how journalists compromised themselves to maintain "access" to their high-level sources.
The late, great independent muckraker I.F. Stone was a virtual outcast in official Washington, yet he consistently and frequently scooped the so-called insiders by reading official documents, talking to the sources that the insiders never bothered to speak to and carefully researching until the missing piece that makes the story complete turned up.
Palast won't be invited to any official dinners in Washington anytime soon. He knows Stone's method won't win you friends. But it will turn up great stories.
"I don't like my words trying to swim across the Atlantic," Palast said last year. "They could drown — and that usually happens."
"Armed Madhouse" is the life raft for those words. His book will be seen by too few readers and the people who need to read this book — the folks at the big newspapers, magazines and TV news operations — will dismiss it as loony leftist crap.
It's not. Like all of Palast's work, it's painstakingly researched and backed up by facts. As he often points out, in Britain there is no First Amendment and the libel laws are the among the strictest in the world. Your reporting has to be solid and accurate, because the protections that American reporters take for granted don't exist for their British counterparts.
Someday, Palast's work will be seen by millions in this country and not be hidden in the shadows of American media. But why settle for another daily dish of cold potatoes? Get "Armed Madhouse" and you will receive a piping-hot explanation of oil company intrigue in Iraq, GOP ballot stealing, why New Orleans was left to die after Katrina and why U.S. workers are working harder for less money. You'll get a tasty plateful of investigative journalism, well-seasoned with Palast's sardonic humor.
Most of all, you will get the most important thing a democracy needs to survive — the truth reported in a timely fashion so people can use the information and act upon it. That's what good journalism is supposed to do. That's why we need more reporters like Greg Palast on the case.
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