Red, White, or Yellow?: The Media and the Military at War in Iraq | 
 enlarge | Author: Charles Jones
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $10.98
You Save: $13.97 (56%)
New (33) Used (7) from $6.59
Rating:  3 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 255
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0811704025
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.4495670443
EAN: 9780811704021
Publication Date: September 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Ships immediately! Perfect and New! 2008 Hardcover.
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Product Description
"[Covering Iraq] has been the most frustrating and rewarding experience of my life as a journalist." - Joe Klein, Time Magazine, in an interview with Charles Jones War has always attracted journalists, such as Ernest Hemingway in the Spanish Civil War or David Halberstam in Vietnam. And war reporting has often been controversial as well as influential, like William Randolph Hearst's "yellow journalism" in the Spanish-American War. But what happens when 24/7 news channels and the Internet make news instantaneous . . . when the public's attention span decreases . . . when political and military leaders employ slick spinmeisters to package the news . . . when reporters lose their objectivity? In this passionate look at how war is reported in the age of Fox News and blogging, Charles Jones takes readers from the front page to the front lines--and back again--to explore how the Iraq War has been covered. Along the way he interviews journalists and military leaders--including Jim Lehrer of PBS, Jamie McIntyre of CNN, Rick Atkinson of the Washington Post, Joe Klein of Time, and former Marine Gen. James L. Jones--and describes the conflict between the media, which claims a right to know, and the military, which claims a need for secrecy and security. Jones shows us Geraldo Rivera drawing battle plans in the sand, MSNBC censoring Phil Donahue, and Donald Rumsfeld "oh golly"-ing reporters at the Pentagon and answers these questions: * Why has public interest in news about Iraq declined since 2003? * Why do most people seem to care more about Britney Spears and Paris Hilton than about the latest casualties in Iraq? And why do many news outlets indulge those preferences? * How does the embedding process work? Has it been successful? * How has the military disseminated information about the war? * To what extent has the Bush administration twisted the facts? * How do reporters balance objectivity and patriotism? * What are the obligations of a journalist in wartime?
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| Customer Reviews:
All should speak up! October 30, 2008
W. McKinley (Portland, OR USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
C-SPAN programs in which you get to hear and see an author is a blessing, very useful. I saw Chip Jones and I read his book, and both together were extremely nourishing edifying, well worth anyone's time and effort. I look forward to reading anything else from this man. Our great problem is undifferentiated news, too much news with no context, and you simply cannot understand anything accurately without context, but news does not present much of anything in context. Recent behavior of our government is not the America I love and have been proud of. People need to speak up, thoughtfully, conscientiously, like Mr. Jones. Otherwise we are all doomed to go from buzz term to sound byte, all caricatures and cliches, and we will lose even the knowledge of how to actually communicate with each other. Excellent book, much needed.
Finding Truth September 9, 2008
Christopher Westcott (Spotsylvania, Virginia)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Jones writes a remarkable account of how difficult it is for even the best reporters to find truth in the miserable mess made in Iraq. He tells the story behind the story; the struggles, both physical and psychological, that brillant and well intentioned journalists encounter in trying to tell the story of how this country found its young sons dieing for reasons yet to be fully disclosed. Jones is a masterful reporter and reflects a part of the overall story rarely heard in the mass media. Finding truth in war has never been easy...finding truth in a war propegated by a tangled web of deception becomes downright impossible.
Finding Media Truth in Iraq September 4, 2008
Thomas Stouffer (Shippensburg, PA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Charles Jones may not be as well known as some war correspondents, but he is a first-rate experienced reporter. With the same keen perspective he demonstrated in Boys of '67, he takes the reader of Red, White, or Yellow? The Media and the Military at War in Iraq on an exciting journey into the Iraq war media maelstrom - a journey that is grounded in historical fact and personal encounters with those responsible for "the story behind the story."
Personal views of the media - and nearly all of us who have served in our Armed Forces have pretty strong ones - will likely not be immediately confirmed by Jones' analysis. Even with judiciously chosen, highly reputable sources and firsthand experience, he makes no attempt to provide simple answers to the complex challenge of objective media coverage in a democracy in time of conflict.
There is no self-promoting bravado here. With humor, self effacing candor, meticulously developed background, incisive thinking, and distinctly human interaction, Jones chronicles the terrible and the uniquely mundane of the Iraq experience. His writing is characterized by a profound respect of all the "players" - be they junior enlisted, men, women, officers, well or little known media personalities or senior leadership. He provides evidence that falls on all sides of the political spectrum. He is generous and understanding in his assessments, but rightfully most critical of failures by those at higher levels of authority and responsibility. His accounts of travel in and out of Iraq, combat, negotiations with provincial leaders, and the "surge" are well-documented and distinctly believable.
Right now part of our country is at war, and another part of it is trying to chronicle that war. As daily reports accumulate and "history" is told and retold, there is good cause to try to better understand the process. Red, White, or Yellow? is a timely yet enduring appraisal of the intersection of journalism and wartime military endeavor.
Thomas D. Stouffer, Colonel, USMC (Ret.)
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