Synopses & Reviews
The world's best known reporters tell the story of what really happened in Iraq in a gripping and gritty narrative history of the war.
Included are contributions from fifty international journalists, including Dexter Filkins, The New York Times correspondent who won widespread praise for his coverage of Fallujah; Rajiv Chandrassekaran, author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City; Anthony Shadid of the Washington Post, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his war coverage; Richard Engel of NBC; Anne Garrels of NPR, and other star reporters from both the print and broadcast world, not to mention their translators, photo journalists, and a military reporter.
All come together to discuss the war from its beginning on, and they hold back nothing on the violence they faced—Farnaz Fassihi of the Wall Street Journal talks about her near–kidnapping by "five men with AK–47s" chasing her car. ("I kept thinking, 'This is it.'") Nor do they hold back discussing how this impacted their work—British reporter Patrick Cockburn of The Independent notes that "One had to spend an enormous amount of time thinking about one's own security," and NPR reporter Deborah Amos observes that it was even more complicated for women: "As time went on we had to dress as Iraqi women, in the most conservative costumes Iraqi women would wear."
But perhaps the most fascinating—and chilling—observation is that most saw a disaster in Iraq unfolding long before they were allowed to report it. As Jon Lee Anderson of The New Yorker puts it, various governmental authorities and the media's own fears combined "to keep bad news away from the public," an observation supported by over 21 stunning, full–color photographs—many of which have never been published before due to such censorship.
Collected by the editors of America's most prestigious media monitor, the Columbia Journalism Review, such revelations make Reporting Iraq a fascinating and unique look at the war, as well as an important critique of international press coverage.
Review
"Never in the fifty years that I have been in or around the news business have I read a better record of a historic event than this." Reese Schonfeld, founding president of CNN
Review
"This should be required reading in every journalism class from high school to graduate school." James W. Crawley, president of Military Reporters and Editors
Review
"[A] searing document, one of the most revealing chronicles of the war yet published. It is as though correspondents are talking late into the night, trying to explain what it was like, what sights and smells haunt them, what they're proud of and what they regret, what they saw coming and what they didn't." Anthony Swofford, The Washington Post Book World (read the entire Washington Post Book World review)
Synopsis
Following in the footsteps of best-selling books about the war,
Reporting Iraq is a fully illustrated narrative history of the war by the world's best-known reporters and photojournalists. Included are contributions from fifty journalists, including Dexter Filkins (the
New York Times correspondent who won widespread praise for his coverage of Fallujah), Rajiv Chandrasekaran (author of
Imperial Life in the Emerald City ), Anthony Shadid (the
Washington Post reporter awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his Iraq reporting), and Patrick Cockburn (from London's
Independent ).
In this, the first book to tell the history of the war through the end of 2006, the deadliest period of conflict, we learn that most journalists saw a disaster in Iraq before they were allowed to report it. This revelation, along with hundreds of untold first-person stories, makes Reporting Iraq a fascinating look at the war and an important critique of international press coverage.
Reporting Iraq is published in conjunction with the Columbia Journalism Review , America's premier media monitor and watchdog of the press in all its forms, from newspapers and magazines to radio, television, wire services, and the web.
Synopsis
“A searing document, one of the most revealing chronicles of the war yet published. It is as though correspondents are talking late into the night, trying to explain what it was like, what sights and smells haunt them, what they’re proud of and what they regret, what they saw coming and what they didn’t.”
—Anthony Swofford,The Washington Post“Never in the fifty years that I have been in or around the news business have I read a better record of a historic event than this.”
—Reese Schonfeld, founding president of CNN
“This should be required reading in every journalism class from high school to graduate school.”
—James W. Crawley, president of Military Reporters and Editors
Following in the footsteps of best-selling books about the war, Reporting Iraq is a fully illustrated narrative history of the war by the world’s best-known reporters and photojournalists. Included are contributions from fifty journalists, including Dexter Filkins (the New York Timescorrespondent who won widespread praise for his coverage of Fallujah), Rajiv Chandrasekaran (author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City), Anthony Shadid (the Washington Postreporter awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his Iraq reporting), and Patrick Cockburn (from London’s Independent).
In this, the first book to tell the history of the war through the end of 2006, the deadliest period of conflict, we learn that most journalists saw a disaster in Iraq before they were allowed to report it. This revelation, along with hundreds of untold first-person stories, makes Reporting Iraq a fascinating look at the war and an important critique of international press coverage.
Reporting Iraqis published in conjunction with the Columbia Journalism Review, America’s premier media monitor and watchdog of the press in all its forms, from newspapers and magazines to radio, television, wire services, and the web.
About the Author
Mike Hoyt is the executive editor of the
Columbia Journalism Review, the monthly magazine and website that is the country’s most esteemed media monitor, and is affiliated with the Columbia University’s prestigious Journalism School. Hoyt has worked at the magazine, both as a writer and editor, since 1986. Prior to that he was a newspaper reporter, a copy editor at
Business Week, and a freelance journalist. Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, he now resides in New Jersey.
John Palattella is the literary editor of The Nation and former editor at large of the Columbia Journalism Review, as well as a former special projects editor at Lingua Franca. His essays and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including The Nation, the London Review of Books, Bookforum, Boston Review, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, and the Washington Post Bookworld. He lives in Brooklyn.