"Limiting access, limiting information to cover the backsides of those who are in charge of the war, is extremely dangerous and cannot and should not be accepted. And I am sorry to say that, up to and including the moment of this interview, that overwhelmingly it has been accepted by the American people. And the current administration revels in that, and they take refuge in that." -CBS News Anchor Dan Rather on BBC News Night, May 16, 2002 In Media Wars: News at a Time of Terror, MediaChannel founder and editor, Danny Schechter, "the News Dissector," critically examines media coverage since 9/11. Schechter analyzes what has been covered and, more tellingly, left out, in news coverage of the terrorist attacks and their aftermath. Drawing from the reporting of over one thousand worldwide radio, newspaper, television, and internet affiliates, the result is a scathing account of how the media has become a megaphone for the U.S. military and its war on terror. More than just a critique, Schechter suggests a series of changes to improve our news sources and return them to the vital role a free and independent press must play to preserve a democracy. Media Wars is a timely assessment of what we are and are not being told in the most important story of our new century.

Of all the celebrities who served their country during World War II, Jimmy Stewart was unique. At the height of his fame, Jimmy Stewart enlisted in the army several months before the Pearl Harbor attacks woke Hollywood and the rest of the nation to the reality of war. "It's a true story of personal knowledge," writes Walter Cronkite in the foreword, "and is told with skill, respect, and admiration." Author Starr Smith chronicles for the first time Stewart's long journey to becoming a bomber pilot in combat, including:
- Stewart's battles with the Air Corps high command
- His assignment to a Liberator squadron in England with the famed Mighty Eighth Air Force
- His twenty combat missions--including one to Berlin--in command of his own squadron in the 445th Bomb Group
- Later, Stewart's promotion to group operations officer for the 453rd Bomb Group
"I have met a few movie stars, but of them all, I think that Jimmy Stewart was most like those modest heroes he portrayed. Now journalist Starr Smith has raised the curtain on Stewart's gallant service as a bomber pilot and air combat commander in World War II."
--Walter Cronkite, from the foreword
"My father's experiences during World War II affected him more deeply and permanently than anything else in his life. . . . He would feel honored by this book."
--Kelly Stewart Harcourt, daughter of Jimmy Stewart
"Smith's clear admiration for Stewart comes through on every page, but with an understatement that even George Bailey could have lived with."
--Publishers Weekly"
"How wonderful it is that Starr Smith has finally directed a literary light on the personal history of JimmyStewart. I welcomed Starr's book. It's needed and wanted. Bravo!"
--Gay Talese, noted journalist and author of A Writer's Life" and Honor Thy Father"
"This is a very well-researched and written book. Starr Smith has filled it with personal anecdotes about a World War II hero. It fills a place in history about no mere actor, but a courageous and selfless man."
--General Michael E. Ryan, USAF (ret.) and former Chief of Staff of the Air Force
"Jimmy Stewart was that rare public man who performed his duty without calling attention to himself. Stewart has found his biographer in Starr Smith, a man who knew Stewart, who knew the World War II Army Air Corps, and who surely knows how to write."
--Wayne Flynt, professor of history, Auburn University
"This is an excellent biography of a distinguished airman and fine human being, not a Hollywood star in uniform but a dedicated officer whose primary interest was the campaign of the Eighth Air Force. It is the work of a very accomplished writer, one who really knows his craft. When you turn the last page, you cannot but have a clear understanding of Jimmy Stewart's character."
--Roger A. Freeman, air power historian and author, The Mighty Eighth"
"Several senior-officer mentors, recognizing Stewart's competence as more than merely respectable, secured him combat assignments when Hollywood and the air force would probably rather have kept him making training films. . . . Smith dishes no dirt, possibly because, like other Stewart limners before him, he found none to dish."
--American Library Association, Booklist"

Thoburn H. "Toby" Wiant was a fig h t e r from an early age, and words were his weapons of choice. During World War II, he fought to scoop stories from rival reporters on the front lines as an Associated Press war correspondent. In chronicling the war from the China-Burma-India and European theaters of operation, he skillfully reported the battles of an all-too-real war while often in personal peril. In letters to his parents he revealed his personal reactions to the war. In this remarkable book, his daughter brings together Wiantas printed articles and his private letters. With her aid, we view the war through his eyes as we watch a scrappy boy grow into manhood and an
eager cub reporter develop into a seasoned war correspondent.

A journey around America's historic coastline, where we encounter places and people that continue to shape our country.

America has nearly five thousand miles of coastline. What would it be like to travel from the islands of Maine to the stepping-stones of the Florida Keys; from the cliffs of the Pacific Northwest to the beaches of southern California; and around the Gulf Coast, where our major rivers reach the sea?

Here we travel with Walter Cronkite, our trusted guide. At Maine's eastern tip, we find a British warship captured during the Revolution by the citizens of Machias, wielding pitchforks because they had no muskets. We visit islands along Texas's coastline, exploring a sanctuary for migratory birds. And we visit Fort Ross, on California's Redwood Coast, a replica of the 1812 Russian settlement begun as a fur trading post, with dreams of expanding the Russian empire.

In this compelling travelogue we can almost hear Cronkite talking, his smooth cadences spinning stories about the coastline he loves.

'Limiting access, limiting information to cover the backsides of those who are in charge of the war, is extremely dangerous and cannot and should not be accepted. And I am sorry to say that, up to and including the moment of this interview, that overwhelmingly it has been accepted by the American people. And the current administration revels in that, and they take refuge in that.' -CBS News Anchor Dan Rather on BBC News Night, May 16, 2002 In Media Wars: News at a Time of Terror, MediaChannel founder and editor, Danny Schechter, 'the News Dissector,' critically examines media coverage since 9/11. Schechter analyzes what has been covered and, more tellingly, left out, in news coverage of the terrorist attacks and their aftermath. Drawing from the reporting of over one thousand worldwide radio, newspaper, television, and internet affiliates, the result is a scathing account of how the media has become a megaphone for the U.S. military and its war on terror. More than just a critique, Schechter suggests a series of changes to improve our news sources and return them to the vital role a free and independent press must play to preserve a democracy. Media Wars is a timely assessment of what we are and are not being told in the most important story of our new century.

"IMMEDIATELY ENGROSSING . . . [A] SPLENDID MEMOIR."
--The Wall Street Journal

"Run, don't walk to the nearest bookstore and treat yourself to the most heartwarming, nostalgia-producing book you will have read in many a year."
--Ann Landers

"Entertaining . . . The story of a modest man who succeeded extravagantly by remaining mostly himself. . . . His memoir is a short course on the flow of events in the second half of this century--events the world knows more about because of Walter Cronkite's work."
--The New York Times Book Review

A MAIN SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF THE MONTH CLUB