In his long journalistic experience as the senior European correspondent for CBS News, Tom Fenton has reported on everything from the fall of the Shah of Iran to the movements of al Qaeda throughout Europe -- a story he was tracking before 9/11. And in the three years since that fateful day, he has come to a sobering realization: Our once-noble news media -- and network TV news in particular -- have abdicated their responsibility to the American people, and endangered us in the process.
As Fenton points out, much of the United States still depends on the networks for most of its information about the world. But after the fall of the Soviet Union, the networks gutted their news-gathering operations -- just as the old Cold War status quo was shattering -- leaving behind an unstable and violent new world order. Once a public service, the network news was commandeered by its corporate parents as a cash cow. In-depth reporting on critical issues was replaced with saturation coverage of sensationalistic crime stories and simpleminded "news you can use." Even as genocide spread through Africa -- and Islamic terror festered in the Middle East -- international reporting disappeared almost entirely from the airwaves. And Americans were left uninformed, unable to judge the accuracy of politically biased stories (on both sides of the spectrum), and utterly unprepared for the war on terror about to descend on their doorstep.
In Bad News, Tom Fenton offers a fiery indictment of just how far "the news" has fallen. As a frequent voice in the wilderness himself -- who fought in vain to interest CBS in an Osama bin Laden interview in the 1990s -- Fenton reveals a news-gathering environment gutted by corporate bottom-lining bottom-feeders, staffed by dilatory producers and executives (who dismissed important stories as depressing or obscure), and dangerously dependent on images and information gathered by third-party sources. In hard-hitting interviews with Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, and Tom Brokaw, he exposes how even the anchors themselves believed they were outlandishly compensated -- while quality coverage was being slashed. And he charges that the news media must lose its entertainment-industry mindset and reestablish its role as a keeper of the public trust.
"This is not just a book," writes Fenton. "This is the beginning of a campaign to galvanize America. We need more and better news. Our lives depend on it."

Bad News: The Decline of Reporting, the Business of News, and the Danger to Us All

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Fenton, Tom

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William Morrow

At a time when the world has been blindsided by failures of intelligence, a veteran CBS News correspondent reveals how the news media has betrayed our trust and endangered our democracy.
 Tom Fenton is the senior European correspondent for CBS News. In his long journalistic experience, he has reported on everything from the fall of the Shah of Iran to the crumbling of communism in East Germany to the bombing of Israel during the first Gulf War. Today he has covered the movements of al Qaeda throughout Europe–a story he was tracking before 9/11. And in the three years since, he has come to a sobering realization: the American news media–and network TV news in particular–has abdicated its responsibility to the American people.
 As Fenton points out, much of America still gets its news from the networks. But in the years leading to 9/11 the coverage of terrorism was sporadic at best, focusing on acts of terror rather than the people and movements that caused them. It was Washington's job to connect the dots, Fenton argues, but it was the news business's job to track the story and watchdog the government's vigilance–and both sides failed. "By the time of the Bush–Kerry election," Fenton writes, "for the first time, the news media had an even worse credibility gap" than the government's. Lulled into complacency by the Cold War, gutted by corporate bottom–lining bottom feeders, the news media missed the story of the century–just as they'd missed hundreds of others in the years before, from Kosovo to Chechnya. As a frequent voice in the wilderness himself–who tried unsuccessfully to interest CBS in an Osama bin Laden interview in the 1990s–Fenton charges that the news media must change its perspective from that of an entertainment–industry offshoot to that of a keeper of the public trust. And he argues that his industry must foster a new patriotic skepticism, one that will both inform the people and help Washington defend the country better. 
 Tom Fenton's passionate argument for change in the political sector is being embraced by readers on all sides.
 Since its publication in the United States Bad News has won wide and critical acclaim from such publications as Publisher's Weekly, Washington Post, and Christian Science Monitor.

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In this salient critique of the American media, veteran journalist Tom Fenton exposes the dangerous failings of our news organizations and the fundamental problems with how they present world news. Junk News is a stirring call to reform the faltering “fourth estate” and to take the blinders off our citizens for the sake of our security

Junk News: The Failure of the Media in the 21st Century (Speaker's Corner)

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The Cotswold Hills stretch across the counties of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and extend into parts of Wiltshire, Somerset, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. "Cotswolds Mountain Biking - 20 Classic Rides" reveals all on the excellent and varied mountain biking tucked away in this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The latest title in Vertebrate Publishing's bestselling series of UK mountain biking guidebooks, this book features 20 classic rides between 14km and 77km in length, suitable for mountain bikers of all abilities - many of which are within easy reach of major towns and cities, including Birmingham, Coventry, Worcester, Gloucester, Oxford, Banbury, Swindon, Cheltenham and Bristol. Each ride is described with easy-to-follow directions and is plotted on clear and easy to use Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 mapping. Also included with each ride are details of distance, timings and difficulty gradings, plus refreshment stops and local knowledge. A Bonus Section includes details of the downhill riding on Leckhampton Hill, plus top tens for descents, climbs and singletrack. A detailed Appendix features information on places to eat, drink, stay and have your bike repaired! Vertebrate Publishing is one of a new breed of independent publishers, dedicated to producing the very best outdoor leisure titles. We have critically acclaimed and bestselling titles covering a range of leisure activities, including; mountain biking, cycling, rock climbing, hillwalking and others. We are best known for our own titles such as "Lake District Mountain Biking" and "Dark Peak Mountain Biking". We also produce many leading outdoor titles for other publishers including the Mountain Leader and Walking Group Leader Schemes (MLTUK) and rock climbing guidebooks for the British Mountaineering Council and the Fell and Rock Climbing Club. For more information about Vertebrate Publishing please visit our website.

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