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News Dissector
"As 'News Dissector' on Boston radio, Danny Schechter literally educated a generation..."
— Noam Chomsky
"Danny Schechter, a kind of journalist without borders, has shaken up public broadcasting, among many other media institutions, in the course of his career as a self-styled 'News Dissector' and human rights advocate..."
— The Nation
News Dissector brings together Schechter’s writings on human rights, politics, and the media over a span of four decades of activism and reporting, including ten years in radio news reporting and twenty years creating television news and public affairs programs and independent documentaries.
These pieces provide a fascinating look at the trajectory of what was once simply called “The Movement” Allen Ginsberg, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Abbie Hoffman, and other figures from the counter-culture and new left come alive in these pages. Schechter's run-ins with the FBI and the CIA provide facscinating and often entertaining reading. A large section covers Vietnam during and after the war. Throughout, Schechter exposes the practices and prejudices of the news media and proposes detailed corrective action. The collection also includes pieces of a more personal and sometimes emotional nature;the observations, impressions, and inspirations of a radical journalist. News Dissector is an enlightening book by one of the few journalists to emerge from the alternative media of the 60s and 70s with his politics and principals intact.
— Noam Chomsky
"Danny Schechter, a kind of journalist without borders, has shaken up public broadcasting, among many other media institutions, in the course of his career as a self-styled 'News Dissector' and human rights advocate..."
— The Nation
News Dissector brings together Schechter’s writings on human rights, politics, and the media over a span of four decades of activism and reporting, including ten years in radio news reporting and twenty years creating television news and public affairs programs and independent documentaries.
These pieces provide a fascinating look at the trajectory of what was once simply called “The Movement” Allen Ginsberg, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Abbie Hoffman, and other figures from the counter-culture and new left come alive in these pages. Schechter's run-ins with the FBI and the CIA provide facscinating and often entertaining reading. A large section covers Vietnam during and after the war. Throughout, Schechter exposes the practices and prejudices of the news media and proposes detailed corrective action. The collection also includes pieces of a more personal and sometimes emotional nature;the observations, impressions, and inspirations of a radical journalist. News Dissector is an enlightening book by one of the few journalists to emerge from the alternative media of the 60s and 70s with his politics and principals intact.
300 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2001
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June 17, 2018
My interview with the author is archived as selection 299 at archive.org.
Here is from the transcript:
Here is from the transcript:
DS: Well, first of all, I'm a television producer as well as a writer. My book News Dissector is my third book or fourth book really, recently Trying to write about my own experiences and also some of the issues of journalism that I'm involved with. Our company, Global Vision globalvision.org on the web produces lots of films. I'm working on a film right now about Florida and about the untold story of what happened in the election there. That's going to have to wait a little while now because of this current situation.
[...]
...one of the problems here is that Americans have been living in a bubble you know, they're not really aware of what's going on in the rest of the world because they're not informed about it. Our newspapers said there's been a seventy percent to eighty percent cutback in the US media of coverage of the world prior to September 11th. So, it's not surprising that people are uninformed and in some ways think that “Well, none of this affects us.” Well, guess what? It does affect us. That's why it's important to read about this, to be knowledgeable, to seek out independent sources, to learn a little history. That's what I try to do with this book News Dissector from Akashic books and also, on the Media Channel. If you look at the role the media plays in all this and we're also making films to try to do that as well so, but it's an independent presence in the media system that's dominated by just five to seven big companies who control everything. So, you know, it's not surprising that people are not being given information for many different sources and that's what we need, more diversity of information.
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