Dimensions
153 x 230 x 33mm
CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson was the only mainstream journalist willing to dig deep into Obama Administration scandals like Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and the targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS. Her liberal colleagues increasingly shunned her. Then she discovered that someone was using sophisticated spyware to monitor her computer and tap her phones.
My journalistic philosophy boils down to these simple terms: I do my best to uncover information that others don't want you to have.
Americans today are at the mercy of powerful figures in both business and government who are virtually unaccountable. The Obama Administration in particular has broken new ground in its wiretapping of journalists, intimidation and harassment of opposition groups, and surveillance of private citizens. Yet journalists themselves have become so timid and complacent that in some polls they're considered less credible than the politicians they are supposed to keep honest. Reporters who attacked George W. Bush as an unbridled tyrant now seem eager to accept the official government line on any scandal, no matter how outrageous.
Sharyl Attkisson has been an investigative journalist for more than 30 years. During that time she has exposed scandals and covered controversies under the administrations of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, emerging with a reputation as a fearless reporter who subjects both sides to equally rigorous skepticism. Yet at the same time, she has seen the opponents of transparency, in both business and government go to ever greater lengths to discourage and obstruct legitimate reporting. Attkisson herself has been subjected to the sort of "opposition research" efforts and spin campaigns once reserved for dueling politicians. These tactics increased their intensity as she relentlessly pursued stories that the Obama Administration dismissed as "phony scandals." Each news report is met with a barrage of PR warfare tactics including online criticisms tweeted out or written by bloggers-for-hire, as well as emails and phone calls up the network chain of command in an effort to intimidate and discourage the next story. This book is in one sense Attkisson's personal story, but it is also the tale of the decline of investigative journalism and unbiased truth telling in America today.
