A collection of essays in which almost two dozen award-winning print and television journalists examine the dangerous state of journalism in the United States at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

The patriot and the censor's necklace: an interview with BBC culture correspondent Madeleine Holt / Dan Rather -- The memo / Charles Reina -- A shot messenger's observations / Ashleigh Banfield -- The war on terror and the great game for oil: how the media missed the context / Charlotte Dennett -- The price of liberty / Gerard Colby -- Crimes and silence: the CIA's criminal acts and the media's silence / John Kelly -- The mighty Wurlitzer plays on / Gary Webb -- Mainstream media: the drug war's shills / Michael Levine -- The silence of the lambs: an American in journalistic exile / Greg Palast -- The fox, the hounds and the sacred cows / Jane Akre -- The story no one wanted to hear / J. Robert Port -- Verdict first, evidence later: the case for Bobby Garwood / Monika Jensen-Stevenson -- Into the buzzsaw / Kristina Borjesson -- Coal mine canaries / David E. Hendrix -- When black becomes white / Philip Weiss -- Stories we love, stories we hate / Helen Malmgren -- Shouting at the crocodile / Maurice Murad -- What happened to good old-fashioned muckraking? / Carl Jensen -- The rise and fall of professional journalism / Robert McChesney.