FIT TO PRINT: MISREPRESENTING THE MIDDLE EAST
JORIS LUYENDIJK / SCRIBE

AN INSIGHTFUL, honest and informative examination of the process behind television and newspaper foreign news journalism and, more importantly, the truth about what's left out; what you don't see. If you believe that you're getting accurate information about world events by watching television news, you are dead wrong.

Luyendijk is a Dutch reporter who, with refreshing directness and honesty, reveals the drudgery, information limitations and deadlines involved in television and newspaper reporting, where reports are often based on government-supplied media releases (complete with government suggested interview leads), the assumptions and biases of individual reporters, and stories selected on audience appeal rather than news relevance due to television networks' insatiable hunger for ratings.

Luyendijk examines many failings of the news media--specifically, news media coverage of the Middle East, his specialty. What ends up on film is rarely the most important--or accurate--story.

With his stomach-full of government and military spin doctors, disinterested editors, war-room buffet tables and tired colour pieces, the author chooses to recapture his passion for reporting by getting involved with the country and people. His experiences in living in Palestine-settled East Jerusalem to see first-hand what life is like in the occupied territories, rather than writing about it from the distant safety of the patrolled city areas, are both surprising and shocking.

Far from being a depressing or politics-heavy read, Fit To Print is infused with humour, and the author skillfully applies his writing skills to entertain and inform the reader in equal measure, while also putting to rest fallacies such as: religious fundamentalism is a threat to Western civilisation; that the nation of Israel is a long-suffering and repressed state under siege by its aggressive (and war-hungry) Arab neighbours; and that non democratic governments are both less evolved and more repressive than western society. Fit To Print is essential reading.