Project Rewire: New Media from the Inside Out

Judy Daubenmier collects the work of some of the most important press critics working today. Bloggers and journalists, they take us through the most important blunders of the mass media, from the 2000 election to the war in Iraq. It's a litany of missteps, fraught with instances of laziness, lies and manipulation, that leaves the reader with an overwhelming picture of a Fourth Estate for sale.

Surprisingly, this isn't a hopeless situation, nor are its chroniclers cynical. Daubenmier and the critics she gathers in this volume point out media mistakes not out of a desire to point and laugh, but out of a hunger for a return to the role the press once provided: watchdogs of government and representatives of the people.

They criticize because they believe very deeply in the value of good reporting and good reporters, and that belief shines through every piece in Project Rewire, making it a must-read for anyone who cares about the health of our democracy.

[From the Foreword by Allison Hantschel]