The Kingmakers: How the Media Threatens Our Security and Our Democracy (HC)

Why does the media always blow the big stories? From 9/11 to Iraq's WMDs, from Iran's nuclear program to the inevitable Hillary Clinton -- the divide between reality and the so-called news has never been more dramatic or dangerous.

In The Kingmakers, Senator Mike Gravel and Dr. David Eisenbach argue that the media's failure to present the public with an accurate view of the world poses a greater threat to American lives than terrorism. They also show how the greatest threat to our democracy is not money -- it's the media. Long before the majority of voters pay attention to presidential elections, the media Kingmakers filter the presidential field and anoint the leading candidates.

Gravel and Eisenbach propose a powerful antidote to the Kingmakers' poisonous influence on American politics: participatory journalism. Blogs, chat rooms, virtual worlds, and Internet contributions have empowered ordinary citizens to change the course of American history and inaugurate a new wave of democratization that America hasn't seen since the Jacksonian era.