Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington

The title of this book is an attention-grabber, first and foremost and sells this book badly. In reality it is not aimed at bad-mouthing the Obama administration per sé, but throws a punch at government in general, all politicians, and big business controlling everything. Everyone who takes tax paying seriously, should read this book.<br /><br />An eye-opening account of what investigative journalists have to deal with 24/7. It is a fascinating glimps on the behind-the-scenes dramas to get information out to the public.<br /><br />Sharyl Attkisson describes the role of the press, the responsibility it has to tax payers to hold everyone accountable, and the challenges they face to collect and release information to the public. Their investigative efforts are seriously hampered by Big Business, Government, and media bosses. She not only describes the problems but provides numerous incidences and examples of how and when the journalists are/were thwarted. <br /><br />This book is not written to entertain readers, but to provide evidence and information about the media world in all its corrupt glory. How the media fails the public. How tax money disappear; how bad guys rule the roost and get away with it. And they populate the entire Congress, not only one party. The players are stationed everywhere in government and they are dangerous people. Big Corporations have their own way of dealing with the whistle blowers.<br /><br />The author manage to shed a light on the courageous journalists and provides a much needed insight on the media's challenges to succeed. It is clearly written by a professional person who values integrity and news reporting seriously. She defends the First Amendment of the Constitution against the forces who wants to destroy the rights it guarantees to every American citizen. The picture she draws is disturbing. The First Amendment is in serious trouble. And so are the American citizens.<br /><br />It took me a while to finish this book between other reads, but I'm glad I did it.<br /><br />An excellent read.<br /><br />PS: One of my next reads will be <i>The Silencing; How the Left is Killing Free Speech</i> by Liberal journalist Kirsten Power. I just listened to a 2012 interview with ex-CNN reporter Amber Lyon, being fired from CNN for exposing CNN's biased reporting due to being paid by countries to suppress the real news stories and airing their propaganda instead.<br /><br />

Scary. One of the best books you’ll read about the problems with reporting today’s news and the unbelievable current government surveillance programs being used against people like Sharyl Attkisson. This book puts Snowden and Clapper in context. CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson’s story of the Obama administration’s hacking/intrusion of her work and personal computers is frightening. It’s a bazaar tale; it took good investigative reporting to figure out which government agency was responsible. But her analysis of current journalism – its failure to investigate stories, simply accepting the Obama administration’s official position – is well documented. She gives a perfect explanation of what’s wrong with today’s journalism, how it’s corrupted by the owners and advertisers of major news outlets and why newsroom managers get frustrated and tired fighting the Obama administration’s spin of today’s news. How bad is it? From a former executive editor for the Washington Post: “ . . . the Obama administration [is] the news media’s top choice for Least Transparent American Presidency in Modern Times.” And from the New York Times chief Washington correspondent: “This is the most closed, control freak administration I've ever covered.” Highly recommended; this book answers a lot of questions. <br />

Whether you are a liberal, moderate, or conservative; whether you get your news from the internet, the newspapers, network TV, cable TV or the radio; you must read this book. A well written account of a journalist's experiences covering Washington for many decades. <br /><br />Highly recommended to all who consider themselves thinking members of American society.<br />

WARNING: Reading this book will change how you view your evening news casts (assuming you still watch any). This is not a liberal versus conservative book as Ms Attkisson has done investigations exposing corruption and waste of tax dollars on the entire spectrum and has numerous awards for her work. It is, at its core, a first-hand account of the decline of investigative journalism in America and who is controlling what will be shown and not shown in the newscasts. Today's news departments are more like a business than ever before. Their management is easily swayed when it comes to what stories they feel are important and often based on outside influence from advertisers who may pull their ads to politicians who may limit access. The world of independent investigative journalists has drastically shrunk in recent years. And many of the on line sites that pass themselves off as independent new sources are nothing more than PR outlets for one side or the other; you have to look behind the facade to see who is providing their funding, who they are connected to, etc. This book will definitely heighten your awareness of what is really happening to news sources in America today. And what you will learn should scare and deeply concern everyone. Excellent book, fast read, very well written, hard to put down. I can see why Sharyl Attkisson wins awards for her writing.I just wish I could rate more than 5 stars!

Sharyl Atkinson's incredibly interesting &amp; well-done book exposes the thuggish tactics Obama has been using to coerce the few members of the American media who do not cover-up for him reflexively. And the Obameister's illegal threats, spying &amp; other vicious actions have been tried repeatedly against Atkinson, as she pursued Obama's myriad criminal violations of the US Constitution &amp; Federal statutes. These have included Fast &amp; Furious, the Benghazi terror attacks , abuse of the IRS, abuse of the NSA, abuse of the EPA, the Obamacare frauds, the Green Energy frauds, the Solyndra Bankruptcy frauds, &amp; others.<br /><br />Ms. Atkinson's credentials are rock solid, since as a 30-years investigative reporter, 20-years of which were at CBS News, she has pursued investigations of both GOP &amp; Democrat administrations to great effect. In her experience no other administration has ever employed the illegal concealment &amp; coercion tactics against the press. <br /><br />Atkinson names names &amp; there are plenty to go around, but the driving force behind his administration's abuses &amp; crimes is the Gum-Chewer-In-Chief, Barack Hussein Obama, who continues to stain his sacred office daily!!!<br /><br />Try taking the "Blue Pill" &amp; awaken to the reality of the Obama Matrix. It may frighten you &amp; you will never see the world in the same manner, but you will be connecting to reality, possibly for the first time. CDE

I have had this book on pre-order since I first heard of it's coming release way back in early April. And it was worth the wait! Attkinsson has an easy writing style, very readable and the story flows. She has been involved in most of the top stories of the past decade. If you are among those who even still fall into the 'I believe whatever my Government tells me is the truth' circles much of what she reveals will likely anger you and be dismissed out of hand. Exactly what they are banking on. She has the facts and knows of that which she writes. This book is so full of counter information it has left me almost on overload. And frankly, I need to think on it for a week or two and then begin again to reread it all. It's nearly too much information for one dosing. An excellent, well documented and truthful telling of a government, and country, flying off the rails. It's chilling.

This book can best be described as a lengthy opinion piece, with a heavy overlay of paranoia. Attkisson's oft stated claim of being politically neutral rings hollow. (Methinks the lady doth protest too much.) This book is likely to appeal to conspiracy theorists who lean well to the right of the political spectrum.<br /><br />Attkisson comes across as being difficult and possibly delusional. There are few or no reliable sources, and even less attribution. Seemingly ordinary events are painted with a paranoid brush: telephone hangups are interpreted as government wiretapping; the appearance of an innocuous white van on the author's street is perceived as surveillance rather than a local contractor calling on a neighbor. Unnamed sources "confirm" Attkisson's biases. <br /><br />Although the author entreats the reader to question the news, what we read, etc., she clearly expects us to accept her seemingly wild stories hook, line, and sinker, despite a striking lack of evidence. Furthermore, the author habitually discredits almost all other journalists, except in those instances where they are recognizing her superior talents. No story is more important than hers, and woe be tide to any editor who chooses another piece instead of hers. It leads one to conclude that Attkissons problems probably stem from her own insufferable behavior. <br /><br /><br /><br />

Attkisson has given us a book about investigative journalism - a search for the truth no matter where it leads. I am a conservative but find this type of journalism near to my heart and beliefs. Attkisson has shown that she goes after liberals and conservatives. That type of real, factual journalism I can believe and have faith in. She discusses how the politicians, especialy the White House, can make things very difficult for those who do not follow the White House line and has written a very creditable book on the matter. If you like this type of journalism or are wary of losing your freedoms, this book makes for an excellent read.<br /><br />J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the Isms" "Wesley's Wars" and "To Whom It May Concern"

This is easily the best book of 2014. I sincerely think everyone should read this. There would be a lot of people unwilling to accept the documented facts contained herein, and would dig their heads further into the sand to deny what is happening with their own government and the press, whose job is ostensibly to be a watch dog. <br /><br />In a nutshell, Stonewalled is about how the government operates and how they interact with the media. If it were a simple matter of "the government lies" well, that's not much of a story. The story is the pattern of lies, manipulation and withholding of what should rightfully be public documents, and using "communications" people as their personal PR staff instead of them doing media relations and communicating with the public. No one expects a government agency to not spin issues in the light most favorable to them, but there is a huge difference between spinning and outright lying, bullying, and manipulating. <br /><br />The common way of doing business for the Obama administration seems to be that when a reporter airs a story about X,Y, and Z the administrations denies everything. When faced with incontrovertible proof, they'll say "well it turns out that X happened, but not Y or Z." More evidence is provided, and the next line is "OK X and Y happened, but not Z. That's just outrageous to even consider, it never happened." Then eventually, "oh, I misunderstood the question. X,Y, and Z all happened, but the president had no knowledge of it." Somewhere in that process, which may stretch out for months, the reporter and his or her sources are demonized, phone calls are made to editors and managers, and paid bloggers parrot the administration's spin so that anyone who Googles the issue will find liberal blogs posing as news as the top hits. <br /><br />I can't say I'm a "fan" of Attkisson's but for a long time I was a news junky and I watched her quite often in her early days, and thought she was one of the best. That opinion hasn't changed. She still is one of the best. I confess that I assumed that she may have developed a lean to the right, based on her reporting in the last few years, but she addresses that perception in Stonewalled. She provides plenty of instances where the targets of her investigations were Republicans or Republican interests. In an expose' about how freely congress spends tax dollars on earmarks, she profiled the six worst Democrat offenders, and six worst Republican offenders. The worst of all was Ted Stevens, the Republican from Alaska. <br /><br />This book should serve as a loud wake up call about what our government has become, and the incestuous relationship between the government and the press. The reason I wish everyone would read this book is because I believe most people of any political stripe would be outraged enough not to settle for this anymore. And the ones who choose to ignore the wake up call, well, at least they wouldn't be able to say they didn't know.

I started this book after Donald Trump was elected, wondering if I would find some things in here to help me think through the assault on the press that has started and will intensify. Never do we more need fearless investigative journalism than the days now and ahead.<br /><br />The problem is that Sharyl Attkisson is not a credible messenger. She really does seem out to get President Obama, which dilutes her ability to raise concerns about real issues decreased cooperation with the news media, a concern that reads a few years later as quaint as a lily rose, and hacking and spying, as revealed by Edward Snowden. Instead of staying here, most of the book seems bent upon Benghazi and HealthCare.gov hyperventilating -- and explaining why so many trusted reporters are totally wrong and she is right. She makes the story all about her, a journalism faux pas, and claims that she is apolitical and committed to holding all sides accountable, although she trashes Media Matters -- a fact-based group with integrity -- on multiple occasions while boosting "The Daily Signal," Heritage Action's "news," as just the facts or whatever. <br /><br />If Ms. Attkisson is truly committed to holding all sides accountable, one hopes she will turn her energy and talents to the Trump administration, where lack of transparency and the thuggish bullying she accuses the Obama administration of is hiding in plain sight. <br /><br />Whether you are Democrat or Republican this outdated book will make excellent kindling for your holiday fire. If you can stand told hold your nose and get some dirty looks on the Metro, I do believe it's valuable to read people you strongly disagree with. What she has to say about the declining support for investigative journalism is important. Too bad it's wrapped in her agenda.