cover image Who Stole the News?: Why We Can't Keep Up with What Happens in the World and What We Can Do about It

Who Stole the News?: Why We Can't Keep Up with What Happens in the World and What We Can Do about It

Mort Rosenblum. John Wiley & Sons, $24.95 (298pp) ISBN 978-0-471-58522-0

The news hasn't really been stolen, but rather, concludes Rosenblum ( Back Home ), it has been ``mugged, muffled and muzzled . . .'' What Rosenblum, a foreign correspondent for 25 years, means by news is not urban and domestic violence or Amy Fisher but an election in Peru, religious changes in Algeria and Jean-Bertrand Aristide. This book, not in a league with his previous works, is essentially a lament for the decline of foreign news in the American media, which he attributes to such factors as the effects of TV and new editorial perceptions of what readers want. Rosen-blum is at his most interesting when outlining how foreign news (with emphasis on the Gulf War, Somalia and the former Yugoslavia) is covered by various media in different countries and how correspondents have been sidetracked by bureaucracy and lies, or have risked their lives to get a story. Although Rosenblum exhorts editors and reporters, his call is ultimately to the readers, watchers and listeners who, if America is really to be a world leader, must look beyond their back fences. (Nov.)