Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism Book

There's good and bad to this book, and the good overall outweighs the bad, but the bad must be part of the discussion.

The good: there are a lot of pervasive myths about stories that we've accepted as true that aren't. Some, like the lawlessness in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina or the true role of Woodward and Bernstein in regards to Watergate, are well known to be myths to media watchers and historically literate people. Others, like Morrow's role with McCarthyism or Hearst's role in the Spanish-American War, are less so. The book does an excellent, if not straightforward and dry, job in detailing these.

The bad: there is a common theme in the myths that were chosen, and it was almost certainly ideological in nature. Either the myths perpetuate an anti-progressive point of view (Jessica Lynch, Katrina, etc) or the myths demonstrate the reality of the media not doing enough to promote that point of view (Bay of Pigs, McCarthy) and thus that being the criticism. It takes away from the criticism, not to mention significantly misses the point of the much of the problem with the media in the past as well as today.

It's definitely a worthwhile read. It just needs a little more nuance.