Suppressed Confessions of a former New York Times Washington correspondent

Smith, who reported for the New York Times in the 1960s and '70s before becoming a lawyer, airs his former employer's dirty laundry in this provocative account. Among the sins committed by executive editor Abe Rosenthal and other higher-ups of the era, according to Smith, were not breaking the news on the Watergate scandal (despite having the scoop on the Washington Post), cozying up to government sources (the paper's Pentagon correspondent didn't report on the 1968 My Lai massacre until the U.S. Army issued its report in 1970, Smith notes), being unwilling to challenge corporate interests, and fostering an old-boy-network management style. Smith also excoriates the Times for its coverage of the Trump presidency, arguing that the paper's clear bias against Trump made it easy for conservatives to dismiss critical coverage of the president's actions. "Even a crazy, lying fascist out of touch with reality deserves accuracy and fairness from the journalists covering him," Smith writes. Jumping from the past to the present and blending his own personal grievances with incisive behind-the-scenes details about the Times and other media outlets, Smith's takedown is a mixed bag. Still, readers on both sides of the political spectrum will appreciate seeing one of America's most venerable media institutions get knocked down a peg. (May)

A former journalist's memoir serves as a call to reinvigorate investigative reporting. Lawyer and mediator Smith, a former New York Times Washington correspondent, mounts a sharp critique of journalism in his frank, often digressive debut memoir. Smith contends that "suppression of news is alive and well, even at the New York Times," reflecting both editorial bias and the media's cozy relationship to those in power. "Power," writes the author, "oozing from the paper, forms a protective barrier around its correspondents and editors. People shy away from offending Times reporters," fearing bad publicity. Smith recounts an accomplished career: education, jobs, salient assignments, and battles won and lost. The son of Eastern European immigrants, he attended the prestigious Boston Public Latin School, went on to Harvard, spent a year in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar, and continued his education at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Characterizing himself as naïve, he was disillusioned when, working at Time magazine, he saw news manipulated to fit the publications's conservative views. Smith also encountered suppression elsewhere, including the Boston Herald and the Times. Central to the memoir is one traumatizing incident: With evidence from a trusted source, he learned about the Watergate break-in, but when he brought the story to his editor at the Times, it was ignored, to his astonishment and dismay. The paper's failure--or refusal--to cover the story "was the result of conscious bias," he insists, which still shapes whatever the paper sees fit to print and has evolved into "reflexive, unconscious bias" that, he believes, thwarts its efforts to effectively undercut critics like Donald Trump. Frustrated with reporting, Smith opted for the law. In the intellectually stimulating atmosphere of Yale Law School, he began to see the world not as black and white but "a dubious gray." Smith cautions readers to watch out for bias, ask who is reporting, and consider outside pressures that influence a paper's focus. A forthright indictment of the media's shortcomings. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.