Now updated with a new preface that examines the current conflict in Iraq, this brilliant work of investigative reporting reveals the government's assault on the constitutional freedoms of the American media during Operation Desert Storm. John R. MacArthur's engaging and provocative account is as essential and alarming today as when the first paperback edition was published ten years ago.

John R. MacArthur is President and Publisher of Harper's Magazine and the author of The Selling of "Free Trade": NAFTA, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy (California, 2001). Ben H. Bagdikian is Dean Emeritus of the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley. He is the former assistant managing editor for national news at the Washington Post and is the author of a number of books.

"Mr. MacArthur writes in fury at what he sees, correctly, as the press's failure to respond effectively during the gulf war to the Pentagon's well-rehearsed and openly revealed designs. With the help of the Freedom of Information Act, he presents a treasure-trove of evidence of official deception."—New York Times Book Review

"A brilliant look at the way images are shaped today under the pressures of deadlines and jingoistic war fever." --Baltimore Sun

"[A] devastating exposé…. [I. F.] Stone would have loved MacArthur's book."—The Nation

"A provocative, well-honed polemic."—Newsweek

Praise for the first edition:

"Nothing less than an indictment of the American news media for dereliction of duty under fire."—New York Newsday

"Wonderfully readable…. In Second Front Mr. MacArthur insists that from the White House on down the idea was to beat the Vietnam syndrome with a winning war, blame the messenger as unpatriotic for any bad news, and keep the American press under control and the public in the dark."—Herbert Mitgang, New York Times

"A brilliant piece of investigative reporting…. Second Front ought to be required reading for anyone who cares to observe how democracies can be eroded from within."—Toronto Globe and Mail

ACLU 1992 Harry Kalven Freedom of Expression Award