In a recent commentary, we talked about a new book, Into the Buzzsaw. It’s about the experiences of several journalists who challenged the government and/or their media bosses, and were either fired or discredited for it. Of particular interest to us are the chapters by journalists who looked into the crash of TWA Flight 800, which blew up off the coast of Long Island in 1996, killing all 230 aboard. The book was edited by Kristina Borjesson, a former Emmy winning CBS producer and reporter, who also wrote the title essay based on her own experience.

Borjesson is very hard on her former CBS colleagues. She details her involvement in attempting to publicize various aspects of the TWA 800 story, and her dismay at how CBS dealt with it. Ultimately she was fired for persisting with the evidence that pointed to a missile bringing the plane down. She criticizes CBS reporter Bob Orr, who, she says "was invested in the mechanical malfunction theory because he didn’t want to contradict the sources that he depended on to do his job."

She calls Dan Rather’s comments dismissing the missile theory, "just plain inappropriate," and adds that when he made them, he "took off his journalist’s hat and became a communications officer for the government." She also has rather harsh assessments of some other CBS producers and executives, saying "there was no way CBS was going to air a story that would rile the Pentagon,".

We experience the buzzsaw all the time, but are basically immune to it. Our jobs and livelihood aren’t threatened by it. In fact, in a sense, it is our reason for being, and the reason the public supports our work. To challenge the government and the media to tell the truth, to ignore their biases and report evidence to the public that will help them understand what really happened in matters such as TWA 800 and the death of Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster.

We have recently faced the same buzzsaw in trying to air a new documentary called "TWA 800: The Search for the Truth," financed by AIM and produced and written by a member of our staff, Roger Aronoff and his associate, Jack Harris. No one from the many networks it was presented to said it wasn’t good enough. Just that it didn’t fit with their programming needs. As a matter of fact it has just won the Platinum Award for Best Documentary in the category of Investigative Journalism at the Houston International Film Festival. It is a powerful and balanced look at what caused TWA 800 to explode. The correspondent is Reid Collins, a 30-year veteran of CBS and CNN.

It is balanced in that it gives a fair hearing to the government theory of a spark from an unknown source causing the center-wing fuel tank to explode, but it also explores the compelling evidence that the plane was shot down by a missile, and that the government engaged in a massive cover-up to hide the truth. Presenting the award, the director described the video as one you must see. It exposes the government’s cover-up. Go to our web site, www.aim.org to find out how you can get it.

Reed Irvine can be reached at ri@aim.org