Why Did Book Review Probe Newspaper 'Gitmo' Series?

By: Joe Strupp The New York Review of Books, generally a place where you see reviews of, well, books, went outside the printed-and-bound world this week to review, of all things, a newspaper series.

And the reviewer, the former New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis, apparently liked it.

Writing about the McClatchy Newspapers' five-part series on Guantanamo Bay detainee abuse, which ran in June, Lewis stated that the " ? stories disposed of some official myths about the detainees?for example, that as a group they were 'the worst of the worst,' as Secretary Rumsfeld put it."

He adds that lead reporter Tom Lasseter "also gave some appalling accounts of the mistreatment of prisoners" and "spent eight months investigating and working on the articles. (That is a reminder that bloggers, who we are sometimes told are the future of journalism, are not likely ever to have the time and resources to look into serious official wrongdoing as newspapers at their best do.)"

Lasseter, currently serving as McClatchy's Moscow bureau chief, says the notice months after the series ran was a bit of a surprise.

"I had no idea the Review article was coming out, and was a little humbled to be included in that sort of company," he wrote to E&P Thursday in an e-mail. "After I read the piece, I thought about all of the former detainees I interviewed, and wondered what they would make of it all -- the pages of the New York Review of Books seem very far from a living room in a small Kazakh town.

"I remembered the meetings in far-flung Afghan provinces, Pakistani hotel rooms, and so on -- but more than that, I thought of the former detainees who were too scared or angry to talk with me, and wondered again what their stories were."

Lewis could not be reached for comment. Robert B. Silvers, The New York Review of Books editor, acknowledged that reviewing a newspaper series was not routine, but said Lewis found it compelling enough to write about.

"It is unusual, but we have done it before," Silvers said, noting that the Review also offers critiques of Supreme Court opinions and the Congressional Record. "It should be anything that is serious and a good subject for review."

Silvers cited his publication's 2004 recognition of the McClatchy Washington Bureau's coverage of the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq when it was the Knight Ridder D.C. bureau. That same bureau oversaw Lasseter's reporting. "We are continuing coverage of the work that bureau is doing," he said.

Asked if such interest would spark a book based on his series, Lasseter wrote: "A few people have asked me if I was thinking about doing a GTMO book, but I've been so wrapped up with Russia coverage -- I was just getting into reporting in Moscow when the war broke out in Georgia -- that I haven't had much time to think it through."

Lasseter's original series, co-authored with other staffers, is available at:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/

The Lewis review can be found at:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21794