Mission Al Jazeera: Build a Bridge, Seek the Truth, Change the World

By Philip Schultz

Book Overview

Blending his riveting personal story with innovative ideas about how to win the war on terror, former marine turned Al Jazeera reporter Josh Rushing addresses all the issues he was not allowed to talk about when he was in uniform. If we are to win the war on terror, Rushing explains, we have to interact with the media at home and abroad in order to control the way we are perceived. By refusing to appear on Al Jazeera, Western leaders allow people who disagree with the current administration to represent the West to the Arab world in a skewed, negative way. By taking readers inside Al Jazeera, Rushing offers a unique behind-the-scenes look at the controversial news channel and shows how the West can harness it to its advantage, relay a positive message to the Arab public, and hear what it has to say in return.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1403979057
• ISBN13: 9781403979056
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 233 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.7" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

The "Ground Truth" in Iraq

The title of this book captured my attention right off. As I read through Josh Rushing's experience working in the U.S. Central Command media office in Iraq, his story opened my eyes to a new "front" in the Iraq war that isn't debated nearly as much as soldiers, tanks, and weapons: the media. Josh's perspective is particularly insightful because he was there. As a military spokesman to media outlets around the world, he was...

America ignores the world

With America losing the information and public relations war around the world today, "Mission al-Jazeera" is a fascinating and timely book that should be required reading by the many Administration Public Affairs and press secretary's. Author Josh Rushing first came to the public's attention in the award-winning documentary "Control Room." He was the young Marine Lieutenant Public Affairs Officer dealing with upstart Arabic...

Eyes: Opened. Mind: Opened. World: Enlarged.

Thank you, Josh. You've made my world a little larger, and my understanding of it has grown as well. As a Marine, I would never have read this book had it not been for Josh Rushing's Marine Corps service. Had he been Army or otherwise, I probably would have dismissed his story, and that would have been my loss. Mission Al Jazeera provided information on several ideas I think we should consider further: -How the American...

Must read for the Public Affairs Community

Mission Al Jazeera: Build a Bridge, Seek the Truth, Change the World, Josh Rushing, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, 256 pages, $24.95. Reviewed by Major Charles M. Kyle, U.S. Army, student at the Command and General Staff College. Though not an autobiography, Josh Rushing, a former Marine Captain, and now al Jazeera journalist, shares his personal story while assigned to the public affairs office at CENTCOM before and during the...

I will nominate Rushing for Nobel peace prize!

Ever since we started hearing about Al- Jazeera and the rest of Arab media, it's natural that we thought they were propaganda machines. To be fair, to some extent, they are. What most of us failed to understand was that those media channels gave us an opening to a world that we never saw or understood. What Mr.Rushing has done is truly amazing. He has walked into a sensitive zone that many would consider un-American. But...