Fighting for Air by Eric Klinenberg, details the appalling details of a train derailment in North Dakota. Page after page we are taken through the facts that led to this disaster along with other important, pressing issues. You will learn about why the media barely reports the news anymore and why you should care about the things you aren’t seeing or hearing in the media.

In the introductory pages we learn how the media in Minot, North Dakota was contacted about toxic clouds that spanned file miles in length and over two miles wide. This cloud was heading straight for the town and an emergency needed to be declared.

In a perfect world there would be little to no problem declaring an emergency and getting people to safety. However, in Minot all of the radio stations were owned by Clear Channel and ran on an automated platform. Not one person was in the building when the calls to the media came in to alert the people of the town.

Not one person was there to get the calls and alert the people of the danger that was heading for them.

At the end of the day, without someone there to alert the town, there were over a thousand hospital visits logged and one death. The sad thing is that if one person had have been there to get that call, the town could have evacuated without much problem and time and money could have been saved, while pain was avoided.

While there are other books written on this subject, Klinenberg offers a highly detailed, and necessary read that is not quite as readable as the others on the same subject. Klinenberg explains the trouble with the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the drastic effects it has had on local and network television and radio, the Internet, and all other forms of media communication.

One of the most interesting things discussed in Fighting for Air, is the idea that we have more options to gain media news and understanding then ever before and yet, the information and public affairs offered by the media is lower than ever. Despite the abundance of news sources the actual news is unimportant and rarely shows something people need to see.

What is offered is a hard hitting, fact driven novel that removes the red tape from the eyes of a country that has been blinded. Klinenberg offers details about an uncaring, disinterested FCC and the power of the media that segregates the news that is offered to the people that need to see it most.

One of the biggest complaints I have noticed being mentioned is the assertion that political motives often play a part in this suffocating media fiasco. However, I have to agree with him and appreciate that he brought up such thoughts rather than to dismiss the possibility that they exist.

Bottom Line: Fighting for Air tells a story that the country needs to hear. This truth is one that many have ignored or lived in ignorance not knowing that the problem even existed. Klinenberg offers a hard hitting look that makes it impossible to ignore again. Fighting for Air offers the truth on what the media has access to and why you are not always, if ever, privy to such information.

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